International Migrants' Day

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has joined unions around the world in calling for equal rights for migrant workers on International Migrants Day.

"With migrants in New Zealand subjected to a barrage of racist attacks, it is timely today to acknowledge that migrants must be entitled to equal rights and treatment at work," said CTU president Ross Wilson.

Ross Wilson said 150 million migrants make up 2% of the worlds population, with 100 million of these migrants in the workforce.

"Economic globalisation and the resulting development disparities have forced thousands of people to leave their home countries and seek work in wealthier countries," he said. "Only too often these workers are subjected to discrimination and exploitation."

Ross Wilson said the CTU supported, along with good settlement policies for migrants to adjust to their new countries, increased protections at international and national levels to promote and ensure equal rights for migrants.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has been campaigning for several years with human and migrants rights associations to obtain the ratification of the international conventions providing for equal treatment for migrant workers in terms of jobs, wages, social security and union rights.