Right to Decent Work
In the Last 60 Years
As the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) set about their task in 1947 led by the visionary Eleanor Roosevelt, they drew upon a host of sources - from philosophers to revolutionaries to religious leaders and from every part of the world. They also drew upon a document that had already been in existence for almost thirty years – the Constitution of the International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted as part of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I. The ILO was born out of the great labor struggles of the late nineteenth century, and based upon the belief that for true progress to occur, societies must build consensus among workers, employers and their political leaders.
That conviction can be seen in the UDHR’s affirmation that “everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment…everyone has the right to equal pay for equal work… the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity… and the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
The contemporary call for “Decent Work” is shorthand for these standards to be respected for women and men across the world.
Adopting a Decent Work Approach
What are the changes needed to create more decent job opportunities? First, more must be done to put in place economic policies that have employment creation as their objective rather than an incidental outcome. A second change involves ensuring respect for human rights standards in employment policies and in trade and investment strategies. This includes ILO core labor standards - freedom of association, non-discrimination, an end to slave labor and the elimination of child labor. A third aspect is the importance of social protection that strives to put in place a minimum social floor for all members of society, and which may include health insurance, unemployment insurance and pension plans. Last but not least is the importance of ongoing dialogue between workers, employers and governments.
A Decent Work approach is just as important for the informal sector as for formal sectors of the economy, particularly because workers in informal sectors - such as farm workers, market sellers, day laborers and domestic workers – are growing in number and relatively vulnerable members of society. The ILO has supported Decent Work Country Programs that help informal enterprises move into the formal economy, build support for small enterprises to improve their labor standards, and link health insurance schemes to program credit provision.
Using a different starting point, India’s Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), founded by Ela Bhatt over thirty years ago, began with a group of poor, activist working women who demanded change based upon their vision of what fair wages and decent working conditions meant for them. We see such efforts today as well. For example, in the U.S. the Coalition of Imokalee Workers has struggled to improve both the conditions and pay for the labor they contribute to the supply chains of large corporations.
International trade unions, most notably the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), have drawn together hundreds of regional groups working to confront the global forces that threaten the interests of working people and their families. The Decent Work, Decent Life campaign (decentwork.org) aims to draw attention to the many policies and practices which must be improved to make a difference to millions of people across the planet.
In the final outcome statement of the UN World Summit in September 2005, government leaders agreed to place full and productive employment and decent work as a central objective of relevant national and international policies. In 2007, an additional Millennium Development Goal target on decent work was added to existing targets to be achieved by 2015. It is vital now to support the many individuals and organizations around the world seeking to uphold and promote these rights.
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