WDDW2008: Decent Work and Core Labour Standards - Speech by Brendan Barber

World Day for Decent Work

Tuesday 7 October 2008

Speech by TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber

Colleagues, today marks an experiment both for the TUC and for the International Trade Union Confederation - the first ever World Day for Decent Work.

Around the world, there are over 200 events going on today, in over a hundred countries. There are demonstrations, concerts, and events like this one.

Many of the ITUC's 168 million members are involved.

But this is only the start.

This is the beginning of a campaign for the world trade union movement, to ensure that decent work is incorporated in the fight against poverty, the spread of global trade, human rights initiatives and so on.

Because only decent work can tackle the problems the world faces - inequality in countries and between countries; insecurity; and the failure to build on democratic progress to build a world free of dictatorship and oppression.

Because unless governments, NGOs and unions place a strong focus on work, all we are doing is providing endless charity. What people in the developing world really want is good jobs at good wages. This is the only long-term solution to global poverty.

You will hear a lot today about all aspects of the Decent Work agenda. I wish to talk briefly about the vital significance of core labour standards, one of the four pillars of Decent Work, and in particular, workers' rights to organise and bargain collectively.

Core labour standards

Earlier this year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference approved a 'Declaration on social justice for a fair globalisation'.

For the first time the definition of Decent Work was set out not just in a document written by the ILO secretariat or the workers group of the ILO, but approved by workers, employers and governments.

The text recognised that all aspects of the Decent Work agenda are essential, but it noted that the core labour standards and in particular the right to join a union and bargain collectively are the key enabling rights that allowed all the rest to be secured.

The Core Labour Standards are the 8 ILO conventions which can be grouped under four headings (and apologies to everyone who already knows all this):

Freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively: As trade unionists we have always known that rights are won, not granted, and that without the right to organise and then to use the strength gained by organising to bargain as a collective we will never been able to improve and defend our working conditions.

Freedom from discrimination: The right to work and be treated equally regardless of gender, ethnic origin, age, disability or sexuality is again at the very root of our principles as trade unionists.

Freedom from forced labour: An issue which is tragically still very much with us, from bonded debt labourers in West Africa or China to the victims of trafficking here in London.

Freedom from child labour: Without education children are condemned to a life of poverty - whilst millions of children around the world are forced to work to support themselves and their families they cannot receive the education that will enable them to improve their conditions.

These core standards are universal. The extent of implementation will rightly vary according to a country's state of development or the priorities agreed at a national level but the standards are supported and campaigned for by all trade unionists, north and south.

Regulating employer behaviour

Labour standards and corporate behaviour in global markets is one of the defining issues of our time.

One that cuts right across so many of our contemporary debates and is thrown into sharp focus during the current economic crisis a time when the arguments we have been making for sometime about the need for global regulations for a global market are now looking more mainstream than ever.

At a time when the power, wealth and global reach of business is arguably greater than ever before - with a number of multinationals now worth more than the economies of many developing nations - our argument has to be that only universal, international standards can effectively regulate the behaviour of today's corporate behemoths.

Clear standards, easily understandable by governments and companies alike, that leave no room for any ambiguity about 'local contexts', and that create the space to establish Decent Work.

The trade union movement is willing to work alongside all those who support this agenda - including progressive companies who understand that Decent Work is good for them too, and who wish to make CSR more than just a glossy corporate brochure.

But for us, the best and most important way of ensuring that core ILO standards are adhered to is through worker organisation, collective bargaining and strong, effective trade unions.

We know from bitter experience that companies and indeed governments sometimes fail to comply with the ILO norms. That's why we need an independent trade union presence in workplaces.

Across the world, the trade union movement has a long and distinguished history of fighting for workers' rights, for decent work, and freedom from exploitation.

Indeed many of the issues now confronting unions in developing nations are the same as the ones we encountered here after the industrial revolution.

Trade unions are also uniquely placed to ensure that basic rights and standards are actually enforced.

With enforcement regimes weak or non-existent in the developing world, we are often working people's first, last and only line of defence against unscrupulous practice.

CSR has its place and we need to get the balance right between voluntarism and hard law, recognising that there are occasions when companies need to go beyond local law - for example in India, where child labour remains commonplace, and in China, where freedom of association remains a distant aspiration.

However, voluntary codes of practice - even with credible implementation and verification mechanisms - can never substitute for collective bargaining and union organisation.

In a sense, our job is to provide pressure for change from the bottom up, whereas for governments and companies the task is to impose it from the top down.

Hopefully, we can meet somewhere in the middle.

None of us must lose sight of just what is at stake.

Not just the chance to improve the lives of millions of people in the developing world.

But ultimately the opportunity to make globalisation deliver for the many not the few.

And that's got to be a prize worth fighting for.