decent work must be at centre of government labour policies, basic social

 

protection in globalizing world, ACCORDING TO new United Nations report

 

A new United Nations report calls for making the promotion of employment and decent work the cornerstone of Government policies, and for establishing basic universal social protection in order to address recent developments in the world of work.

“Decent work for all, rather than economic growth per se, or even simply creating jobs, should be placed at the centre of economic and social policymaking”, according to the Report on the World Social Situation 2007: The Employment Imperative, launched today at the United Nations.

Economic liberalization and globalization have brought benefits, says the report, but also powerful negative effects and changes.  “Policymakers have yet to come to terms with this reality, and have yet to devise strategies to check the growing inequalities of recent years.”

A “powerful lesson”, says the report, is that liberalization can benefit ordinary citizens, but only after “the establishment of institutions, legislation and regulations that can limit its adverse effects”.

The report argues for ensuring decent work, which, as defined by the International Labour Organization, is satisfying for the person performing it, promotes personal development and contributes to the well-being of families and society.  In a society promoting decent work, people enjoy basic economic security and equal opportunities to develop and apply their competencies.

The report’s key findings are:

-- labour markets have been evolving in the direction of greater economic insecurity and greater levels of inequality, limiting people’s opportunity to live a life of decent work and satisfactory employment;

-- Governments and employers around the world, in their desire to remain or become competitive, have taken many steps to increase labour-market flexibility, thus increasing insecurity among most groups of workers;

-- there has been a global spread of informal employment and short-term contracts, giving workers fewer entitlements and little sense of job security;

-- the deregulation, privatization and marketization of social services has led to reductions in employment and income security, as well as a loss of voice and representation for workers providing these services;

-- labour security is further undermined by the globalization of financial markets and the emergence of a globalized labour supply;

-- statutory regulation is being replaced by self-regulation as part of the liberalization that has accompanied globalization, increasing work insecurity;

-- standardized and collective contracts are giving way to more individualized contracts based on direct bargaining between employers and workers, further shifting the balance of power in favour of employers; and

-- the principle of social insurance can no longer be considered the cornerstone of social protection systems, since it is weaker in economies dominated by informal economic activities.

According to the report, “the world is rapidly becoming an economic system with employment dominated by the service sector, in which many jobs are low-paying and precarious and are not covered by formal mechanisms of social protection.”

Globally, “a growing proportion of the unemployed either have no access to unemployment benefits of any kind or have to demonstrate that they are ‘deserving’ of the unemployment assistance, which is increasingly given to them on a discretionary basis, contingent on their fulfilment of specified behavioural obligations.  In such circumstances, entitlement to an unemployment benefit ceases to be a social right.”

The increasing pressure on the poor, the economically insecure and the disadvantaged to behave in ways that the State feels are socially desirable is cause for concern.  “Such schemes tend to create poverty and unemployment traps,” the report says.

Changes in the legal status of workers are another cause of concern.  Many current labour laws were created when workers had fixed, long-term jobs with legally recognized status.  The complex realities of more open, flexible labour markets are creating new arrangements.  One major challenge is developing new policy frameworks in response to these changes to protect workers’ rights.

The report offers a set of recommendations to address these challenges:

-- policies and strategies devised to promote full employment and decent work should also address issues of income and socio-political inequalities;

-- policies promoting employment and decent work need to reflect demographic and social changes –- such as the growth in the number of youth and older people and the growth of the number of households headed by single women;

-- political reforms and legal provisions for achieving greater equality among ethnic groups, cultures, genders and age groups, as well as for protecting immigrants’ workplace rights and civil rights, are essential;

-- macroeconomic policies should consider the advantages of progressive taxation and Government social spending, which often supplements the income of the poor and the working poor.  The macroeconomic effects of reducing inequalities should be assessed as means of creating employment for lower-income groups;

-- wealth redistribution strategies, such as land reform and estate/inheritance taxation, should be more widely implemented and enforced; and

-- with more and more workers in employment situations that are informal and outside standard collective contracts, universal social protection coverage becomes even more important.

At the international level, cooperation and coordination among countries are needed to counteract the pressures of a “race to the bottom” in the global competition for investment and trade.  International coordination of social and economic policies will also contribute to exploring means to meet the collective challenges of creating productive employment and decent work for all.

At the national level, social and economic policies, as well as institutions, need to adjust to the new demands of a globalizing world.  Reform of social protection systems in developed countries and the expansion of such systems in developing countries must aim at ensuring economic security for all in the more flexible labour market.

While there are different opinions on the relationship between social spending and growth, the report says, “a consensus seems to be emerging that the State should provide a universal floor of social protection upon which social insurance, private insurance and other schemes can be built”.

Social protection systems need to adapt to more flexible labour markets in order to provide economic security to all workers.  “The future of pension systems is uncertain, but there should be a move towards increased flexibility, with more variability in the age of statutory retirement so as to allow people to choose when to retire.”

In the areas of pensions, health and unemployment insurance, Governments are promoting individualized savings accounts, which are either mandatory or subsidized through tax incentives.  As individualized savings accounts will figure increasingly in social protection systems, Governments should ensure that they provide adequate economic security for those who cannot otherwise benefit from social protection schemes.

In response to the reality of more open and flexible labour markets, one major challenge for workers is developing new forms of voice, the report says.  In this context, independent workers’ associations are essential for decent work.  These include national councils for work and negotiated social compacts between workers’ bodies, employers and Governments.

“If decent work is to become more than a slogan, it must encompass much more than the call for a greater number of jobs,” the report says.  Generating employment must be undertaken with respect for decent working conditions and for basic socio-economic security for all.

“Decent work for all,” the report concludes, “is not a policy option, but an imperative.”

The 2007 Report on the World Social Situation is part of a series of reports on the subject dating from 1952.  The main purpose of the biennial series is to provide a foundation for intergovernmental discussion and policy analysis.

For further information, please visit http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/social/rwss/index.html.

The Report of the World Social Situation 2007: The Employment Imperative (179 pages, printed version: Sales No. E.07.IV.9, ISBN 9789211302622, Price: $20.00; PDF version: Sales No. E.07.IV.9 P, Price: $16.00) may be obtained from United Nations Publications, Two UN Plaza, Room DC2-853, New York, NY 10017, USA; tel.:  +1 800 253 9646 or +1 212 963 8302, fax:  +1 212 963 3489, e-mail:  publications@un.org; or Section des Ventes et Commercialisation, Bureau E-4, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland; tel.:  +41 22 917 4872, fax:  +41 22 917 0610, e-mail:  unogbookshop@unog.ch; Internet: http://unp.un.org.

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