LINKAGE WITH SDGS
In September 2015, 193 states decided to adopt a set of 17 goals to end poverty and ensure decent work as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over 15 years. There are 169 targets and 232 indicators listed under these 17 SDGs. The Labour Rights Index aims at an active contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, by providing necessary (complementary) insights into de jure provisions on issues covered in particular by SDG8 (Decent Jobs), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 16 (Strong Institutions).
The inextricable, yet dormant, link between decent work and economic growth has had a special trajectory with respect to the development goals. Unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), where full employment and decent work were addressed through the inclusion of a new target (Target 1B6) in 2007 (six years after the start of the MDGs in 2001), Goal 8 under the SDGs focuses on the promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic growth that leads to employment and decent work for all7. This has not necessarily resulted in a positive response. The linking of economic growth and decent work under Goal 8 has been criticised as the relegation of decent work – a human rights concern – to being a mere dividend of economic growth8.
Despite this criticism, owing to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the current COVID-19-induced labour market crisis, employment and work has gained centre-stage. Employment and employment-related issues are also referred to in other goals9.
Target 8.8 refers explicitly to the protection of labour rights and promotion of safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment. While Target 8.8 talks about the protection of all labour rights, Indicator 8.8.2 is solely concerned with the national compliance with freedom of association and collective bargaining rights.
There is no doubt that the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are enabling rights. These not only have a direct bearing on labour and economic outcomes but also help in guaranteeing democracy in a country. The 2014 Nobel Prize to Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet, especially to The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), was a testimony of labour support to democracy after the Jasmine Revolution10. The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) was one of the four organisations that were awarded the Nobel Prize.
However, as required under Target 8.8, the protection of labour rights has to be holistically ensured, including for those in precarious employment, the most recent form of which is the gig economy. Instead of focusing only on trade union rights, all workplace rights can and should be measured and monitored both in law and practice.
Despite their unprecedented status,11 SDGs indicators were not ascertained through the conventional global consultations. These were finalised by a select group of experts in March 201712. The implementation and achievement of Target 8.8 depends on the availability of data on labour laws and labour practices. Various indices have targeted the latter or a combination of the two. The Labour Rights Index attempts at making a distinctive contribution by being one of the few that focus on the former.
Significant work in this sphere exists in the form of few ILO databases13 and some indices like the World Bank’s Doing Business Indicators (Employing Workers Index-EWI14), the Women, Business and Law Database15, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (Labour Market Efficiency Pillar16), the Harvard/NBER Global Labour Survey17, the Index of Economic Freedoms (Labour Freedom component)18 and the International Social Security Association (ISSA19), the OECD Indicators of Employment Protection20, and the CBR-LRI (CBR Labour Regulation Index)21. While the International Labour Organisation is the lead agency for indicator 8.8.2, some work is already in progress on the issue.
Appendix 1 of this report elaborates on the comparison between these indices through a table.
Each of the mentioned surveys deal with specific aspects concerning labour rights. The ITUC22 Survey on Violations of Trade Union Rights covers trade union rights23., the ITUC Global Rights Index, contrary to its name, measures only trade union rights using nearly 97 indicators24. Similarly, The Centre for Global Workers’ Rights under Penn State University has worked on the Labour Rights Indicators measuring compliance both in law and practice for freedom of association and rights to collective bargaining through 108 indicators25. The same indicators or evaluation criteria have been proposed by the ILO for measuring progress under SDG Indicator 8.8.2.
Despite this glut of indices on labour rights, experts at the WageIndicator Foundation and the Centre for Labour Research26 have been working on the idea of a new de jure index, i.e., the Labour Rights Index. While various targets under SDG 8 focus on statistical data, none of those targets and indicators delves into the de jure labour rights protections as required under Target 8.8. The Index, based on 10 indicators and 46 evaluation criteria, compares labour legislation27 in 115 countries. There is no other comparable work in scale and scope on labour market regulations. The details of covered regions and countries are given in Appendix II.
The 10 indicators cover the following aspects: fundamental workers’ rights (the right to unionise and the elimination of employment discrimination, child labour and forced labour), fair wages, decent working hours, employment security, social protection (access to the living wage, unemployment, old age, disability and survivor benefits and health insurance), work-life balance for workers with family responsibilities and access to safe and healthy workplaces. All index components are grounded in and linked with a selected list of international conventions and covenants, the details of which are available in Appendix III. The work is essentially based on ten substantive elements which are closely linked to the four strategic pillars of the Decent Work Agenda, that is, (i) Core labour standards and fundamental principles and rights at work (ii) Employment creation (iii) Social protection and (iv) Social dialogue and tripartism. The ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization 2008 has emphasised that the four strategic objectives of the Decent Work Agenda are “inseparable, interrelated and mutually supportive. The failure to promote any one of them would harm progress towards the others”28. Based on the recommendation of the 2008 ILO Declaration to establish appropriate indicators to monitor and evaluate the progress achieved, the ILO adopted a framework of statistical and legal Decent Work Indicators.
The framework indicators cover the ten substantive elements of Decent Work Agenda. These elements are: 29
- employment opportunities
- adequate earnings and productive work
- decent working time
- combining work, family and personal life
- work that should be abolished (child labour and forced labour)
- stability and security of work
- equal opportunity and treatment in employment
- safe work environment
- social security
- social dialogue, employers’ and workers’ representation
The Index is further built on the Decent Work Checks which have detailed explanations on de jure provisions on various workplace rights under national labour law. None of the above-referred indices is as comprehensive and detailed as the Labour Rights Index presented here.
While many would argue against building another index focusing only on de jure labour market institutions and provisions (namely due to the existence of large informal sectors in developing countries, non-compliance coupled with the tepid and lacklustre implementation of labour laws), well-drafted and inclusive laws are still a precondition for attaining decent work. Well-drafted laws provide clear and explicit answers to difficult and perplexing questions.
The 2010 World Social Security Report notes that even the widest and most expansive legal foundations cannot achieve the desired outcomes if these are not enforced and backed by sufficient resources. Nevertheless, strong legal foundations are a precondition for securing higher provisions and resources. There is not a single situation where a country provides generous benefits without a comprehensive legal basis30.
Similar points have been raised by Botero et al.31 , that formal rules, although different from “on the ground” situations, still matter a lot. Botero’s work forms the basis of the Doing Business Indicators by the World Bank. Research indicates that in the absence of legislation, even the wealthiest country in the world, i.e., the United States of America, is unable to ensure decent working conditions for a majority of its citizens. As explained by Heymann and Earle32 , “laws indicate a state’s commitment to its people, lead to change by shaping public attitudes, encourage government follow-up through inspection and implementation of the law and allow court action for enforcement.”
The Labour Rights Index also covers the regulation of the gig economy as one of the evaluation criteria and gives a positive score to a country where gig workers are not treated as merely independent contractors. Other than California (USA), no country or state has enacted such a comprehensive legislation to protect the rights of these precarious workers. The scoring methodology however takes into account access to basic social protection, i.e., old age benefits, invalidity benefits and survivors’ benefits, for independent contractors. Majority of the countries give access to basic social protection to the independent contractors.
The results and insights from the comparative Labour Rights Index can be used to bring much-needed labour legislation reforms in various countries. Universal labour guarantees or basic labour protections should be available to everyone. This essentially means that all workers, regardless of their contractual arrangement or employment status, should enjoy fundamental workers’ rights (freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, non-discrimination, no forced or child labour), an adequate living wage, maximum limits on working hours, safety and health at work, and access to the social protection system. The Index will not only help reform and develop missing legal provisions, but will also help in tracing the jurisprudential evolution of legal systems in one of the most impressionable legal spheres.
Progress on Target 8.8, requiring protection of labour rights for all workers, including those in precarious employment, can be measured only through the comprehensive Labour Rights Index. In view of the labour market havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic33, this is the most opportune time to address the protection of all labour rights and measure the progress of member countries.
In the words of the California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, “Sometimes it takes a pandemic to shake us into realising what that [lacking basic labour protections] really means and who suffers the consequences.”34 It is time to measure every country’s progress on all labour protections instead of merely focusing on trade union rights under SDG Indicator 8.8.2.