Decent Work Regulation: A Global Dialogue on Effective Labour Rights
Description
The Decent Work Regulation project supports SDG 8 by generating new ideas on making labour rights effective. <br />
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Labour laws are essential to decent work. Yet the strategies that can eliminate unacceptable work – particularly in the Global South – are underdeveloped.<br />
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Since 2015, Decent Work Regulation has brought together stakeholders from across the world to identify global challenges to effective labour regulation and share ideas and experience. Involving more than 90 institutions in 25 countries, and with a global reach of 1.5 million, the project has reframed global, regional, and national policy debates on the role of labour regulation in decent work.
The goal of the Decent Work Regulation Project is to integrate effective labour regulation into efforts to achieve SDG8. Labour regulation is a vital component of development policies, capable of supporting inclusive growth, sustainable prosperity, and the wellbeing of workers and their families. <br />
The project has a particular focus on those left behind in the global economy. Its focus is unacceptable forms of work (UFW), defined by the UN International Labour Organization as jobs that “deny fundamental principles and rights at work, put at risk the lives, health, freedom, human dignity and security of workers or keep households in conditions of extreme poverty.” <br />
The project also emphasises that decent work cross-cuts the SDGs. Low wages, poor health and safety, deficient work-family balance and other poor working conditions are interrelated. Yet they are often addressed separately in labour and development policy. Instead, the SDGs must be thought of holistically. Achieving decent work is fundamental, for example, to ending poverty (SDG 1), reducing inequality within and among countries (SDG 10), creating sustainable cities (SDG 11), and ensuring gender equality (SDG 5) (see further https://bit.ly/2TTR3cw).<br />
Global dialogue and sharing of best practice are key features of Decent Work Regulation. Our conviction is that collaboration between stakeholders from countries at all levels of development is essential to solving the world’s most intractable development challenges. In particular, this dialogue must involve learning lessons from innovations in the Global South (see further https://bit.ly/2XuqjRR). To this end, the project has convened a global Network of stakeholders including the UN International Labour Organization (ILO), Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), national partners from countries at a range of income-levels including government Ministries, NGOs, trade unions and employers’ associations and researchers from multiple disciplines (e.g. law, economics, development studies, geography) and from Universities across the world (e.g. Ambedkar University Delhi, Fundação Getulio Vargas Sao Paulo, the National University of Lesotho, the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs, Hanoi, the University of Cape Town, Durham, Cambridge, Harvard). <br />
This dialogue has produced research/policy agendas on innovative regulation and Recommendations on regulatory strategies that are agreed by our partners. In Africa, for example, effective implementation of labour rights in the garment sector was identified as a priority. A Regional Meeting in Cape Town (June 2017) generated a set of Recommendations on the effective enforcement of labour rights that was agreed by our regional stakeholders, which included recommendations on the role of labour inspectorates, the need for improved co-ordination of legal and corporate standards, and the urgency of responding to neglected issues, in particular the treatment of female workers, work-family, and informality. <br />
On challenges and difficulties, see ‘Enabling Factors and Constraints.’
Impact testimonies include from the ILO, Lesotho Labour Commissioner, Apparel Manufacturers of South Africa, IndustriALL Global Union, and Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute.
Funders are the UK Global Challenges Research Fund, Economic and Social Research Council, and Higher Education Funding Council for England/Durham University.
A period of Network-building (2016-17) was funded by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) through the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which established an extensive network of stakeholders. Network Teams were then formed, each composed of researchers and policy-actors from different regions. The Teams met at Global Dialogues held in Bangkok (August 2017) and Durham (September 2017).
The inter-regional dialogue within the Network Teams identified a set of Global Challenges to effective labour rights: (1) extending forced labour initiatives; (2) recruitment in global value chains; (3) violence and harassment in the care economy; (4) innovative collective representation; (5) enforcing labour laws; (6) labour rights in the ‘precarious economy’; (7) law’s dynamic effects; (8) casual work; and (9) informal work and labour regulation. The Teams designed Research/impact Agendas that outlined strategies to respond to these Challenges. Summaries of the Agendas were made available on the project website and in a report: Unacceptable Forms of Work: Global Dialogue/Local Innovation (2018) (https://bit.ly/2ux4qoi).
The Agenda on Enforcing Labour Laws was selected as urgent for follow-up, with a particular focus on the garment sector in southern Africa. Funding was secured from the GCRF through the Higher Education Funding Council for England/Durham University to assemble a Regional Network and conduct research on enforcement in South Africa and Lesotho. The project convened a Regional Meeting on Decent Work Regulation in Africa in Cape Town (June 2018). Stakeholders shared experience/ideas on regulatory strategies and a set of Findings and Recommendations were agreed by the participants and widely distributed. These included recommendations on the need to strengthen labour inspectorates, improve co-ordination of legal and corporate standards, and respond to neglected issues including the treatment of female workers, work-family, and informality.
The project has since intensified its work in Lesotho, with a particular focus on work/family conflict and the interface of formal and informal work. The University of Lesotho joined as a project partner in September 2018 and workshops have been held with trade unions and NGOs (September, December 2018). These have highlighted a need for capacity-building in asserting legislated rights and the partners have agreed on a Framework for Decent Work Training.
Activities at the international level include continuing dialogue with the lead international partner, the ILO, including advising the Conditions of Work and Equality Department and a briefing to the ILO Director-General on Network activities and international labour law policy (July 2017).
A core objective of the project has been to convey its discussions and findings to as wide an audience as possible. The project Communication Strategy supports this objective through sharing project findings in accessible formats e.g. website, animation, blog posts, video diaries, documentaries, and an active Twitter account (@UnacceptableFoW). Most recently, the project has produced a video series - Voices from Africa - and a documentary on the Lesotho garment factories through the eyes of a factory worker - Rethabile’s Story.
The Network operates through a principle of equitable global partnership in which LMIC partners are fully integrated into leadership, development, and knowledge production.
The Project generated a Multidimensional Model of UFW for use by stakeholders to identify and address UFW. The Model supports stakeholders in identifying (1) the substantive features of UFW (e.g. low wages, long hours, underemployment); (2) the magnitude of these risks and any significant patterns e.g. concentration among certain groups of workers/sectors; and (3) effective regulatory interventions.
At the international level, the Multidimensional Model has been drawn on by the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) to shape the Organization’s platform for the UN 2030 Agenda. The Model has supported the ILO in (1) clarifying the concept of UFW and (2) stressing the need to take action specifically to target unacceptable work. The project has had a particular influence on ILO interventions in Benin, Plurinational State of Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Malawi, Morocco, Pakistan, Pacific Island countries, southern African countries, Thailand and Uzbekistan. These include initiatives to improve labour inspection and promote social dialogue and access to justice in Costa Rica; to combat child labour and forced labour in Uzbekistan; to improve social dialogue and decent work in the construction sector in Brazil, including in relation to the 2016 Olympic Games; and to identify and address the most damaging UFW in Morocco (domestic work) and Benin (mining, quarrying and manual scavenging).
In southern Africa, the project has elevated the policy dialogue on effective regulation to the regional level. At our Regional Meeting in Cape Town in June 2018, our Network in Africa agreed a set of Findings and Recommendations on Decent Work Regulation in Africa (available at https://bit.ly/2p966kF). The Meeting included participants from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Swaziland who had previously had few opportunities for regional dialogue.
At the national level, the Labour Commissioner of Lesotho has drawn on project findings to advise her government on labour inspection reform and new compliance methods; the Apparel Manufacturers of South Africa for ideas on the role of employers; ILO Pretoria in providing technical assistance to the Southern African Development Community; and trade unions across Africa in training, bargaining, and law reform. The IndustriALL global union uses our findings in capacity-building in Swaziland, Ethiopia and Madagascar; collective bargaining on remuneration and safety in Lesotho, Ethiopia, Uganda and Zimbabwe; and in Ethiopia to study women workers’ conditions, develop an Action Plan for unions as compliance-gatekeepers, and press for a minimum wage law and freedom of association in Export Processing Zones. In Lesotho, the project has emphasised gender discrimination/harassment and work-family; influenced Labour Code reform; and been used by trade unions to design a Framework for a Decent Work Training Programme.
Finally, our project has amplified the voices of African stakeholders in the international debates. The Lesotho Labour Commissioner, for example, has shared her experience with global policy-makers and ILO Programme Directors use our findings to shape ILO advice on effective regulation in lower-income countries.
ESRC Impact Acceleration Account funds were also awarded to expand upon the impact activities and opportunities associated with the Strategic Network grant, in 2015 and 2018.
A global project of this scale and complexity presents considerable challenges linked to geographical, cultural and socio-economic diversity. Resilience and tenacity are needed. We reflect continuously on our work-practices, engage in extensive consultation, and course-correct as needed to respond to obstacles and opportunities.
A central objective was to scale-up policy dialogue on the African garment sector to the regional level. For countries in which workers’ protections lag rapid growth in the sector, shared experience is crucial. Reaching policy-makers took some ingenuity. We built on relationships - and trust - from the Strategic Network to forge new partnerships in Ethiopia, Swaziland, and Kenya. Convincing buyers to participate was also tricky, given their sensitivity to criticism of labour practices in their value chains. We persevered and Mr Price Group - a major South African retailer - became an enthusiastic participant.
The geographical reach of our project involves disparate time zones, conflicting schedules, and colleagues with limited access to equipment or administrative support. International travel can be particularly complex: a Kenyan colleague, for example, left his country for the first time to attend our Cape Town meeting. Extensive support is needed in arranging flights, applying for passports/visas etc.
Our work in Lesotho has posed particular challenges. Our focus on gender discrimination, harassment, and work-family, for example, has attracted stakeholder resistance. Our film-maker was prevented from filming in the factories and forced rapidly to change his plans. Yet we have also benefitted from unanticipated opportunities: to collaborate with the University of Lesotho, for example, and to respond to a need identified by unions for training on effective labour rights
Funding is also currently being sought to extend the work of the project into other countries. The plan is to adopt the project’s methodology of extensive stakeholder engagement to investigate and propose reforms on unacceptable work in cross-regional comparisons between the global North and South (tentatively on zero hours contracts in the UK, domestic work in Mexico, and the garment sector in South Africa/Lesotho).
Decent Work Regulation has substantially influenced labour policy and practice internationally, in southern Africa, and at the interface of these policy realms (see further ‘Results/Outputs/Impacts’ above). <br />
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Key conclusions and lessons learned include:<br />
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- The project has spurred global policy makers to be alert to the role of robust labour rights – and effective regulatory frameworks – in developing policies towards the Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular SDG 8. <br />
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- Global dialogue that includes stakeholders from all regions is effective in identifying shared challenges that confront policy-makers in countries at all levels of development. These challenges may take different forms, e.g. ‘zero hours contracts’ in higher-income countries and day labour in LMICs. Yet the effective policy responses may be based on similar principles and strategies. Lessons can be learned, for example, from the regulation of day labour in India for developing new approaches to the ‘gig economy’ in the global North. A key finding is that collaboration between stakeholders from countries at all levels of development is essential to solving the world’s most intractable development challenges.<br />
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- Policy dialogue on regulation in Africa needs to be more frequently elevated to the regional level. Our Regional Meeting on Decent Work Regulation in Africa - which agreed a set of Findings and Recommendations for national-level policy - included participants from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Swaziland with few prior opportunities for regional dialogue. The Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland, for example, welcomed the ‘rare opportunity’ to meet buyers who source garments from Swaziland and was able to forge effective relationships towards improving quality of work in his home country. Regional dialogue is particularly crucial as the garment sector shifts to countries such as Ethiopia in which labour market institutions are under-developed and legislative frameworks do not contain key protections (e.g. minimum-wage setting mechanisms).<br />
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- The Decent Work Regulation project has had as a key objective the need to integrate the needs and priorities of LMICs in the global debates on the future of work. If these policy discussions are not broadly inclusive they risk focusing on matters that are of most concern to higher-income countries and neglecting fundamental needs associated with sustainable development in lower-income settings e.g. extending social protection, protective formalisation of the informal economy, work/family-in-sustainability etc.<br />
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- For the most robust and useful guidance on strategies for effective labour regulation, it is essential that local and international stakeholders be fully and continuously integrated into the research and guidance-formation processes, as full co-producers of knowledge.
Website: https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/
Publications: https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/publications/
News and Events: https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/news/
Media: https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/news/
We also have an active Twitter account – @UnacceptableFoW.
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Deliverables & Timeline
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Partnership Progress
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- Africa
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Contact Information
Deirdre McCann, Professor