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Vacancies in Samara (Bangalore), a sexual minority organization adrressing HIV-AIDS and human rights issues

Samara, a community organization of sexual minorities and sexworkers in Karnataka is recruiting people at senior level. It is a good opportunity for people committed to sexual minority and sexworker human rights issues. Here is Samara’s AD:

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Vacancies in a HIV Prevention Project  (Bangalore City)

Samara, a community organisation of sexual minorities and sexworkers, is implementing a focused HIV-AIDS prevention project among sexual minorities in Bangalore City. The main goal of the project is to build an effective, result based and sustainable model for HIV prevention with men who have sex with men and transgenders.

Project Manager (1 post)

Key Roles and Responsibilities

· Managing the implementation of all project activities

· Supporting and handholding the staff

· Monitoring the project outputs and reporting on results, including sending regular reports to the funding agency

· Responsible for staff recruitment, induction and capacity building

· Assist Project Direction Team in conducting regular review and planning meetings with staff

· Establish linkages with other organizations for various purposes

Qualifications and Skills Specification

· Minimum 3 years of experience, preferably in HIV-AIDS Prevention Projects

· Ability to manage high calibre/high performing teams

· Fluency in Kannada and English

Organizational Development Coordinator (1 post)

Key Roles and Responsibilities

· Provide day today hand holding support to the organization

· Facilitate and organise capacity building workshops

· Give inputs for proper governance of the organisation

· Support and ensure proper project implementation

· Provide strategies for effective community mobilisation and collectivisation.

· Build and maintain alliances with other organisations and individuals

· Liaison with the funding agencies for effective program implementation

Qualifications and Skills Specification

• Minimum 4-5 years of experience, with the ability to provide strategic leadership oversight to the organizational design, management and implementation
• Ability to manage high calibre/high performing teams
• Excellent relationship management skills; with the ability to network
• Fluency in Kannada and English
• Excellent computer skills

Interested candidates can send in their CV along with three references to samaraban@gmail.com before 30^th September 2009. Samara can be contacted by phone at (080) 22113795.

Samara is an equal-opportunity employer and encourages PLHA (People Living with HIV/AIDS), sexuality minorities, women, disabled people, dalits, adivasis, religious minorities, and people from other marginalized populations to apply for the above mentioned vacancies.

Regards

Yogesh

Programme Coordinator- Services

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Jet Airways – Stop Union bashing, NTUI Press Statement

See below the press statement by New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) on the anti-worker actions of Jet Airways and Indian Government:

MEDIA RELEASE: 9 September 2009, New Delhi
Jet Airways – Stop Union bashing!
Support the workers fight for right to association and trade union rights!

The New Trade Union Initiative condemns the illegal dismissal of two Jet Airways pilots, Captains Balaraman and Sam Thomas on 31 July 2009, exactly 7 days after the pilots registered their union, the National Aviators Guild (NAG), on 24 July 2009. Captains Balaraman and Sam Thomas, the General Secretary and Joint Secretary respectively of NAG, had been at the forefront of union formation and the union has the support of 85% of the 760 pilots employed by Jet Airways. Jet Airways management refused to recognise the union and went on to summarily dismiss two of its office  bearers. Management has dismissed an additional 5 pilots earlier today for supporting the struggle for their democratic rights.

The right to association is a recognised right of workers, enshrined in this country’s constitution and protected by national statute and requires no justification. In fact, the pilots were forced to register a union because the Jet Airways management stopped consulting with the ten year-old pilots’ welfare body, the Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP), on the grounds that this body did not have any legal standing to negotiate with management. Jet Airways management has also refused to recognise the National Aviators Guild which is a duly registered union with the Registrar of Trade Unions, Maharashtra. Hence, the Jet Airways management believes it is above Indian law.

Both SWIP and NAG gave the Jet Airways management ample time to reinstate the illegally dismissed pilots before NAG finally issued a 2-week notice for a strike on 24 August, three weeks after the dismissal of the two pilots. The matter was referred to the Regional Labour Commissioner (RLC) for conciliation the next day. The RLC advised that under provision of law, the Jet Airways management cannot terminate the services of any pilot and the pilots cannot go on a strike as long as the matter was under conciliation.

The Jet Airways management went to the Bombay High Court despite the matter being under conciliation. Since there is no strike, the strike notice was withdrawn, and no court of competent jurisdiction has declared it illegal, the Bombay High Court ought not to have interfered at this stage, particularly as the Union was not present and may not have been served notice. However, by terminating the services of the additional pilots today, the management has acted in contravention of the conciliation proceedings under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. Furthermore provisions concerning public utilities can not be invoked against a single service provider when other service providers are available to travelers.

The Government of India has also allowed itself to act in concert with the Jet Airways management with the Union Home Secretary G. K. Pillai writing to the Chief Secretaries of all states advising them to invoke ESMA against the sick leave of Jet Airways pilots. Earlier this afternoon the Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge was virtually egging on the Ministry of Civil Aviation to invoke ESMA.

The actions of Jet Airways management against a duly registered trade union with publicly displayed support of those it represents, engaging in legally sanctioned actions to have its grievances addressed, stands in stark contrast to the same management’s actions earlier in August 2009 when it got together with other private airlines and attempted to arm-twist Government by threatening to suspend all airline operations if the
Government did not bail them out of a financial crisis of their own making.

The NTUI demands that the Jet Airways management:
· Stop violating the Indian constitution and recognise the National Aviators Guild
· Reinstate all the dismissed pilots immediately
· Stop victimisation of workers
· Stop engaging in unfair labour practice

The NTUI calls upon the Ministry of Labour to defend the right to association and ensure that Jet Airways management follows the due process of law and engages in negotiation with the registered trade union, the National Aviators Guild.

Gautam Mody
Secretary
New Trade Union Initiative

B-137 Dayanand Colony, First Floor,
Lajpatnagar Part IV,
New Delhi 110024
Tel: 91-11-26214538 /26486931
Fax: 91-11- 26486931

E-Mail: secretariat@ntui.org.in

Report Release: ‘Trade Union Protections for Sex Workers’, Bangalore, 9 SEP 2009

Dear Friend(s)

Karnataka Sex Workers Union invites you to the

Releasing of the report

Trade Union Protections for Sex Workers

By Com. Ashim Roy (General Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative)

On 9^th September 2009, Wednesday, at 4PM

At Ashirwad, 30 St. Marks Road, Opposite State Bank of India, Bangalore

Trade Union Leaders, Human Rights Activists and Sexworker Leaders will address the meeting after the report release.

This report, Trade Union Protections for Sex Workers, shares insights from a meeting held from January 30 to February 1, 2009, in Belém, Brazil, in conjunction with the World Social Forum. The meeting brought together trade unions, sex workers, and other activists who believe that workers in the sex sector deserve basic labour rights, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, to be free of discrimination and to be free from forced labor. The participants came from Bolivia, Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, the United States. Critical issues addressed during the meeting included:

– The links between trafficking, migration and sex work.

– How a trade union analysis of sex work might help address problems such as poor working conditions, or sex worker health and safety concerns – issues that most states and NGOs do not typically care about, since they treat sex workers as either victims or criminals.

– How to shape a common agenda with trade unions, when many do not automatically come from the understanding that “sex work is work.”

– Strategies for organizing within mainstream labour movements, and the ways in which alliances with a union movement could help sex workers combat stigma and police violence, and lobby for legal change.

Karnataka Sex Workers Union (KSWU) is a trade union of sexworkers (women, men and transgender) in Karnataka. KSWU strives to get sexwork recognised as dignified labour, demands labour rights that are guaranteed to all other workers and campaigns for the decriminalisation of sexwork. KSWU defends the rights of sexworkers and resists violence, oppression and exploitation by the police, goondas, government agencies and others. KSWU advocate for fair working conditions and social entitlements and full social security.

For more information, contact: 97310 18694, 99455 25411

In Solidarity

Geetha

General Secretary

Karnataka Sex Workers Union