1. DECENT WORK FRAMEWORK
Shigeru Wada
ILO Bangkok

2. Brings together individual aspirations and society’s goals
Decent Work
Brings together individual aspirations
and society’s goals

3. Some statistics in the world of work
1.2 B live in poverty
1B unemployed and underemployed
Half of world population live in less than $2/day
M children are child laborers
30M work in EPZs
3,500 die daily of work-related illnesses and accidents.
90M people work or live outside their own country

4. What are the aspirations of the average Workers in Asia/Pacific?
Food at least 3 times a day
Own house
Education for children
Healthy family
Permanent and secure job
Some savings
Some recreation
More……..
Decent work – people’s aspiration
Provides an adequate income, enables you to satisfy basic needs and responsibilities, educate, to feed and care for your family
Leaves time for other dimensions of life
Offers a reasonable level of economic security particularly in bad times
Respects your rights as a human being
Gives you a sense of self-worth, a social identity, and voice

5. Decent Work is a goal defined nationally, based on context, needs
NO CEILING
perpetual progress
RELATIVE
multiple paths
A universal social floor
All who work have basic rights at work: freedom from oppression and discrimination, freedom of association, the right of children to learn and develop rather than work, freedom of choice in work
But it is relative
Everybody, everywhere, has a sense of what decent work means in terms of their own lives, and in relation to their own society.
The full realisation of universally accepted principles requires time and will very much depend upon national conditions and policies.
There is no ceiling
The realisation of decent work is in perpetual movement,. The threshold of what is sees as “decent” advances with economic and social progress, and reflects the priorities which each society sets.
SOCIAL FLOOR basic rights at work

6. Social floor: basic rights at work
Freedom of association, expression
Freedom from discrimination
Freedom from forced labour
Right of children to develop fully, learn
Enabling rights - empower all those who work. Freedom of choice and contract- consistent with market economies and democracies. Equality - all have rights.

7. Decent work: advances economic and social goals
Poverty reduction among the working poor
Global competitiveness
Productivity
Equity and social stability

8. Decent work deficits create and reinforce poverty
Insecure, irregular income Long hours of work, yet meagre earnings Bad working conditions-worsens poor health, risks Vulnerability to risks (no social insurance, no assets) Working children - generations of poverty Forced labour - trapped in exploitation Discrimination, exclusion from productive resources, opportunities Few choices, powerlessness, no voice
Poverty in work can be traced to decent work deficits.
Precarious, intermittent, irregular income
Long hours for meagre earnings
Income barely enough to keep body nourished and healthy enough for the next day’s work
No extra money to develop human capital, build assets
Vulnerable - no other resources for food, medicine, education in case of job loss
Generational poverty- children who work long, hard, in unsafe conditions; no time nor means to prepare for a better future
Forced labour – trapped in exploitative work arrangements
No rights
Exclusion from sources/markets of capital, land, education, skills, information
Powerlessness, no voice, no representation in making rules that govern their work, their livelihood

9. A decent work agenda Basic rights at work Sustained social dialogue
Broad social protection
Generate quality employment
Basic rights at work
Sustained social dialogue

10. Realize basic rights at work
Legal and policy frameworks
Institutions to implement and monitor

11. Generating good quality employment
Macro economic policies
Sector policies
Inclusive labour market policies
Work organization that encourages performance
Generation of “good quality” jobs
Macroeconomic and sector policies that ensure a close link between growth and employment generation, support sectors with higher employment/output elasticity, support development of small enterprises, recognize and anticipate trade-offs between macro economic targets and employment
Inclusive labour market policies that enhance efficient and equitable outcomes, avoid segregation, exclusion and discrimination; combine flexibility and income protection for workers, harmonize work and family, include active minimum wage policy that ensures remuneration above poverty line
Performance work organization that encourage productivity, quality including working hours, financial incentives, workers’ participation, job security, on-the-job training.

12. Broad social protection
Private and public arrangements
Long range benefits
Reduce workers’ insecurity, facilitate occupational & sectoral mobility
Minimize costs to families, communities, governments
Help economies to recover from shocks

13. Sustained social dialogue
Legal and institutional infrastructure for negotiation, collective bargaining
Minimize social conflicts
Increases potential for positive-sum outcomes between « conflicting » interests

14. Decent Work
The goal of decent work connects with people’s hopes to obtain productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security & human dignity. It is about jobs & future prospects; about sound working conditions; about balancing work and family life, putting children through school or getting them out of child labour. It is about gender equality, equal recognition, & enabling women to make choices & take control of their lives. It is about your personal abilities to compete in the market place, keep up with new technological skills & remain healthy.

15. Decent work……
It is about not being discriminated against, it is about having a voice in your work-place and in your community. In the most extreme situations it is about moving from subsistence to existence. For many, it is the primary route out of poverty. For many others, it is about realizing personal aspirations in their daily existence and about solidarity with others. And everywhere, and for everybody, Decent Work is about securing human dignity.

16. Asian Decent Work Decade 2006-2015
14th Asian Regional Meeting, 2006, Busan, Korea
The ILO’s Asia Pacific members have committed themselves to an Asian Decent Work Decade ( ), and in doing so reaffirmed their commitment to achieving full, productive and decent employment for all their people by 2015
15th Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting, April 2011, to do mid-term evaluation of the ADWD

17. Decent Work Country Programmes
The ILO member states are creating their own national Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCP), which set out appropriate, individual goals, in order to reflect the different economic, social and development of each country.

18. Five Priorities of ADWD
Increasing competitiveness, productivity and jobs
Improving labour market governance
Extending social protection
Eliminating child labour and creating opportunities for young people
Improved management of labour migration

19. ILO Core Conventions

20. Thank you very much!