The most significant initiative was probably in Shenzhen but cities in Hunan, Hebei, Zhejiang and Shandong have also announced or have already implemented collective wage negotiation policies and programs. In addition, in early March, the provincial government of Liaoning, released its Provisions on Collective Wage Consultations in Enterprises (企业工资集体协商规&#23450 for public comment.

On 18 March, the Changde municipal trade union in Hunan signed a wage agreement with ten enterprises in the city, and announced its intention to initiate collective wage negotiations in all of the city’s public and semi-public enterprises, and set up trade unions in 60 percent of its private enterprises.

In the north-eastern coastal city of Qinghuangdao, the local government pledged on 23 March to establish a wage negotiation structure that covered more than 85 percent of the city’s mainly private enterprises by the end of the year.

In early March, the Rizhao municipal government and trade union in Shandong published its Trial Measures for Collective Consultations on Employee Wages (日照市职工工资集体协商试行办&#27861 and set a target of having 2,400 enterprises with collective wage agreements by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the health workers’ trade union in nearby Qingdao announced plans to sign collective wage agreements that would cover the all the city’s 5,000 contract or hospital supply workers in a bid to address the serious wage inequalities currently seen in the health sector. And in a township of Cixi, on the coast of Zhejiang, worker representatives reportedly signed a wage agreement with representatives of 19 lighter factories in the district creating a unified wage, overtime payments and benefits structure.

The extent to which these initiatives will actually benefit the workers concerned however is not clear. Simply signing an agreement with enterprises will be of little use unless the agreement goes someway towards satisfying the needs and demands of the workforce. Unless the employees at the enterprises are actively involved in the negotiations, there is a danger the local trade union will put the need to meet their government-set quotas ahead of the needs of the workers.

Local media in this Southeast Asian country reported that one woman died this month at a labour recruitment firm in Phnom Penh, while another trainee broke her legs attempting to escape. The firm has denied any wrongdoing in the woman’s death. But the controversy is a sign that the government’s belated efforts to regulate the rapidly expanding industry have fallen short.

"It’s so sad that the problems are still happening," Moeun Tola, the head of the labour programme at the advocacy group Community Legal Education Centre, told IPS.

The country’s main opposition party is also weighing in on the issue. Parliamentarians with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party visited the training centre in question this month. Member of Parliament Son Chhay said he was alarmed by the tall gates and barbed wire at the facility, which he said gave "the impression of imprisonment".

"Local authorities and police ignored the law that forbids detention against one’s will," Chhay wrote in a letter to Malaysia’s ambassador and provided to IPS and other media this week. "There was no sign that the local authorities even attempted to defend the rights of trainees who are detained against their will. There are tremendous pressures on the young women to comply with the rules of the company."

Abuse claims made by domestic workers began to make waves last July, when stories of women who said they fled training centres hit the local newspapers. In multiple cases, the women reported they had signed up to be trained as domestic workers, but were not permitted to leave the training centres unless they paid large sums of money. Others claimed they escaped from cramped or squalid living conditions.

The headlines shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the industry. The Cambodian Labour Ministry warned recruitment firms to clean up their act and announced new guidelines in August. The guidelines, released ahead of a promise to update the law governing the industry, advised firms not to allow their trainees to fall into debt. The guidelines also contained general statements prohibiting "detention" and "child labour".

The problem, Tola explains, is enforcing the rules. Multiple agencies have been found to be training girls younger than 18 - the minimum age for such work is 21. But inspections of the training centres are rare and there are few consequences for operators found to be flouting the rules, Tola says.

"I think the authorities know these things are happening, but they just close their eyes," he added.

Roughly 30 firms are licensed by the country’s Ministry of Labour to train and send domestic workers abroad. The majority of the women are bound for Malaysia, which is struggling to meet voracious demand for live-in maids after Indonesia put a moratorium on its citizens taking such jobs in Malaysia following publicised cases of abuse.

Malaysia has set its sights on countries like Cambodia to fill demand. Malaysia last year issued almost 25,000 work visas to Cambodian domestic workers, according to the Malaysian Embassy here. That’s well above the roughly 5,300 visas granted across all sectors in 2008.

Cambodia has been just as eager to send its citizens abroad. Job options for many low-income women here are in the country’s chief economic driver - its garment-manufacturing sector. But the minimum wage in garment factories is 61 dollars per month, much less than the 200 to 300 dollars per month women are often promised as domestic workers.

As a result, recruitment firms operating in Cambodia have jumped to take advantage of the market.

Several agencies have been known to recruit women in poor rural areas. They offer cash lump-sum payments and bags of rice to families in order to convince them to sign up their daughters - but the money must be repaid.

Tensions between the trainees and their employers surface when women ask to leave their gated facilities - often the companies will refuse or demand money to allow women to leave, afraid they will run away without paying their debts, according to rights advocates and industry representatives.

The government is expected to issue a new law governing recruitment firms this year - replacing the vague existing regulations, which are more than 15 years old.

An Bunhak, director of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies, said he has advised the government to prohibit companies from offering large loans to its trainees.

Bunhak says stricter rules will help smooth out problems in the industry.

"We think everyone must follow the regulations. Once everybody understands, it will be okay," Bunhak told IPS. "We want the rules to protect our migrant workers."

While authorities implement the new regulations, however, this month’s case shows that potential domestic workers continue to face problems even before they leave the country.

Heang Sophara signed up to be trained as a domestic worker last year. "I wasn’t earning much money farming. I hoped that I could make more money in Malaysia to support my family, even if I had to be away from them for two years," she told IPS.

But when she started hearing stories of mistreatment, she decided to withdraw her application. She claims the agency demanded that she pay 900 dollars to get out of her contract, even though she never received any loans or underwent training. The case remains unresolved.

"I get more scared when I hear about the problems," Sophara said. "Now I just want to stay home."

Some foreign entrepreneurs have created food-processing businesses in Africa and are making good money, despite an occasionally difficult business environment.

"A vibrant SME (small and medium enterprise) sector is key for employment, increased income, economic diversification, exports and foreign direct investment," asserts Mohamed-Lamine Dhaoui of UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

"But, in Africa, manufacturing contributes only to 10 percent of gross domestic product," adds Dhaoui, who is director of business, investment and technology services at UNIDO.

Raw commodities, like fuel, metals and unprocessed foods, form the most important part of African exports. In contrast, manufacturing export is limited to 29 percent of exports - low compared to other regions.

But the development of the private sector in Africa faces major challenges: a difficult business environment, inadequate technical support services, poor infrastructure and weak technological development, with high costs for processing and electrification.

Advantages of the African business environment include low labour costs, even though the labour force sometimes needs professional training. "And agriculture is one of the key sectors for manufacturing, with its agro- industry, cash crops and food industries," Dhaoui notes.

Some foreign investors have taken up the challenge of manufacturing agricultural products directly in Africa. They are adding value locally, thereby contributing to local development while making good money.

Gary Hannam, CEO of the Swiss company Olivado Ltd, decided to create an international brand of extra virgin avocado oil that is manufactured in Kenya.

"In the Central Highlands of Kenya there is an abundance of good avocados and little domestic competition because local people don’t eat them," he explains. "The possibility of having organic and fair trade certification is quick and the bureaucratic process is corruption-free."

Despite some setbacks, a fair trade organic programme was set up in the record time of seven months. Hannam points out that Olivado is now the largest organic exporter in Kenya, with 820 small farmers certified. After extensive training programmes for farmers and the staff, they are now able to supply supermarkets directly.

"Our employment policy is to identify local people with good potential and train them. A former cleaner is now a fruit manager. And farmers’ incomes have doubled," he explains.

Despite poor infrastructure - water, power and roads - Olivado has become a leading international brand of extra virgin avocado oil that has a presence in 22 countries. The number of farmers is expected to increase to 2,000 in the next four years, producing 460,000 litres of oil.

Based on the Kenyan model, the company is about to start a new factory in Colombia. "I am looking for partners to share this small Swiss company’s ideals," he concludes.

Hans Peter Werder has another success story. The founder of HPW Ag, a small Swiss enterprise with only 12 employees, has built a dried fruit factory in Ghana. "Our strategy is to develop products with added value and target niche markets in Europe," he explains.

"There are many advantages to beneficiation in Ghana, starting with the proximity to the production place and that you need only 15 kg of pineapples to make one kg of dried fruit. But there are also challenges, like unstable fruit supply, especially from small-holder farmers, inflation and the artificial value of the Ghanaian currency," Werder notes.

Pineapples, coconuts and mangoes are prepared in Ghana, certified fair trade by Max Havelaar and sold in Switzerland and other countries.

In Ghana, fruits are prepared in partnership with a local company, Blue Skies, that employs 900 people in rural areas where the rate of unemployment is particularly high. This generates a demand for local hardware and other services.

HPW Ag helps pineapple growers to get fair trade certification. "Today we are the leading agricultural services provider in Ghana. We are responsible for the export of 35 percent of all pineapples from Ghana and possibly have the largest dried fruit factory in Africa. The factory is designed to pack consumer units at source and to supply retailers directly," says Werder.

The key element is the procurement of fruit from multiple sources: 50 percent come from big growers and 50 percent from small ones. "If you stay only with big producers, who sell abroad, you depend on the export market. And with the small ones, you don’t know if they will have enough fruit," Werder adds.

The processing of fruit is done in partnership with a South African dried fruit factory. Management is handled by a team in Ghana and through the relationship with the South African company.

Innovative ideas were required because of the high costs of electricity, gas and oil. HPW Ag decided to work entirely with renewable energy from the organic waste it produces.

Werder cautions that customers must take into consideration sustainability factors. "Whenever I send out my pitch, the answer is: send me the price list. Yes, I can send the price list, but Europeans should look also at sustainability."

HPW assures consumers that approximately 37 percent of the consumer price remains in the country of origin

"We expats are victims of hate crimes because we didn’t leave the country or become part of the general strike called by the opposition to keep Bahrain on hold," Nastufi Sharma, an Indian who has been working in Bahrain since 1997, told IPS. "To stop locals from going to work, roads were blocked… we were attacked."

Sharma isn’t considering leaving the country yet, but risks unemployment if the situation deteriorates further.

Eight migrant workers died and approximately 49 sustained various injuries since Mar. 17 when the government with the support of Cooperation Council of the Arab Gulf States (GCC) peninsula shield troops started cracking down on demonstrations blocking roads in Manama - the financial capital of Bahrain. The government has also declared a three-month state of emergency to be enforced by the Bahrain Defence Force.

Most expats are not yet considering leaving the country, hoping for the situation to revert to normal. They fear losing their jobs and not finding new ones back home.

On Mar. 13 before the beginning of the attacks, the Civil Disobedience Support Committee sent a letter to foreign embassies in the country asking diplomatic missions to ask their nationals to leave immediately, while warning that the routes leading to the airport might not be safe. IPS obtained a copy of the letter.

Expatriates, mainly migrant workers from Asia, are in high demand for their skills and are valued for their low salaries - essential to prop up sustainable growth in Bahrain. Migrant workers represent almost half of the country’s population of 1.2 million. Migrant labour in the region is a huge source of remittance income in the workers’ home countries - and some embassies here seem to be taking the violent hate crimes against their nationals with a grain of salt.

The Prime Minister of Bahrain, Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, has met with Indian, Pilipino, Bangladeshi and acting Pakistani Ambassadors to assure them that the government is interested in the safety of all migrant workers in the country. There have been attacks on nationals of all these countries in the last few days. Al Khalifa said that expatriates are highly needed in Bahrain and their labour rights and safety would be protected.

There have been four deaths and around 40 injuries so far among Pakistanis, many of whom work as riot and security police. Ten Pakistanis are in critical condition.

"In my community that is estimated to have 65,000 Pakistanis, the death of one civilian and three policemen were reported, most of the attacks took place in Manama," Aurangzeb, of the Pakistan mission to Bahrain told IPS.

After the attacks, most of the Pakistanis residing in Manama were evacuated to safer places in cities such as Isa Town, where they were housed in the Pakistan School and Pakistan Club. They will be shifted again to different accommodations soon, Aurangzeb said. The embassy hasn’t asked its residents to leave Bahrain.

Seven Bangladeshis have been hospitalised, three have died and four are under treatment. The number of victims is small according to the Bangladeshi Embassy when compared with the large number of Bangladeshis living in Bahrain - 100,000.

"Most of our victims were attacked in mid-March and I don’t blame anyone and I think they were assaulted for being caught in the middle of rioting and violence in the wrong time and wrong place," Bangladeshi Ambassador Ali Akbar told IPS.

To protect the community, he said, the embassy advised Bangladeshi nationals to remain neutral and cautious and to avoid the venues of demonstrations.

The ambassador denied a case of a Sunni Bangladeshi national who is in coma after being attacked by Shiite demonstrators who cut his tongue off to prevent him from reciting Azzan. This case has been reported in almost all the local newspapers along with images of him in the hospital.

Sri Lanka Honorary Consul General P. B. Higgoda confirms that his community members were not asked to go home, however a temporary ban on new recruitment has been imposed by his government for those who want to enter Bahrain. "I don’t know when the ban will be lifted," Higgoda said. There are approximately 14,000 Sri Lankan residents in Bahrain.

No attacks were reported among the Sri Lankan community, of whom 3,500 are domestic workers. Higgoda says this is because they follow the "laws and orders" of the country.

"Hopefully Indians are much safer now than two weeks back, as we have advised them to be extra careful and stay indoors after dark," Indian Ambassador Mohan Kumar, told IPS. One Indian died in crossfire, while five have sustained minor injuries.

Indians represent the largest community in Bahrain with 350,000 individuals living in the country - 70 percent of them are labourers and semi-skilled workers. No warnings have been issued for Indians, as until now the country is safe if residents take extra precautions, according to Kumar. "We only advised at the beginning of the crackdown for housewives and children to leave if they fear for their safety," Kumar said.

Situations are expected to be better with the deployment of security forces in major urban areas, however migrant workers will remain in danger as very poor security will remain in the old neighbourhoods of Manama where they reside.

The U.S. Department of State is urging its citizens to defer travel to Bahrain, and has advised those in the country to consider departing.

The campaign aims to "create an atmosphere of understanding, respecting and caring for migrant workers" and to improve public services for them,according to an official document jointly issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Agriculture, among other departments.

The document requests government departments to provide various kinds of voluntary services to migrant workers.

Migrant workers in Chinese cities are usually poorly educated and face various difficulties including low pay, inadequate social security, discrimination and lack of schools for their children.

The document called for improvements in vocational training and consultation, legal and cultural services, psychological counseling and children's education for migrant workers and their families.

It said funds for the campaign would be raised through the China Volunteer Service Foundation.

"Unemployment is starting to hit hard around here," he told IRIN. "I still come to work most days, hoping there will be someone who requires my assistance. But for now it is only refugees who are crossing the border. They can't afford to pay me.”

According to local officials in the town of Ben Gardane, 30km inside Tunisia, some 80 percent of local people were until recently engaged in cross-border trade - transporting, and in some cases smuggling, cheap goods from Libya to sell in Tunisian markets. But the fighting in Libya has brought all such trade to a virtual standstill.

At the same time, tension between local Tunisians and “foreigners” has been rising: Ben Gardane residents on 17 March attacked humanitarian vehicles, particularly those belonging to the ACT Alliance, an umbrella group of 111 humanitarian organizations, throwing stones at aid convoys and trying to overturn one vehicle.

"Tunisia is troubled with widespread unemployment and the population in the border areas is less than pleased to see a steady flow of refugees crossing the border from Libya," said Arne Grieg Riisnæs, an ACT Alliance spokesperson in Tunisia.

"On Thursday [17 March] evening... the local population's frustrations and anger were vented at the international organizations currently visible in the area," he said, adding that other vehicles had their windscreens smashed.

"We are worried tensions are rising and that the security situation may prevent us from continuing our work… We hope the situation will remain calm. Our main priority is to continue our work, but we must always consider the safety of our staff.”

Some journalists have also been targeted. "My colleagues and I moved to a different town after the incident," said one reporter, who preferred anonymity after being subjected to verbal abuse in the street. "It was clear that not all journalists are welcome in Ben Gardane with the rise in tension among the local population. They see us coming here specifically to work, while they are not," he said.

Ben Gardane has been heavily dependent on cross-border trade, and when livelihoods are at stake anger can follow: In August, when exit visa charges were raised, demonstrators took to the streets.

People are suddenly unemployed. They are bored. They see plenty of action happening at Choucha, but nothing is happening for them“Frustrated”

"It's not difficult to understand why people are frustrated around here," said 24-year-old Mohammed, a local student currently volunteering with the Tunisian Red Crescent at the Choucha transit centre.

"People are suddenly unemployed. They are bored. They see plenty of action happening at Choucha, but nothing is happening for them.”

Some locals have set up market stalls on the edge of Choucha, where they sell cups of sugary green tea, hard-boiled eggs, fruit and vegetables to the few migrant workers and refugees who have spare change. But help may be needed.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a visit to Tunis last week, pledged to help create jobs. Unemployment is running at about 14 percent.

In an effort to curb unemployment in Ben Gardane and Ras Ajdir, 9km from Choucha, UN Development Programme officials have begun an assessment, meeting government officials, civil society organizations and local people to see if the plight of the unemployed can be eased through training programmes on such things as camel-rearing, and livestock and agricultural techniques.

Last October, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) filed a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Co-Cooperation and Development (OECD), a 33-member body based in Paris devoted to economic development, sustainable growth and financial stability.

ECCHR, joined by partner organizations Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights of Germany, Guido Ehrler of Switzerland and Sherpa of France detailed allegations of systematic child labor and forced labor against seven cotton dealers from Switzerland, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, hoping to draw the EU's attention to the problem of its involvement in child labor in Uzbekistan.

In a statement distributed by e-mail March 23, Miriam Saage-Maas and Yvonne Veith of the Business and Human Rights Program of ECCHR in Berlin said the UK National Contact Point of the OECD had accepted two of the complaints filed in the UK regarding Cargill and ICT Cotton Ltd.

The assessments regarding Cargill and ICT have been published on the UK government's website.

The acceptance of the case by the UK's National Contact Point (NCP) means that a mediation process is now opened between the companies and the NGOs who filed the complaint. It does not mean that the OECD has made a finding that these companies have acted inconsistently with OECD guidelines. The UK NCP decision noted that the companies request to drop the complaint because of an ostensible lack of an "investment nexus" has been declined.

The UK's acceptance opens the way for other EU countries to accept the case. A decision from Germany is expected in late April, says ECCR.

The OECD has developed standards for corporate conduct which incorporate labor and human rights, and this enables NGOs like the ECCHR to file protests, making use of "soft law" or non-binding international standards.

Dozens of companies including Wal-Mart, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Target, and The Gap have already pledged to remove Uzbek cotton from the source of their products over the issue of the exploitation of children. Yet a number of Western companies remain who are reluctant to vouch for their sources.