Salutation
“Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection”. (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Paris, 1948, Article 23)
The relationship between trade and decent work is an important element of the current debate on the impact of trade and the labour market. What happens in the labour market is important to trade. Nations trade for the benefits that will accrue to their work force. Similarly, promoting decent work and improving labour standards redound to the benefit of exporting enterprises.
Indeed, the system of agreements governing international trade is based on the view that all countries and their citizens will derive benefits from expanded trade. One of the reasons the idea of globalisation gives rise to fear among some people is that it is believed that it may have an adverse effect on wages and employment.
The debate about trade and the labour market, however, goes further than wages. The final report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation indicated that globalisation needed a parallel social track which would sustain human values and enhance the well-being of peoples. It opined that without such a social dimension, many would continue to view globalisation as a new version of earlier forms of domination and exploitation.
In order to respond to the need to insert social ground rules in the globalisation process, the ILO in June 1998 unanimously adopted the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-Up.
The strength of this declaration lies in the fact that all members, even if they have not ratified the ILO core conventions, on the basis of their membership in the ILO, have an obligation to respect, to promote and to realise the fundamental principles and rights relating to:
– freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
– the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
– the effective abolition of child labour; and
– the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
In addition to this Declaration, the ILO also introduced the concept of “decent work” to help us understand how labour market conditions can be improved in a globalised market. This concept will be familiar to all of you, but, briefly, “decent work” encompasses three dimensions:
1. The right to work, which implies the availability of productive and sufficient work of acceptable quality which generates an adequate income;
2. Rights in work which include the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work, including fair wages, equal remuneration for work of equal value, equal opportunities, safe and healthy conditions of work, and reasonable hours of work and rest, as well as the right to organize and bargain collectively. Exploitative work such as child labour, bonded labour and other forms of slavery-like practices are prohibited; and
3. The right to adequate social protection, which requires that well designed and adequate social safety mechanisms be put in place for those occasions when regular employment becomes unavailable.
Subsequent to the launch of the decent work agenda, the ILO on numerous occasions noted that a decent work deficit exists in many countries and in many regions.
The decent work deficit refers to the lack or absence of productive employment opportunities, the lack of, or inadequate social protection mechanisms, the non-compliance with or non-adherence to fundamental rights, and the absence of structured social dialogue systems.
Despite the fact that trade agreements and trade policies affect all areas of human activity and economic and social development, trade liberalisation has been seen in a gender-neutral fashion and enough attention has not been paid to the impact of trade liberalisation on gender inequalities and the impact of gender inequalities on trade performance.
Nilufer Cagatay in her paper entitled “Gender, Poverty and Trade”, makes the point that mainstream economics literature is essentially gender-blind when it comes to assessing the relationship between trade, on the one hand, and inequality and poverty, on the other. She continues: “…most economists acknowledge gender bias at the microeconomic level, for example, in the operation of labour markets or in the allocation of resources within households. But they often find it more difficult to see the relevance of gender at the macroeconomic or global level”.
Mariama Williams, in her paper: “A Strategic Approach to Gender, Trade Agreements and Trade Policy” similarly makes the point that gender biases in social employment relations and gender inequalities in ownership, control, and access to economic resources such as land, credit, and technical assistance play an important role in the multilateral trade system to the detriment of women. However, the existence of these biases and constraints does not seem to play a significant role in the formulation of trade negotiation positions and trade policies.”
The newly created UN Task Force on Gender and Trade is therefore a step in the right direction. The Task Force will look at trade and trade policies on men and women.
The key question to ask with respect to the trade-labour nexus is how can trade liberalisation help to erase the decent work deficit, especially in light of the fact that free trade does not automatically mean fair trade.
Member States of the Caribbean Community during the course of 2005 must remove all existing restrictions on the right of establishment, the provision of services, the movement of capital and the movement of selected skills in order to establish the CARICOM Single Market by 31 December 2005.
Work on the CARICOM Single Economy will continue up to 2008 in accordance with the decision taken at the Tenth Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in November 2004 in Trinidad and Tobago.
In1989 the Conference of Heads of Government of the CARICOM Community took cognisance of the fact that trade liberalisation alone was not sufficient for small vulnerable states to survive in a global environment. In Grand Anse, Grenada, therefore, the Heads decided to work expeditiously together to deepen the integration process and strengthen the Caribbean Community in all of its dimensions to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by the changes in the global economy.
The strengthening of the Community in all its dimensions, without a doubt, also refers to the social dimension. Indeed, the Caribbean Community, notwithstanding the fact that it was initially created as a result of the desire of Member States to establish trading links, from the onset catered for functional cooperation in the social areas, including labour.
But more important, an integral part of the CARICOM Single Market is a regional labour market since the free movement of skills and labour is now one of the key pillars of the CSME.
The free movement of skills and labour gives CARICOM nationals, for five selected categories at present, the right to move to that part of the single economic space where the opportunities for productive employment, whether as a wage earner or a non-wage earner, are the greatest.
In order to support this movement, the CARICOM Agreement on Social Security, which came into effect on 1 April 1997, was put in place and successfully implemented, now being operational in all Member States.
As far back as 1995, the Caribbean Community also adopted a Declaration on Labour and Industrial Relations Principles, which highlights the labour standards to which the Region aspires and, furthermore, serves as a guide to enact harmonised labour legislation.
So far the Community has adopted four model labour laws, which were prepared in cooperation with the ILO-Caribbean Office, namely:
– Termination of Employment;
– Non-discrimination and Equality in Employment;
– Recognition of Trade Unions and Employers' Organisations;
– Occupational Health, Safety and the Working Environment.
These model laws have been enacted to varying degrees in Member States; Guyana has enacted all the laws, while other Member States have enacted one or more.
With respect to labour standards, both the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the Charter of Civil Society also call for the respect and adherence to labour standards.
The Treaty even goes further by indicating in Article 226, which relates to General Exceptions, that Member States have the right to adopt and enforce measures relating to
– products of prison labour; and
– child labour.
Besides working on the internal liberalisation process, Member States of the Caribbean Community are participating fully and effectively in the global economic and trading systems by strengthening trading links with non-traditional trading partners through a series of bilateral agreements, and taking part in multilateral and other major trading negotiations.
The Community is or will be at the negotiating table at the World Trade Organisation in order to implement the Doha Development Round, with the European Union to decide on an Economic Partnership Agreement as called for by the Cotonou Agreement, and with the rest of the Americas to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas, once this derailed process comes back on stream.
Notwithstanding the progress that has been made over the years at the regional level there is still much that needs to be done, particularly at the national level.
In this regard, the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD), which has responsibility for all the social sectors including labour, will need to place on its agenda ways and means of eliminating the decent work deficit in Member States as well as policies to address gender inequalities, in close collaboration with the ILO-Caribbean Office and our Regional social partners.
There is an urgent need to move the work in this area further along in order to achieve the various key objectives of the Community, in particular the objectives mentioned in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to which I alluded earlier, namely improved living and working conditions and full employment, as well as achievement of commitments made at the global and hemispheric levels, such as poverty alleviation.
Although it is the primary responsibility of governments to uphold the right of its citizens, employers, too, have to be held accountable for workers' rights and have a major responsibility in creating a better social and economic environment. At least one example of a working social partnership between government, labour and the private sector exists in the Region and no doubt you will be covering this in your discussions.
This workshop comes at a critical time and the labour issues it will address are important if the country is to maximize its benefits from its international trade agreements. I have pleasure in declaring this workshop open and wish you a productive session.
Thank you.
