Day: July 7, 2017

Argentina on Friday banned embattled Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht from bidding on public works projects in the country for 12 months due to investigations of bribes the company paid here and elsewhere.

The announcement published in the government’s official bulletin also cites corruption and money laundering cases in Brazil and other countries that have led to prison sentences, admission of guilt and clemency pleas by company executives.

The company said it was evaluating the decision and would make sure its rights are preserved.

“Odebrecht reiterates that it is committed to collaborating with authorities and that it is already adopting the necessary measures for an honest, ethical and transparent corporate behavior,” a company statement said.

Odebrecht is a key focus of the “Operation Car Wash” investigation into a mammoth kickback scheme at Brazil’s state-run oil company — the biggest corruption scandal in that country’s history. The initial investigation was launched in 2014 and has mushroomed into related probes abroad because companies like Odebrecht operated across Latin America.

Company executives acknowledged to U.S. prosecutors earlier this year that they paid more than $700 million bribes to officials in 10 Latin American and two African nations in exchange for multi-million-dollar contracts with local governments. About $35 million in bribes were paid in Argentina between 2007 and 2014.

Argentine Justice Minister German Garavano recently traveled to Washington to meet with a prosecutor and share information that can advance the Odebrecht case. But Argentine prosecutors say Argentina lacks a legal mechanism that would allow companies to provide information in exchange for leniency deals like those that have been signed in other nations.
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London is a hotspot of modern slavery, with workers in hotels, restaurants and on construction sites at particular risk of exploitation, said the head of the Metropolitan police’s anti-slavery unit.

Modern slavery cases surged in the first half of this year to about 820 by the end of June, compared to about 1,013 in the whole of 2016, Detective Inspector Phil Brewer told Reuters.

The growth in cases is partly due to increased awareness about slavery, and as police and local authorities are now more often considering whether those involved in potential slavery crimes are victims rather than suspects, said Brewer.

The Metropolitan police is working closely with charities and frontline workers to ensure victims are more easily identified and helped faster.

“Everyone realizes now we’re never going to police our way out of this,” Brewer said in an interview this week.

Government departments, local authorities and police are investigating whether people in the construction and hospitality industries are being held against their will, working under threat, for no pay or in dangerous conditions, Brewer said.

Some government departments already have systems in place — on health and safety rules and the enforcement of minimum wages, for example — to lead the battle against modern slavery in construction and hospitality, he added.

Britain passed tough anti-slavery legislation in 2015, introducing life sentences for traffickers and forcing companies to disclose what they are doing to make sure their supply chains are free from slavery.

There are an estimated 13,000 victims of forced labor, sexual exploitation and domestic servitude in Britain, according to government data.

Domestic servitude and slavery in supply chains are also major concerns for the Metropolitan police, said Brewer.

As paperwork is often only processed through embassies, police only hear about mistreatment if domestic workers come into contact with officers for other reasons, he said.

Domestic servitude is also fueled by cultural factors that might make it acceptable in some sections of London’s population to have a worker from a lower social group working as a domestic slave even though it is against the law.

“Labor exploitation in London is really misunderstood or not understood, it’s quite clear that it’s about what we don’t know rather than what we know,” Brewer said.

Victims, not suspects

One of the biggest challenges for the Metropolitan police is to make sure every officer in the force of 30,000 understands and reacts appropriately to modern slavery cases, said Brewer.

He said the police had faced criticism because officers had treated potential victims as suspects, so London’s police now “massively relies” on relationships with charities and advocacy organizations to ensure swift support for victims.

Under the “county lines” crime model, for example, young urban gang members are compelled and threatened to deal drugs in more rural areas. Some of these young people are now being referred as victims — a number that Brewer expects to grow.

Police also needed to have much more “grown-up conversations” with companies that find modern slavery in their supply chains, to calm their fears that reporting cases would result in them being prosecuted.

“There’s not really been any conversation about how companies can actually interact with policing. There’s probably some reassurance that we need to do, that if you come to us and say we found this, it won’t compromise your position,” he said.
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No more mini-skirts and large earrings for female civil servants in Uganda. Male staff are now required to wear a jacket and tie. The Ugandan government instituted a new dress code for public workers this week, and it continues to anger some people.

Women activists in Uganda have criticized the new dress code as a distraction from the real issues in the country.

Perry Aritua, executive director of Women’s Democracy Network, was one of them.

“Is [a woman] saying that men do not have any type of self-control? When a girl is dressed a certain way, that doesn’t mean she’s calling for your attention. Let us focus on the real issues that Ugandans are grappling with – the theft of our public resources, the inefficiency in service delivery, the absenteeism in public service, the capacity needs that public service has,” Aritua said.

The Ministry of Public Service issued the directive on “decent dressing” Tuesday. It prohibits female staff from wearing tight clothing, open-toed shoes, and skirts or dresses above the knees. Bright-colored nail polish, hair extensions, “exaggerated make-up,” and chandelier earrings are also on the banned list.    

The directive didn’t spare men either. All male officers are required to dress in neat, dark trousers but not ones that are tight-fitting. And only closed-toe black and brown shoes should be worn to the office, along with a jacket and tie.

Adah Muwanga, the human resource manager at the Ministry of Public Service, defends the new measures.  

“People in Uganda have a perception of what a public officer should look like and this is the image we are trying to protect and preserve. We are saying not above the knee, and for one reason, ‘above the knee’ – you know what it means, it can also [be] tantamount to sexual harassment, because when you sit you are exposing your thighs, which is not generally accepted and it can distract others from work,” Muwanga said.

Rights groups say the previous 2010 public order requiring dress to be neat and practical for one’s job was sufficient.

Ugandans have penned opinion pieces in local media against the dress code with one lawyer writing that “rights aren’t taken away overnight. They are taken away in small bits.”

The state-owned newspaper published photos it said were taken Wednesday of three civil servants – a man and two women – not adhering to the new dress code.

VOA caught up with one public worker on the issue.

“Me I think, my bright nails cannot distract someone, so the government should not discuss about that,” said the woman, declining to give her name.

The penalties for disobeying the new dress code are unclear. The directive simply said cases would be referred to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Service.
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The U.S. economy posted strong job growth in June, with a net gain of 222,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate rose slightly to hit 4.4 percent. 

Friday’s report from the Labor Department shows wages grew 2.5 percent in June from the same period a year earlier. That is just slightly above the rate of inflation, and several analysts called the gain “disappointing.”

Economists say when hiring steps up, employers usually have to raise wages to attract and retain the best workers. Many companies complain they can not get all the technically-skilled workers they need. But so far, overall wages have grown little.

The economy has been recovering from the recession for a number of years, but economic growth has been slower this time than in previous economic recoveries. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will discuss wage growth, productivity, inflation and other issues next Wednesday and Thursday when she speaks to key committees of Congress.  In a preview of her testimony published Friday, she said the U.S. economy will grow steadily and the Fed will continue gradually raising interest rates.

The central bank slashed interest rates to record lows during the recession to boost growth. But the recovering economy no longer needs so much help, and failing to bring interest rates back to normal levels risks boosting inflation high enough to hurt the economy. 

Chief economist for the global information company, IHS, Nariman Behravesh says wage growth will probably pick up over the next year as the economy gains between 150 and 180 thousand jobs a month.

PNC Bank Chief Economist Gus Faucher says employers will raise wages as they find it “more and more difficult to attract qualified workers.”

S&P Global Ratings Economist Satyam Panday says there are six million job openings in the United States, and more training programs could help prepare people to fill these positions. 

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also says the unemployment rate edged up slightly to 4.4 percent. The one-tenth of a percent increase is due to more people, perhaps encouraged by mostly positive economic news, resuming their search for work.

About 7 million Americans are counted as unemployed. Another 1.6 million are not working but are not counted as officially unemployed because they have not sought jobs in the past four weeks.

More than 5 million additional people want full-time jobs but can find only part-time employment. June’s job gains were concentrated in health care, business services and restaurants.
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The French government on Friday pledged to remove some of the charges banks pay in France and make sure they are not overregulated compared to European peers as it launched an offensive to lure banking business displaced by Brexit.

In a document due to be presented by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, the government said it would scrap the highest bracket of payroll tax for firms like banks that do not pay VAT, cancel a planned extension of tax on share trading, and make sure that bankers’ bonuses are no longer taken into account when labor courts decide on unfair dismissal compensation.

The payroll tax France charges banks and some other sectors such as real estate and health care is a charge that companies pay on each salaried employee. It is not levied in most other European countries.

The document also pledged to review the way EU financial regulations are transposed into French law.

“The French law has sometimes opted for overregulation when the European standards for the financial sectors were transposed,” a document published by Philippe’s office said.

“This could have had imposed additional burden on businesses, compared to European rivals.”
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