Decent work not aid is route out of poverty

Decent work not aid is route out of poverty
- 17-05-2009
The Abeceder press review highlights stories from around the world.


Frances O'Grady TUC Deputy General Secretary speaking at the launch of the Decent Work and Labour Standards Forum has said that there has never been a clearer argument - a more urgent need - for decent work.

The economic crisis means that some 40 to 50 percent of the world's working women and men are not earning enough to lift themselves and their families above the $2 a day poverty line.

Food and environmental crisis are expected to put 1.4 billion people in constant hunger.

And it is women in drastically shrinking export industries, and women in the home that are increasingly shouldering the burden of the downturn.

This crisis cannot be solved with a return to the unequal, high-debt, low wage debacle of the past three decades. Those times are over. From here on, our success must be judged differently.

It must be judged by the number of decent, green and productive jobs we can create: allowing everyone to walk with dignity and a full belly.

Judged by the domestic burden lifted off women; the numbers of injured and unemployed helped back on their feet; judged by decent schools and hospitals and healthy and safe working conditions for all.

Judged by how deeply we can bury child or forced labour, discrimination or the repression of workers' rights in the graveyard of bad ideas, by respecting core labour standards.

And it should be judged by the outcomes of social dialogue: of workers, businesses and governments, working together to drive sustainable growth and sharing in that growth fairly.

This is what we mean by Decent Work. A new model that resurrects the economy, narrows inequality, puts food on everyone's table and strengthens social cohesion from the factories of Bangladesh to the farms of Ghana.

The Decent Work and Labour Standards Forum
Achieving this is a huge challenge that requires the expertise and passion of all of us in this room. That's why we've been a proud part of the coalition developing this Decent Work and Labour Standards Forum.

The Forum will be a place where together, we can: share our information and thinking on Decent Work; gather and consider the evidence, and debate the solutions; and speak with a stronger and better informed voice to tackle the barriers to achieving Decent Work.

Ultimately, it is about strengthening all the contributions we have to make:

For academics and labour standards specialists: bring your analysis, your thinking to the Forum, it can help improve everyone's practice.

For my fellow trade unionists in the room: bring in the voice of your sisters and brothers in the South. And strengthen their own voice on the national and international stages.

For our NGOs friends: your focus, commitment and campaigning energy will be a driving force.

For UK business the challenge is enormous: create jobs - but decent jobs, not disposable ones. Let me illustrate:

In Cambodia, major clothing brands and suppliers have been instrumental in supporting the ILO's better factories programme to improve labour standards for garment workers. The result has been better wages and better working conditions for 350,000 Cambodian women - wages they have sent home to their families to help them overcome food shortages. Importantly, it has resulted in a more productive and competitive industry.

Yet take Unilever's factory in Khanewal, Pakistan: There, only 23 employees are directly employed. The remaining 700 are 'temps' with 15 years average service, earning poverty wages, with no job security and no benefits. When they tried to join a union they were threatened with lock-outs and cuts in hours. These aren't decent jobs, they're disposable ones.

And this isn't the case of just one bad egg, but of a bad global strategy. Since launching their path to growth strategy in 2000, Unilever have cut their global workforce of 300,000 in half, delivering huge cash surpluses to 'enhance shareholder returns'.

So let's work together to spread the good and bury the bad.

And the last message is for the UK government and for DFID in particular.

DFID are a key partner in the delivery of Decent Work, making critical contributions particularly on social protection and growth for job creation.

It deserves our very warm thanks for supporting this Forum. And for providing critical support to the ILO - we look forward to working with DFID soon to evaluate and strengthen this support for the coming years.

Yet Decent Work can move a long way up DFID's development agenda. So we throw the challenge out to DFID: set ambitious targets in creating decent work for all, and work with developing country governments, other donors and the ILO to get there.

And we ask DFID to throw the challenge out to us: get us to help in strengthening the voice of the working poor in the Global South, and use our expertise for training, analysis and feedback.

The TUC is proud to be part of an initiative putting Decent Work at the heart of our efforts to create a Decent World.