Labour Rigths

8/8/2019 Labour Rigths

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Contents

1.Foreword............................................................................2

2.Introduction........................................................................3

3.The right to unionize..........................................................4

4.Labour law..........................................................................7

Employment standards........................................7

Child labour.......................................................12

Collective labour law.........................................15

5.International labour organization.....................................17

6.Labour law across the world.............................................18Labour law in Europe.................................................18

National labour laws...................................................21

Labour law in Romania..............................................22

Labour law in America...............................................24

7.Unfair labour practices.......................................................27

8.Conclusions........................................................................29

9.Bibliography...30

Foreword

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The idea of human rights has its basis in the ancient greek philosophy and religion:all human

beings are equal in front of God.The evolution of rights through history is indisputably related to this

statement ,although they are now presented in millions of ways and domains.Human rights are ,for

these reasons ,basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.Despite this principle, there

are fundamental differences between human rights today and natural rights of the past.

The next fundamental philosophy of human rights arose from the idea of positive law. Thomas

Hobbes, (1588-1679) saw natural law as being very vague and hollow and too open to vast differences

of interpretation . Therefore under positive law, instead of human rights being absolute, they can be

given, taken away, and modified by a society to suit its needs.

Right is a child of law; from real laws come real rights, but from imaginary law, from "laws of

nature," come imaginary rights.Natural rights is simple nonsense.

J.Bentham.

As a conclusion,centuries later ,in order to be sure of the fact that we act on the principle ofequality and obey these rights,people invented strictly organized laws regarding them.At a universal

level ,on the 10th of December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris,the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights was formed.After being translated in 375 languages and dialects , the most widely

translated document in the world became the first global expression of rights to which all human

beings are entitled.The document is very well structured .After the first two foundation

blocks,regarding dignity,libery or equality and the first introductive pargraphs ,the Declaration

assesses different issues dealing with both the rights of the individual( the right to life or the

prohibition of slavery) and the rights of the individual in civil and political society ,in religious

,economic or cultural aspects.

Why talk about them?

Everyone everywhere has human rights,everyone everywhere speaks about human rights,although

not everyone everywhere obey human rights.What are they anyway,what do we do with them and why

should we obey them?

In order to prevent a situation or act properly in a situation we have to learn about it.The actual

purpose of such a project is to help us understand the idea of human rights, gain a sense of ourselves as

people with dignity and hence with rights, and finally encourage us to act.If we learn why they are so

important we learn why should we obey them and even how to do it.No matter what do we choose to

speak about ,what do we want to learn about,the meaning of it is the same:we have to be concerned

about the world sarrounding us,to find out why our rights are so important and last but not least we

have to be prepared for the future.

The place where we interact the most with the others and where people have to be treated in the

same way no matter their position or other aspects is of course,work.Despite the fact that in

everything there should indeed exist a smarter boss that is the most capable to make the important

decisions ,has a little more power and could speak for the others,employees should all be working

under the same conditions,according to workers rights.

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Initial considerations

Labour or workers rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights which have the

role to deal with labour relations between workers and their employers.Being obteind under labour

and employment law these measures are generally related to the negotiation of the workerspay,to the

benefits and the safe working conditions.

To campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and

government,working people formed a collective organization ,whose progress is termed labour

movement. In Europe, it began during the industrial revolution,when employment in industrial areas

developed and agricultural jobs suffered a decline.They tried to implement specific laws governing

labour relations and through their actions ,throughout the world,the labour movement has led to

reforms and workers rights.Their activities caused a lot of changes that were revolutionary at the time

and are now regarded as basic,such two-day weekend, minimum wage, paid holidays, and theachievement of the eight-hour day.

Formed in 1919,as part of the League of Nations ,The International Labour Organization wasformed in order to protect workers rights..The ILO later became incorporated into the United

Nations,which finally backed workers rights by introducing several into two articles of the UnitedNations Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditionsof work and to protection against unemployment.2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself andhis family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means ofsocial protection.4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. [1]

Article 24

1. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and

periodic holidays with pay.

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Human rights at the workplace orlabour rights

I. The right to unionize

An organization consisting of workers and union leaders,a trade or labour union has not only the

negotiation of wages and working condition terms as principal purpose but it also tries to eve up the

relationships between workers and their employers. They negotiate labour contract with their

employers and also campaign for laws and policies which will benefit working people.A labour

contract may include assessing wages,negotiating work rules,complaint procedures,rules governing

hiring,firing and promotion of workers and even workplace safety.Trade unions exist because an

individual worker has very little power to influence decisions that are made about his or her job and

the only chance of gaining voice and influence would be the joining together with other workers.

Originating in Europe, Labour unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial

Revolution, when the expansion of industrial society drew women, children, rural workers, and

immigrants to the work force in larger numbers and in new roles.Despite the fact that for many years

creating unions was illegal and there existed severe penalties for this ,unions were formed and began to

acquire political power.Their actions even resulted in a body of labour law that not only legalizedorganizing efforts, but codified the relationship between employers and those employees organized

into unions.The right to join and form trade unions is recognized in the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights (UDHR) the prohibition of a person to be part of such an organization is considered a

human rightsabuse.

Historical views

- .A trade union is acontinuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining orimproving the conditions of their employment."(History of Trade Unionism (1894) by Sidney and

Beatrice Webb).

-"an organization consisting predominantly of employees, the principal activities of which

include the negotiation of rates of pay and conditions of employment for its members."( Australian

Bureau of Statistics).

-Two conflicting views of the trade-union movement strove for ascendancy in the nineteenth

century: one the defensive-restrictive guild-craft tradition passed down through journeymen's clubs

and friendly societies, ... the other the aggressive-expansionist drive to unite all 'laboring men andwomen' for a 'different order of things'.(United we Stand(1971)-R.A. Leeson).

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-We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combination of masters, though frequently of those of

workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the

world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform

combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate[.]

When workers combine, masters ... never cease to call aloud for the assistance of the civil

magistrate, and the rigorous execution of those laws which have been enacted with so much severity

against the combination of servants, laborers, and journeymen.( Adam Smith-In The Wealth of

Nations,Book I, chapter 8).

Structure

Tradeunions are generally classified as: a) Company union;

b) Industrial union and craft unions

c) General unions.

. a) Company union

Also called house union,the company union is the one that represents interests of only one firm andmay not have any connection with the trade union movement. The International Labor Organizationdefines a company union as "A union limited to a single company which dominates or stronglyinfluences it, thereby limiting its influence." Supporters of company unions claim they are moreefficient in responding to worker grievances than independent trade unions. Independent unions areable to propose large-scale changes to work agreements such as overtime rules and salary schedules

whereas company unions usually address concerns on a smaller scale.

b) Industrial union and craft unions

Collective bargaining association ,industrial unions are open to all workers in an industry,

regardless of their specific skills, functions and jobresponsibilities. An oil workers' industrial union,

for example, would include those involved in exploration, extraction, storage, refining, transport, and

other areas associated with oil orpetroleum industry.Other such union is for example, the Union for

Finance Staff (UNIFI) ,a white collar trade union formed from the amalgamation of various smaller

unions drawn from the banking, insurance, trustee, broking, and general finance industries.

In contrast with the industrial unionism there is the craft unionsm.Craft unions represent workers

who share the same skill-set or who perform identical tasks, although they may work in different

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industries(e.g-electricians and plumbers). The organization of each union is made according to the

craft, or specific work function, of its members. As a metter of fact, in the building trades, all

carpenters belong to the carpenters' union, theplasterers join the plasterers' union, and thepainters

belong to the painters' union. For example The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union

that , as its name suggests, represents journalists in Great Britain and Ireland.Each craft union has its

own administration, its own policies, its own collective bargaining agreements and its own union halls.

c) General union

Workers from all industries and companies are represented by a general union,whose members are

individuals , thing that differences it from union federation or trade council.A general union is

supposed to be more successful in coordinating a general strike.The term "general strike" is sometimes

also applied to large-scale strikes of all of the workers in a particular industry, such as the Textileworkers strike (1934). Those "general" strikes, however massive they might be, involve workers only

in a particular workplace. The classic general strike, by contrast, involves also workers (and members

of the working-class) who have no direct stake in the outcome of the strike. For example, in the San

Francisco General Strike of 1934, both union and non-union workers struck for four days to protest the

police and employers' tactics that had killed two picketers and in support of the longshoremen's and

seamen's demands.

Union federations

Almost each and every country in the world has at least one national trade union center or a

federation or a confederation of unions.They are organizations formed by trade unions which operate,

in most cases, at the national level.

A global union federation is an international federation of national and regional trade unions

organising in specific industry sectors oroccupational groups, previously known as international trade

secretariats.The world-wide federations or Federations of National Trade Union Centres are theInternational Trade Union Confederation and theWorld Federation of Trade Unions.

The process of collective bargaining or negotiation is the most important act of a trade union,its

purposes being to find solutions to problems such as pay, working hours, holidays and changes to

working practices .In the organizations in which this type of action is recognised for collective

bargaining purposes,there exists a formal agreement between the union and the company.

One of the main advantages that unionizing has, could be the fact that a union can also represent a

individual member when he or her has a problem at work.The actual worker of a company can ask the

union where he or she is a member to represent her in front of the manager or employer.If

unfortunately a situation cannot be solved only this way,than the case would be presented to an

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industrial tribunal,which takes care that employment laws are properly adhered to by employees and

employers.Unions may also offer information,being able to advise workers on a range of issues like

how much holiday you are entitled to each year, how much pay you will get if you go on maternity

leave, and how you can obtain training at work.

II. Labour law

The legal rights of working people and their organizations and also the restrictions

implemented on them are written in the labour law or employment law.The relationship between

employers ,employees and trade unions develops under the rules of collective labour law,while the

indivitual labour law deals with the employees' rights at work through the contract for work.

Arousing due to the demends of workers for better conditions,the labour law covers:

Industrial relations certification of unions, labour-management relations, collectivebargaining and unfair labour practices Workplace health and safety Employment standards, including general holidays, annual vacations, working hours, unjustdismissals, minimum wage, layoff procedures and severance pay.

Employment standards

Employment contract

"The relation between an employer and an isolated employee or worker is typically a relation between

a bearer of power and one who is not a bearer of power. In its inception it is an act of submission, inits operation it is a condition of subordination, however much the submission and the subordination

may be concealed by the indispensable figment of the legal mind known as the 'contract of

employment'. The main object of labour law has been, and... will always be a countervailing force tocounteract the inequality of bargaining powerwhich is inherent and must be inherent in the

employment relationship."

lawyer SirOtto Kahn-Freund

A written legal document,the employment contract ,usually defined to mean the same as a

contract of service is a category of contract used in labour law to assess the terms and conditions of

employment between an employee and an employer.Therefore it implies the dividing line between a

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person who is "employed" and someone who is "self employed, attributing rights to some kinds of

people who work for others.It usually covers issues such as:

-type of employment: Permanent/ongoing employment (full-time or part-time)

Temporary or fixed term employment (full-time or part-time) for a

specified period

Casual employment (full-time or part-time)-an overview of job responsabilities

-reporting relationships

-salary

-other benefits- holidays, paid sick leave, paid time off (PTO), sales commissions, bonus pay

potential and how bonus is determined, profit sharing and how profit sharing is determined, stock

options and stock buy-back provisions, employment contract signing bonus, phone allowance or car

and travel allowance.

Minimum wage

The lowest hourly, daily or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers

is known as minimum wage.Whether this concept is advantageous or not is a very debated issue

between its oponents and proponents.Although the goals of the minimum wage are widely accepted as

proper,some oponents,such as George Stigle have found minimum wage's shortcomings in reducing

poverty:

o Employment may fall more than in proportion to the wage increase, thereby reducing overall

earnings;o As uncovered sectors of the economy absorb workers released from the covered sectors, the

decrease in wages in the uncovered sectors may exceed the increase in wages in the covered ones;o The impact of the minimum wage on family income distribution may be negative unless the fewer

but better jobs are allocated to members of needy families rather than to, for example, teenagersfrom families not in poverty;

o The legal restriction that employers cannot pay less than a legislated wage is equivalent to the

legal restriction that workers cannot work at all in the protected sector unless they can find

employers willing to hire them at that wage.

The minimum wage aims at guaranteeing a level of income to the employees and workmen. It as

well maintains a fair competition between employees (in their participation in work) and employers

(to avoid the social dumping). It takes part in the social cohesion of a country and the redistribution

of the incomes. For the liberals, the minimum wage corresponds to a prohibition to work for the

employees whose work does not make it possible to produce this value, and is the primary source of

unemployment in the developed countries . The liberals estimate that the cost of the minimum wage

(to be differentiated from the final income) must be fixed so as to not obtain an unemployment of

transition (also called frictional unemployment). They estimate that the wages defined freely in period

of full employment correspond to the value of the work of the employees and that.. To ensure a

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socially optimal operation, the wages must be proportional to the productivity of the employees. The

minimum wage is a powerful brake at the time of recruitment according to the liberals.

The fixing of the minimal wages is a political act which can be arbitrary or fixed by rules

(automatic indexing, for example). 17 of the 25 countries which are part of the Eurpean Union have a

legal minimum wage (i.e. imposed by the law. The system could also function in the United States,

where there exists a federal minimum wage being used as level floor but where each State is free to fixa minimum wage higher than this one.

"If a higher minimum wage increases the wage rates of unskilled workers above the level that would be

established by market forces, the quantity of unskilled workers employed will fall. The minimum wage will price

the services of the least productive (and therefore lowest-wage) workers out of the market. ... The direct results

of minimum wage legislation are clearly mixed. Some workers, most likely those whose previous wages were

closest to the minimum, will enjoy higher wages. Other, particularly those with the lowest prelegislation wage

rates, will be unable to find work. They will be pushed into the ranks of the unemployed or out of the labor

force.".

Working time

The working time is the measurement of the duration a person works while being remunerated.

Often calculated in a weekly way, it reffers to the effective working time in which non-working days

or pauses for lunch are not included. For example, a person who works eight hours a day, five days a

week, has a weekly working time of 40 hours . The state can limit the effective working time legally,

by restricting the quotas of overtime that the employers are free to order, and beyond of which they

must ask authorization for the factory inspectorate.The workday varied between 11 and 14 hoursbefore the industrial revolution and increased even more after the introduction of machinery.Therefore

longer hours became far more common so a 16 hours workday was of no surprise.In 1833 in England

,the eight-hout movements struggle finally led to the firs law on the length of a working day,limiting

miners to 12 hours and children to 8 hours.The 10-hour day was established in 1848, and shorter hours

with the same pay were gradually accepted thereafter

The structure of the work week varies considerably for different professions and cultures. Among

salaried workers in the western world, the work week often consists of Monday through Friday or

Saturday with the weekend set aside as a time of personal work and leisure. Sunday is set aside in the

western world because it is the Christian sabbath.Several countries have adopted a workweek from Monday morning until Friday noon, either due to

religious rules (observation of shabbat in Israel) or the growing predominance of a 35-37.5 hour

workweek in continental Europe. Several of the Muslim countries have a standard Sunday through

Thursday or Saturday through Wednesday workweek leaving Friday for religious observance, and

providing breaks for the daily prayer times.

Holidays law

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Through law,each and every employee is allowed to have vacation pay,days off,maternity or sick

leave and has the right to unpaid legal holidays .According to the way in which labour law is applied in

a country ,its workers have the right to a number of paid days,a vacation pay,which must be demanded

and offered during the working year.They also have the right to paid days off for special family events

such as marriage ,birth or death . A number of unpaid vacation days are also part of the working

contracts,so,for taking care of personal situations the employee has the right to unpaid vacation.As far as parental leave is concerned ,the benefit provides paid or unpaid time off work to care for

a child or make arrangements for the child's welfare. In most western countries parental leave is

available for those who have worked for their current employer for a certain period of time.There are

many cases in which companies voluntrailyprovide parental leave benefits that go beyond those

required by law, presumably as a way of bolstering their attractiveness to potential recruits.

During periods of temporary sickness ,employees can use the paid days off ,the sick leave, in order

to take care of their problems. Some paid sick days policies also allow paid sick time to be used to care

for sick family members, to attend doctor or medical appointments or to address health and safety

needs related to domestic violence or sexual assault.The benefits of these days off ar very effectiv for

both the employer and employee and the society

A Public Holiday, National holiday or Legal Holidays is a holiday generally established by law

and it designates a non-working day during the year. They vary by country and every year can be

different. The Public holidays are generally days of celebration, like the anniversary of something

happened in the past and that had a particular relevance for the country of region in which the public

holiday has been established or can be a religious celebration.

Occupational safety and health

A cross-disciplinary area,Occupational safety and health deals with the protection of the safety

,health and welfare of the workers.In order to have a safer work environemnt and also protect co-

workers,family mambers,employers or customers who are impacted by the workplace . The

International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) joined together

and formed the Occupational safety in 1950.

According to the Joint ILO/WHO Committee the organizations should aim at: the promotion and

maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all

occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their workingconditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to

health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his

physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of work to man and of

each man to his job."

In 1981 the Occupational Safety and Health organization formed a convention which later took the

form of an international Convention.Its main articles deal with:

Article 4

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1. Each Member shall, in the light of national conditions and practice, and in consultation with the

most representative organisations of employers and workers, formulate, implement and periodically

review a coherent national policy on occupational safety, occupational health and the working

environment.

2. The aim of the policy shall be to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with or

occurring in the course of work, by minimising, so far as is reasonably practicable, the causes ofhazards inherent in the working environment.

Article 5

The policy referred to in Article 4 of this Convention shall take account of the following main spheres

of action in so far as they affect occupational safety and health and the working environment:

(a) design, testing, choice, substitution, installation, arrangement, use and maintenance of the material

elements of work (workplaces, working environment, tools, machinery and equipment, chemical,

physical and biological substances and agents, work processes);

(b) relationships between the material elements of work and the persons who carry out or supervise the

work, and adaptation of machinery, equipment, working time, organisation of work and work

processes to the physical and mental capacities of the workers;

(c) training, including necessary further training, qualifications and motivations of persons involved, in

one capacity or another, in the achievement of adequate levels of safety and health;

(d) communication and co-operation at the levels of the working group and the undertaking and at all

other appropriate levels up to and including the national level;

(e) the protection of workers and their representatives from disciplinary measures as a result of actions

properly taken by them in conformity with the policy referred to in Article 4 of this Convention.

Article 9

1. The enforcement of laws and regulations concerning occupational safety and health and the working

environment shall be secured by an adequate and appropriate system of inspection.

2. The enforcement system shall provide for adequate penalties for violations of the laws and

regulations.

Article 16

1. Employers shall be required to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the workplaces,

machinery, equipment and processes under their control are safe and without risk to health.

2. Employers shall be required to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the chemical, physical

and biological substances and agents under their control are without risk to health when the

appropriate measures of protection are taken.

3. Employers shall be required to provide, where necessary, adequate protective clothing and

protective equipment to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, risk of accidents or of adverse

effects on health.

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Article 2 5

1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the International LabourOrganisation whose ratifications have been registered with the Director-General.

2. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years fromthe date on which the Convention first comes into force, by an act communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effectuntil one year after the date on which it is registered.

Child labour

Referring to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour,child labour is thought

to be exploitative by many international organizations ,being illegal in many countries.If an employer

hires a child below a certain age he may be accused of commiting an inappropriate or even

exploitative act in many developing country.The minimum age depends on the country and also on thetype of work involved.

The International Organization of Work retains the following definitions in its publications and

they are often used as reference during the analysis of work of children.

- A child is a person of less than 18 years; since it is often considered that a

children of less than 5 years is too young to work (even if there exist cases of abuse), the statistics

often take into account only the children between 5 and 17 years.

- Work is defined as an economic activity, that it is paid or not. This last case makes it possible

to include the informal economy or the house work in another hearth than his. The children aredivided in five categories: working, working and going to school, going to the school and working,

house work, and no activity (sick, abstract education, etc). These definitions are primarily statistical

and are not used to establish the limit between an acceptable work or not (within sight of

international conventions).

Convention No 138 of ILO (1973) on the minimum age of employment is currently the reference

document on this subject . It distinguishes a general minimum age, a minimum age for light work and

another for dangerous work. It distinguishes also the countries where the economic services and of

education are insufficiently developed and others; for the other countries, the general minimum age is

15 years and the age of obligatory end of schooling is 14 years in these developing countries; for light

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work- 13 years (resp. 12 years); for dangerous work-18 years, even 16 years according to certain

conditions .

Convention No 138 of ILO forces to also define light and dangerous work . According to this

same convention, a light work must be without danger to health and the development of the child

and should not prevent it from going to school or to profit from its formation.In the statistics, that is

often simplified to become a nondangerous work taking less than 14 hours per week. The two other

classes jobs are work known as dangerous .A dangerous work is in a general way what can

compromise the health or the physical or moral safety of a child; more precisely, that includes the

building trades, in the mines, with certain machines, in contact with pesticides, of more than 43 hours

per week.The worse shapes of child labour are defined by convention ILO No 182, article 2, and

include the traffic with children, forced labor or in refunding of a debt, the participation of the children

in armed conflicts (as children soldiers but also as messengers, carriers, etc), sexual exploitation by the

prostitution and pornography as well as the illicit activities like drug trafficking.

In the developing countries, the incidence of the child labour remains high, for lack of aneconomic development or social comparable with that of Europe or the United States. Universalization

changed this state and, the image of the industrial revolution made more visible this work and the

sordid conditions which surround it sometimes. In the years 1980, certain scandals thus drew the

attention of the Western public to the children working in the Asian workshops of clothes industry

(famous workshops of misery or sweatshops) or to the children of the streets surviving of small

work. Certaines ONG, as well local as international, were created with an aim of eliminating work

from the children. ILO launched the focal Program on the child work in 1992 and of the campaigns

were carried out in order to push the european companies and North-American as well as the

multinationals not to use the child work. The first overall estimate of the number of children to work

appears in 1996 then is revised in 2002. This estimate made it possible to better seize the extent of the

phenomenon like its characteristics. Always in 2002, on June 12 was declared day world against the

child work.

Working conditions for children

The ILO reports that the working conditions of the children are generally testing. They do not

have vacation or spare time, the buildings are often unhealthy, the children are subjected to ill

treatments, with punishments and the required output is often excessive. Certain physiological effects

are common for most of the hard-working children: the malnutrition involving of the deficiencies and

a delay of growthexposure to the risks and the painfulness of work. 70% of the diseases and the

accidents undergone by the children at work are found in agriculture where, children like adults are

exposed to sharp chemicals, objects, heavy loads and to the dangers of the environment (bites of

animals, heat, diseases, etc). The industry also exposes them to toxic products and dangerous

machines. The building sites expose them to falls and the careers with dust and the squatted position

(frequent in Asia) causes articular problems . In the informal sector, work in the streets exposes them

to violences of the gangs and the police force.In the mines still concentrate the majority of the

accidents fatal (32 accidents fatal for 100.000 hard-working children in 1994 [28]) due to the

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explosions, with gases and dust and diseases such as tuberculosis, silicosis. Lastly, the sexually

exploited child-soldiers and children are subjected to a degree of violence still quite higher.

Around the world

Asia America

Europe Africa

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Fight against child labour

In 1992 The ILO formed the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour(IPEC) with the overall goal of the progressive elimination of child labour, which was to be achievedthrough strengthening the capacity of countries to deal with the problem and promoting a worldwidemovement to combat child labour.Being the largest programme of this kind it currently has operationsin 88 countries with an annual expenditure on technical cooperation projects that reached over US$74million in 2006

Collective labour law

The relationship between employer,employee and trade unions are concerned in the collective

labour law, which develops the right to unionze ,presenting both the benefits and responsabilities of

being part of a union. The law of some countries place requirements on unions to follow particular

procedures before certain courses of action are adopted. For example, the requirement to ballot the

membership before a strike, or in order to take a portion of members' dues for political projects.On the

other hand laws may guarantee the right to be part of a union or may remain silent.

Strike actions or picketing protests are unions or workers most powerful voices in front of their

employers. Most strikes are undertaken by labor unions during collective bargaining A strike may

consist of workers refusing to attend work orpicketing outside the workplace to prevent or dissuadepeople from working in their place or conducting business with their employer. Less frequently

workers may occupy the workplace, but refuse either to do their jobs or to leave. This is known as a

sit-down strike.On the other hand picket is a form ofprotest in which people congregate outside a

place of workor location where an event is taking place.A common tactic used by trade unions during

strikes, pickets wwill try to prevent dissident members of the union, members of other unions and

ununionised workers from working.Whichever is found crossing the picket line and strating woking is

seen as a scab. Although Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on governments to change policies

and it was illegal at the beginning both them and pickets became legal in the 19th and 20th century.

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III. International Labour

Organization(ILO)

As part of the Treaty of Versailles ,that ended World War I,the ILO was created in 1919,in order

to reflect the belief that universal lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social

justice.ILO is a specialized tripartite institution of ONU which gathers governments, employers and

workers of its Member States in an united action to promote decent work throughout the world .In

January and April 1919,firstly in Paris and then in Versailles,the Labour Commission set up by the

Peace Conference drafted the Constitution.

The aknowledged necessity of social justice in securing peace against the background of

exploitations of workers in the industrializing nations and the need for cooperation to obtain similarity

of working conditions in countriesc competing for markets were the bases of the formation ofILO.Therefore ,the Preamble states:

-Whereas universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice;

-And whereas conditions of labour exist involving such injustice hardship and privation to large

numbers of people as to produce unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are

imperilled; and an improvement of those conditions is urgently required;

-Whereas also the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in theway of other nations which desire to improve the conditions in their own countries;

Just like in our days the main issues covered by the Preamble are:

-Regulation of the hours of work including the establishment of a maximum working day and week;-Regulation of labour supply, prevention of unemployment and provision of an adequate livingwage;-Protection of the worker against sickness, disease and injury arising out of his employment;-Protection of children, young persons and women;

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-Provision for old age and injury, protection of the interests of workers when employed in countries-other than their own;-Recognition of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value;-Recognition of the principle of freedom of association;-Organization of vocational and technical education, and other measures.-The ILO has always considered the fight against forced labor to be one of its main priorities

Social justice is the best way to ensure sustainable peace and eradicate poverty. And I believe in people

coming together organizing, joining forces, making their voices heard.

Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General

Structure and organization

Comprising of government, employers and worker representatives,the main bodies through

which the ILO accomplishes its work are : International Labour Conference,The Governing Body,The

International Labour Office.

A) International Labour Conference

Hosted by the ILO ,the event is held each June in Geneva,whose aims are to discuss and

make decisions on the organizations general policy ,work programme,and budget,creating also

conventions and recommendations.Each and every state which is member of the organization isrepresented during the conference by two government delegates,an employer delegate and a worker

delegate.They all have individual voting rights.Regardless of the population of the delegates member

state,all votes are equal.Usually the most representative national organizations of employers and

workers send the employer and worker delegate,which very often coordinate their voting.Establishing

international labour standards the Conference is a forum for discussion of key social and labour

questions. It also adopts the Organization's budget and elects the Governing Body.

B) The Governing Body

Meeting three times a year in Geneva,The Governing Body is the executive council of theILO,which takes decisions on ILO policy and establishes the programme and the budget and which

also elects the Director-General.It is composed of 28 government members,14 employer members and

14 worker members,ten of the government seats being permanently hold for states of chief industrial

importance.

C) The International Labour Office

Being the permanent secretariat of the International Labour Organizations,the International Labour

Office emplys some 1,900 oficials of over 110 nationalities at the Geneva headquarters .As far as the

rest of the world is concerned there exist 40 filed offices around the world and in addition ,som 600experts undertake missions in all regios of the world under the programme of tehnical cooperation.It is

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the focal point for ILOs activities and prepares under the leadership of a Director-General,elected for

a five-year renewable term.

Membership

Being limitated to nation-states the membership includes all who were members on 1 November1945, when the organisation's new constitution came into effect. In addition, any original member ofthe United Nations and any state admitted thereafter may also join. Other states can be admitted by asuper-majority vote of any ILO General Conference.There are 182 members of the ILO.

IV. Labour law across the world

1. LABOUR LAW IN EUROPE

At Community level, labour law covers two main areas:

Working conditions, including working time, part-time and fixed-term work, and posting ofworkers

Information and consultation of workers, including in the event of collective redundancies andtransfers of undertakings.

The role of the European Community (EC) is to support and complement the activities of theMember States in the area of social policy,achieving a high level of employment and social

protection ,imporving living conditions and working conditions and economic and social cohesion.TheMamber States then transpose the Community law into their national law and implement it.guaranteeing a similar level of rights and obligations throughout the EU.

Initially, EC labour law was designed with the aim of ensuring that the creation of the SingleMarket did not lead to a lowering of labour standards or distortions in competition.Today, labour lawalso has a key role in ensuring that a high level of employment and sustained economic growth isaccompanied by continuous improvement of the living and working conditions throughout theEuropean Union.

Working conditions

Working conditions is one of the main areas covered by EU labour law.Including provisions ofworking time,part-time,and fixed-term work,temporary workers and the posting of workers it has therole to ensure high levels of employment and social protection throughout EU.

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Individual Employment Conditions

-an employer has the obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract oremployment relationship.Therefore every employee must be provided with a document containing

information on the essential elements of his contract of employment.

-in the written infromation the place of work must be specified as must the initial basic pay and otherrenumeration.It should also include a descripiton of the work and working conditions.

-Employees required to work in other countries must be given the document before their departure sothey could have the duration of employment abroad ,the currency of payment or other useful detailsspecified.

-this Directive does not apply to employees hired for one month or less, or those on a working week ofeight hours maximum.

2.Fixed-term work,part-time work and temporary agency workers.

A) -fixed- term worker can be applied under 3 main criteria:

the objective reasons that would justify the renewal of fixed-term contracts or relationships

the maximum total duration of successive fixed-term employment contracts and relationships

the permitted number of renewals.

-Unless these criteria arent fallowed ,the problems of excessive employment between the sameemployer and employee is faced.B) Part-time workers employment conditions may not be less favourable than those of comparablefull-time workers, unless there are objective reasons for different treatment. In addition, it exhortsemployers, as far as possible, to take account of employees preferences and their requests to transferfrom full-time to part-time employment or vice versa. Employers should also facilitate access to therelevant jobs.

C) - temporary workers should be permanently informed of any permanent vacancies. Member States

must ensure that any clauses preventing the conclusion of a contract of employment or an employmentrelationship between the user undertaking and the temporary worker are null and void or may bedeclared null and void.

- temporary workers should not be charged any recruitment fees. They should have equal access toamenities and collective services at work. Member States should facilitate training access fortemporary workers.

3 . Young people at work.

The EU has adopted minimum requirements for the protection of young workers (under 18 years

of age) and their health and safety at work. It also outlaws child labour.The Directive sets out the

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employers general obligations to protect and monitor young workers health and safety. It alsospecifies types of employment which must not be carried out by young people. This includes workwhich exceeds their mental or physical capacities and work involving harmful exposure to dangeroussubstances. There are also provisions on working hours, night work, rest periods, annual leave and rest

breaks.

4. Working Time Directive

Every worker is entitled to:

- a limit to weekly working time, which must not exceed 48 hours on average, including any

overtime

-a minimum daily rest period, of 11 consecutive hours in every 24

- a rest break during working time, if the worker is on duty for longer than six hours

- a minimum weekly rest period of 24 uninterrupted hours for each seven-day period, which isadded to the 11 hours' daily rest

- paid annual leave, of at least four weeks per year

- extra protection in the case of night work (for example, average working hours must not exceed 8

hours per 24-hour period; night workers must not perform heavy or dangerous work for longer than 8

hours in any 24-hour period; there should be a right to free health assessments and in certain situations,

to transfer to day work.

5.Health and safety at work

Health and Safety at work represents today one of the most important advanced fields of the socialpolicy of the European Union. The EU action in health and safety at work has its legal basis in Article137 of the EU Treaty. The improvement of health and safety of the workers already started from 1952under the European Coal and Steel Community. Since then a solid corpus of legislation has beenadopted covering the maximum number of risks with the minimum number of regulations.

But Community action is not limited to legislation. The Commission has widened the scope of its

activities, in cooperation with the European Agency for health and safety at work and the EuropeanFoundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, in favour of information,guidance and promotion of a healthy working environment by paying particular attention to small andmedium-size enterprises.

The Commission communication "Improving quality and productivity at work: Community strategy2007-2012 on health and safety at work" outlines the options for further action to make workplacesacross Europe safer and healthier.

6.Tackling discrimination at work

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Laws for equal rights between women and men have existed since the very early days of the EuropeanCommunity. Since the 1970s a total of 13 pieces of legislation have been adopted with the aim ofensuring that women and men get fair and equal treatment at work. These laws cover a range of areasincluding equal treatment when apply for a job, equal treatment at work, protection of pregnantworkers and breastfeeding mothers, and rights to maternity leave and parental leave. Millions ofwomen and men across Europe enjoy these rights every day but few of them know that the European

Union is behind these laws!

The laws on equal rights between women and man were joined by new EU legislation in 2000 thatprohibit discrimination on other grounds. Under these new laws it is illegal to discriminate againstsomeone because of their:

Racial and ethnic origin Religion and belief Disability Sexual orientation Age

These five areas of discrimination, together with gender discrimination, are included in the AmsterdamTreaty of the European Union as areas where the EU can act to prevent discrimination.

National labour laws

Austria

Austrian employment law is based on a clear distinction between blue and white collar workers. Acomprehensive system of collective agreements are in place and workers are obliged to belong to theirlocal chamber of employees which provides them with free legal advice. Special courts exist to handlelabour issues and there is a general ban on dispute resolution through arbitration.

Denmark

Collective agreements determine most of the terms and conditions enjoyed by Danish workers.

Employment laws have traditionally existed to provide a framework for collective bargaining and toreinforce the application of resulting agreements. There has, however, been a marked swing away fromdependence upon social partner arrangements and towards the direct application of statutoryrequirements in the employment field.

France

The Labour Code (Code du Travail) is the primary basis for labour law. Sitting astride the code is alarge body of legally enforceable rights introduced through collective and works agreements(rglement intrieur). Most employment contracts are for an open term (contrats dure indtermine)and a major legal distinction exists between 'cadres' (top managers) and 'employs' (lower grade staff).

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Germany

German employment law is not consolidated into a single labour code. It is based instead on theservice contract provisions of the German Civil Code and a plethora of individual statutes. Collectiveagreements have full legal status and collective labour law is one of the few areas where judicial

precedent has helped to develop a systematic body of rights.

Italy

The Italian constitution recognises the central role of work in the social life of the country and there isa strong legal framework for working conditions, the right of association and equality of opportunity.In Italy there are many different instruments that may be used to introduce a new legal requirement -from 'Decreto Legge' that last for only three months to 'Delega Legislativa' that are frequentlymistaken for full legal statutes, but are actually just blueprints for a potential law (DecretoLegislativo). On top of these parliamentary measures are regulations (regolamento) in five differentforms, ranging from 'Derecto del Presidente della Repubblica', which do not require prior authorization

by a law, to 'circolare', which simply instruct civil servants how to operate.

Spain

Because of the prolonged post-war dictatorial regime of General Franco, Spain has a relatively modernconstitution and highly regulated labour market. The principal basis for all employment relationships isthe Statute of Workers. At the age of 18 a Spanish worker may enter into a binding contract that givesthem a wide range of protection including generous compensation for 'objective' dismissal.

United Kingdom

By continental standards, the UK operates a highly liberal labour market with the minimum oflegislative intervention and administrative 'red tape'. Employment rights have taken shape around thecommon law of contract and onto this central pillar have been bolted a number of statutory constraintsin such spheres as working time, maternity, union rights and minimum pay. The UK does not have awritten constitution and its court system has grown in a rather piecemeal way. However, specialistemployment tribunals are empowered to hear almost all individual disputes and they are an integratedelement in the civil court structure.

Sweden

In spite of its high level of unionisation, Sweden's principal mechanism for establishing employment

standards is not collective bargaining, but the law. The last national accord ended many years ago andcollective agreements are now primarily concluded at a sectoral level for rolling two to three-year

periods. Unlike many of its neighbours, Sweden does not operate a system that permits collectiveagreements to have general effect within their secto

1.3 Labour law in Romania

Minimum wage

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The minimum wages in Romania is one of the lowest in EU, only 158 EUR per month.

Contract of work

An employment contract is required by law. Such contracts set out several elements, such as: the

identity of the parties

job location the employers registered address a job description job-specific risks the date of commencement of the contract the amount of annual leave to which an employee is entitled the base salary any other elements included in the remuneration

the frequency of salary payments normal working hours and the collective employment contract regulating an employees working conditionsIndividual employment contracts are registered with the Employees General Register at the Office ofthe Labour Inspectorate. Fixed-term individual employment contracts may be drawn up for a period ofup to 12 months and may be extended to no longer than 18 months.

Working hours

Full-time working hours are 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. Working time may not exceed48 hours per week, including overtime. Working hours for young people aged 18 or under are limitedto 6 hours per day and 30 hours per week. Overtime is compensated either by paid time off in lieuwithin the following 30 days or by granting additional pay. Additional pay is established followingnegotiations under the terms of the collective employment contract or the individual employmentcontract, as appropriate, and it may not be lower than 75 % of the base salary. Work performed

between 10 hours and 6 hours is classified as night work.

Minimum wages

The minimum wages in Romania is since 1. 1. 2008 the amount 158 new lei (128 EUR) per month.

Ending employment

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The contract can be terminated in various ways:

- by expiry of the agreed term

-dismissal by employer or employee

-termination by mutual agreement

-setting aside of the contract by the cantonal court

-death of the employee

Dismissal may be imposed for reasons pertaining or not to the individual employee. Dismissal forreasons not pertaining to the employee may be individual or collective.

Holiday

Annual paid leave is guaranteed to all employees; the minimum length of annual leave is 20 workingdays. Private sector employees are entitled to paid non-working days for exceptional family events orother situations, as follows: marriage of employee 5 days marriage of an employees child 2 days birth of a child 5 days death of spouse, child, parents, parents-in-law 3 days

Trade Unions in Romania

National Confederation of Free Trade Unions (CNSLR/BNS): 44 union federations with a totalmembership of 800,000 members. Currently merging with the National Trades Unions' Bloc (BNS)which has 13 union federations with a total of 350,000 members.

Cartel Alfa (NTUC): 40 union federations and two associate organisations with a total membership of

350,000.

The Democratic Trade Union Confederation of Romania (CSDR): 22 federations with a total of350,000 members in the education, food, cement and textiles sectors. Established in 1994 because of asplit in the CNSLR. Allied to the Christian Democratic party.

Meridian: 150,000 members, largely in mining, metalworking, the chemicals and rubber industry,transport, media and communications.

Child labour in Romania

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-according to the report for child labour in Romania made in 2004 by the National Institute ofStatistics, the number of children involved in severe forms of labour in cities and in the rural areas isaproximately 70.000, according to the parents' responses and aproximately 140.000 according to thechildren's responses. In the cities, most of the children beg to contribute to the to their families'survival. It is estimated that aproximately 5.000 are in Bucharest and some other big cities (Iasi,Constanta, Timisoara, Brasov, Craiova, Galati, Bacau, Ploiesti, Braila).

- From 150 children who work on the street more than 8 hours a day: 44% beg, in difficult conditions,most of them suffering from skin diseases, TBC, hepatitis, 61% of them have abandoned school, mostof them at the age of 11 years; 34% are illiterate and 40% have reduced knowledge of writing andreading.- More than 70% of 400 children interviewed in the rural areas with ages from 6 to 14 yearsconsiderthat it is normal to work daily; the tasks received from their parents include house cleaning , cooking,feeding the animals, cleaning the animals' shelters, taking care of the younger brothers and sisters, fieldlabours, milking the animals, cutting wood, etc. 64 children declared that they work for a ruralemployer.

The labour of Roma children

Children work in their own house or participate together with their parents in field labours,

producing or selling goods colecting reciclable materials, they work in markets or warehouses, inconstructions or on the street. Children work from 4 to 10 hours a day, children's contribution to thefamiles' income being a tradition.

2. LABOUR LAW IN AMERICA

United States labor law is a heterogeneous collection of state and federal laws.Federal law notonly sets the standards that govern workers' rights to organize in theprivate sector, but overrides moststate and local laws that attempt to regulate this area. Federal law also provides more limited rights foremployees of the federal government. These federal laws do not, on the other hand, apply toemployees ofstate and local governments, agricultural workers or domestic employees; any statutory

protections those workers have derived from state law.

The pattern is even more mixed in the area ofwages and working conditions. Federal lawestablishes minimum wages and overtime rights for most workers in the private and public sectors;state and local laws may provide more expansive rights, Similarly, federal law provides minimum

workplace safety standards, but allows the states to take over those responsibilities and to providemore stringent standards.

Finally, both federal and state laws protect workers from employment discrimination. In mostareas these two bodies of law overlap; as an example, federal law permits state to enact their ownstatutes barring discrimination on the basis ofrace, gender, religion, national origin and age, so long asthe state law does not provide less protections than federal law would. Federal law, on the other hand,

preempts most state statutes that would bar employers from discriminating against employees toprevent them from obtaining pensions or other benefits or retaliating against them for asserting thoserights.

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Regulations of wages, benefits and working conditions

A graph of the changes in the federal minimum wage rate. Light blue is the real wage and

dark blue the nominal wage

TheFair Labor Standards Actof 1938 (FLSA) establishes minimum wage and overtime rights formost private sector workers, with a number of exemptions and exceptions. Congress amended the Actin 1974 to cover governmental employees, leading to a series ofUnited States Supreme Courtdecisions in which the Court first held that the law was unconstitutional, then reversed itself to permit

the FLSA to cover governmental employees.The FLSA does not preempt state and local governmentsfrom providing greater protections under their own laws. A number of states have enacted higherminimum wages and extended their laws to cover workers who are excluded under the FLSA or to

provide rights that federal law ignores. Local governments have also adopted a number of "livingwage" laws that require those employers that contract with them to pay higher minimum wages and

benefits to their employees. The federal government, along with many state governments, likewiserequire employers to pay the prevailing wage, which typically reflects the standards established byunions' collective bargaining agreements in the area, to workers on public works projects.

TheEmployee Retirement Income Security Act establishes standards for the funding and operationof pension and health care plans provided by employers to their employees. The ERISA preempts most

state legislation that attempts to regulate how such plans are administered and, to a great extent, whattypes of health care coverage they provide. ERISA also preempts state law claims that an employerdiscriminated against employees in order to prevent them from obtaining the benefits they would haveearned otherwise or to retaliate against them for asserting their rights.

TheFamily and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993, requires employers to provide workers withtwelve weeks of unpaid medical leave and continuing medical benefit coverage in order to attend tocertain medical conditions of close relatives or themselves. Many states have comparable statutory

provisions; some states have offered greater protections

TheOccupational Safety and Health Act, signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon,

creates specific standards for workplace safety. The Act has spawned years of litigation by industry

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groups that have challenged the standards limiting the amount of permitted exposure to chemicals suchasbenzene. The Act also provides for protection for "whistleblowers" who complain to governmentalauthorities about unsafe conditions while allowing workers the right to refuse to work under unsafeconditions in certain circumstances. The Act allows states to take over the administration of OSHA intheir jurisdictions, so long as they adopt state laws at least as protective of workers' rights as underfederal law. More than half of the states have done so.

Job security

While most state and federal laws start from the presumption that workers who are not coveredby a collective bargaining agreement or an individual employment agreement are "at will" employeeswho can be fired without notice and for no stated reason, state and federal laws prohibitingdiscrimination or protecting the right to organize or engage in whistleblowing activities modify thatrule by providing that discharge or other forms of discrimination are illegal if undertaken on groundsspecifically prohibited by law. In addition, a number of states have modified the general rule thatemployment is at will by holding that employees may, under that state's common law, have impliedcontract rights to fair treatment by their employers. US private-sector employees thus do not have theindefinite contracts (similar to US academic tenure) traditionally common in many Europeancountries.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, better known by its acronym as theWARN Act, requires private sector employers to give sixty days' notice of large-scale layoffs and plantclosures; it allows a number of exceptions for unforeseen emergencies and other cases. Several stateshave adopted more stringent requirements of their own.

Child Labor Today

According to recent global estimates by the International Labor Office, the number of workingchildren aged 5 to 14 in developing countries is in the order of 250 million, of whom some 120 millionwork full time in various jobs often under hazardous conditions amid crude living conditions. Asurplus of unskilled workers and low wages have combined to create conditions for children similar tothe worst features of factories, mines and mills from the 1800s with minimal chances for education andfuture happiness.

V. Unfair labour practices

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Unfair labour practices are any unfair acts or omissions that arise between an employer and anemployee, involving :

- the unfair discrimination, either directly or indirectly, against an employee on the grounds of race,colour, gender, sex, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language, family responsibility or maritalstatus or any other arbitrary ground;

- the unfair conduct by an employer relating to the promotion, demotion or training of an employee orthe provision of benefits to an employee;

- the unfair suspension of an employee or any other disciplinary action short of dismissal in respect ofan employee;

- the failure or refusal of an employer to reinstate or re-employ a former employee in terms of anagreement.

A defence to certain claims of discrimination can be:

- an employer is not prevented from adopting or implementing employment policies and practicesthat are designed to achieve the adequate protection and advancement of persons or groups of personsdisadvantaged by unfair discrimination, in order to enable their full and equal enjoyment of all rightsand freedoms;

- any discrimination based on an inherent requirement of the particular job does not constitute unfairdiscrimination.

Wrongful dismissal

Being terminated for any of the items listed below may constitute wrongful termination:

Discrimination: The employer cannot terminate employment because the employee is a certainrace, nationality, religion, sex, age, or in some states, sexual orientation.

Retaliation: An employer cannot fire an employee because the employee filed a claim ofdiscrimination or is participating in an investigation for discrimination. This "retaliation" isforbidden under civil rights law.

Employee's Refusal to Commit an Illegal Act: An employer is not permitted to fire an

employee because the employee refuses to commit an act that is illegal. Employer Not Following Own Termination Procedures: Often, the employee handbook or

company policy outlines a procedure that must be followed before an employee is terminated. Ifthe employer fires an employee without following this procedure, the employee may have a claimfor wrongful termination.

Discrimination at work

Discrimination occurs when an employee suffers unfavorable or unfair treatment due to their race,religion, national origin, disabled or veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. This

group could also include employees who suffer reprisals for opposing workplace discrimination or for

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reporting violations to the authorities. Federal law prohibits discrimination in a number of work-relatedareas, including recruiting, hiring, job evaluations, promotion policies, training, compensation anddisciplinary action.

This definition raises an important point: Unfair treatment does not necessarily equal unlawfuldiscrimination. Treating a person differently from others violates Equal Employment Opportunity

(EEO) laws only when the treatment is based on the presence of a protected characteristic, rather thanon job performance or even on something as arbitrary as an employee's personality. Keep in mind,however, that discrimination claims can be highly subjective.

Employment discrimination (or workplace discrimination) is discrimination in hiring, promotion,job assignment, termination, and compensation. It includes various types ofharassment.Manyjurisdictions prohibit some types of employment discrimination, often by forbidding discriminationbased on certain traits ("protected categories"). In other cases, the law may require discriminationagainst certain groups.

In places where it is illegal, discrimination often takes subtler forms, such as wage discrimination

and requirements with disparate impact on certain groups. In addition, employees sometimes sufferretaliation for opposing workplace discrimination or for reporting violations to the authorities.Likemost discrimination, employment discrimination may occur intentionally or unintentionally, becauseofprejudice orignorance.

Discrimination stifles opportunities, wasting the human talent needed for economic progress, andaccentuates social tensions and inequalities. Combating discrimination is an essential part of

promoting decent work, and success on this front is felt well beyond the workplace. Issues linked todiscrimination are present throughout the ILOs sphere of work. By bolstering freedom of association,for example, the ILO seeks to prevent discrimination against trade union members and officials.Programmes to fight forced labour and child labour include helping girls and women trapped in

prostitution or coercive domestic labour. Non-discrimination is a main principle in the ILOs code ofpractice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work. ILO guidelines on labour law include provisions ondiscrimination, and in countries such as Namibia and South Africa, the ILO has provided advice onlegislative change in this area.

Even though there are regulations that are used to promote equality within the workplace,discrimination is still rampant. Women still do not measure up to men when it comes to income,employment rates and occupational range. Womens average salary is 72 to 88 percent of mens, evenwhen variables such as education, age, position level and job tenure are considered. In most countries,the glass ceiling is ever present for women and the wage differences are significant compared to men.

Based on a report by Catalyst in 2005, only one in eight woman were CEOs in the Fortune 500; anadditional nine were CEOs in Fortune 501-1000 companies. Women are also more likely to be stuckin low-paid and insecure jobs. They face higher unemployment rates.

Discrimination can occur at every stage of employment, from recruitment toeducation and remuneration, occupational segregation, and at time of layoffs.

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Conclusions

What?

Labour or workers rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights which have the

r

Documents

Labour Rigths