DECENT WORK FOR ALL – A BETTER WORLD STARTS HERE

Workshop, Sofia, 25 September 2009

In compliance with the ITUC campaign for the economic recovery and reform on the World Day for Decent Work on 7 October 2009, PODKREPA CL organizes in Sofia a one-day workshop to promote the Decent Work Agenda. The Workshop joins together large scale Bulgarian social players as trade union leaders, policy makers and governmental representatives and gives them the opportunity to discuss the topical issues on:

1. The existing in Bulgaria opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

2. The Decent Work four strategic objectives’ achievement in Bulgaria – respectively:

 Protection of the fundamental principles and rights at work and international labour standards;
 Ensuring stable employment and income opportunities;
 Guarantee the workers’ Social protection - Implement and develop the Social dialogue and the Triparte partnership.

3. The Decent work as key instrument to fight Poverty and Social Exclusion and as indispensable means for achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development.

4. The Decent Work-oriented approaches to economic and social policy in partnership with the principal institutions and actors of the multilateral system and the global economy.

5. The Bulgarian informal economy limitation and elimination – an opportunity to protect the workers tights, a way for workers voice recognition, the right choice for personal and social development.

The Workshop was attended by more of 20 journalists from different national electronic medias and newspapers and by around 40 representatives from PODKREPA CL and from different Bulgarian Political Parties and Governmental Institutions.

Lack of Work means Poverty and Social Exclusion – the Trade Union response – Decent work for Decent Life

Summary from the Regional Conference in Burgas on the 18 September 2009

The basic item which was analyzed and discussed during the Conference was the profound interaction between the dimensions of poverty and the world of work, and how critically important it is to incorporate the strategies and tools of the Decent Work Agenda into a policy framework for eradicating poverty and achieving Bulgaria’s sustainable development. It is imperative that governments, policy-makers and all relevant actors heed the trade union call to place the Decent Work Agenda at the heart of efforts to achieve progress in the poverty’s reduction.

What means for us to promote the Decent Work:

1. To promote the fundamental principles and rights to work

To escape poverty, people need more than progressive policies. They need to be empowered to participate and to be represented in the decision-making processes affecting their lives. They need voice at work through their freely chosen representatives, the opportunity to join a union and have their collective bargaining rights recognized, to enjoy freedom from discrimination and forced labour, and the opportunity to place their children at school rather than in work.

2. To implement a number of measures to combat feminized poverty and promote support for the respect of women’s fundamental human rights. To act on ending child labour

Poverty-reduction strategies and programmes such as skills training, and provision of micro-credit should be designed in a gender-sensitive way, and should make sure to target women. In Bulgaria thousand children are participating in the workforce, deprived of education, and lacking decent health care. In order to help reach and aid these children, and in order to end child labour, a comprehensive approach is required; one that recognizes that child labour is both a cause and a symptom of poverty. Child labour is the thief of children. It robs them of their childhood, their health, their education, even of their lives. Ending child labour is essential to breaking the cycle of poverty. If children are denied the opportunity to acquire education and skills during their formative years, they will be ill equipped to be productive participants in an ever more complex labour market and will remain in poverty, thereby re-enforcing the situation of intergenerational poverty. In many cases, the lack of adequate family income in the developing world forces families to make a choice about whether to send their children to school or to put them to work. It is clear, then that without making structural changes to create sustainable job opportunities for adults, efforts to end child labour will be doomed to failure. Ending child labour is thus an integral part of the Decent Work Agenda. Providing children with the time to get an education are not only important for improving their life chances and quality of life, it is also essential for achieving sustainable advances in poverty reduction.

3. To initiate the implementation of measures for bettering the Social Protection and Social Services Systems, throughout:

Increase the Security of Wage Incomes and Insurances

Lack of insurance against work and life-related risks are a dimension of poverty. Workers lack protection in case of sickness, accidents, disability, unemployment, maternity and old age. Loss of income in face of these risks can plunge whole families into poverty. These problems are of particular concern in the current context of globalization where national economies are suffering from the negative consequences provoked by the financial crises from volatile capital, rapid currency devaluations, flight of transnational capital and economic restructuring. Social security schemes are essential for providing compensation and protection to workers in face of these negative impacts on labour markets. Trade unions are strong advocates of a progressively constructed welfare state which aims to extend insurance coverage to a maximum of workers. They call for well-funded schemes with the full participation of employers, and for the development of robust, progressive taxation systems with reliable collection mechanisms.

Providing Quality Public Services

Lack of access to essential services - healthcare, education deprives poor communities of basic needs for sustainable living, and constitutes a dimension of poverty. The low incomes levels, the high unemployment rate in Bulgaria, combined whit a inappropriate social policy lead to deepening poverty in the country, increased exclusion of women and children, and the marginalization of poor communities. Trade unions affirm that these services should remain in the public domain and be provided as quality public services with guaranteed access by all. They should not be transferred to the market, for-profit domain where access for the poor will not be guaranteed.

Employment intensive approaches to job creation

At the national level, governments need to place special emphasis on employment-intensive approaches to job creation in areas such as infrastructure, including road construction and maintenance to bring rural produce to markets, affordable housing, and public works schemes. Such schemes will result in income transfers to the poor through job-creation, increased market opportunities for local produce, and improved shelter, thereby contributing to securing decent livelihoods. Employment-intensive approaches to job creation have the merit of adopting a targeted approach which delivers jobs and services to the poor, and adopts measures aimed at stimulating the national economy. For example, infrastructure projects should use appropriate procurement procedures to ensure the targeting of socially responsible local entrepreneurship for the supply of inputs, and the contracting of attendant services within the community, thereby maximizing local job creation. They should be coupled with longer-term strategies to stimulate the productive base of local economies and overcome supply-side constraints: lack of skills development and credit for small-scale enterprises.

Training and Skills Development

Lack of skills and access to training opportunities are a major constraint to escaping the poverty trap. Unskilled workers find themselves unable to adapt to the changing demands of the world of work, and excluded from labour markets. Alternatively, investments in skills training including entrepreneurship and vocational skills enable people to begin working out of poverty. Trade unions play a major role in supporting and managing skills training programmes both within individual firms, or as part of broader programmes of trade union services to members. They have been instrumental in encouraging government or employer sponsored training programmes as part of national labour-market policy.

4. To improve the Social dialogue at all levels

Engaging in dialogue between the social partners on labour market and social policy issues is an important aspect of the Decent Work agenda. There exists a rich diversity of institutional arrangements, legal frameworks, traditions and practices of social dialogue in Bulgaria. The social dialogue at national level has the potential to create the necessary space for relevant social actors to reach national agreements and agree upon consensus approaches. Social dialogue offers a meaningful framework for building broad national socio-economic consensus on national wide development strategy. Successful social dialogue structures and processes promote better living and working conditions as well as social justice. They provide workers with a guaranteed way of being protected and having their interests advanced. Because it ensures better income distribution, social protection measures for the poor and pro-poor national budgets; social dialogue is an essential instrument to reduce inequalities within society. In addition, social dialogue may also have a strong effect on the supply side: By giving workers a voice in the production process, it has the potential to make the economy more performing and more competitive. The social dialogue is also an instrument of good governance. Beyond the fact that it may significantly contribute to social peace as well as conflict prevention and resolution, social dialogue is a democracy-building process in itself. It has the potential to enhance transparency, accountability and combat corruption at country level. Social dialogue can make an important contribution in ensuring popular participation in public policy, an essential building block of meaningful democracy. He provides an avenue for monitoring progress and a way of holding all actors accountable to their commitments. Because it has the potential to resolve important economic and social issues, encourage good governance, advance social and industrial peace and stability and boost economic progress, social dialogue is both a means and an end in the quest for poverty reduction.

През настоящата година Световния Ден за Достоен Труд ( СДДТ) ще бъде проведен на 7 Октомври. Миналата година, на същия ден за първи път стотици хиляди хора на наемния труд се присъединиха към демонстрациите и манифестираха по улиците на целия свят - от Владивосток в Русия до Барбадос на Карибите. СДДТ през 2009 ще се проведе в условията на разразилата се тежка финансова и икономическа криза, поради която милиони хора загубиха своите работни места, а други бяха принудени да заплащат неимоверно висока цена за алчността и желанието за бързи печалби на финансовите и икономически спекуланти.

На 7 Октомври 2009 основното послание на СДДТ ще бъде обединяването на усилията за бързо излизане от рецесията и за възстановяване на световната икономика чрез поставяне на хората на наемния труд във фокуса на набелязваните мерки и на провежданите действия и политики.

Осигуряването на Достоен Труд на гражданите от целия свят е ключовото решение за справяне с негативните последици от глобалната криза. Най- краткото определение за Достоен Труд е работа, която да позволи нанаетия работник да осигури достойно съществуване за себе си и за своето семейство. Това означава подкрепа за създаването на нови работни места, защита на основните права на работниците и най-вече на правото им на свободно сдружаване и на провеждане на колективно трудово договаряне. Това означава твърдо да се противопоставим на дискриминацията, на детския и принудителен труд. Разбира се, това означава също за защитим лицата, които са без работа чрез адекватни социални мрежи и програми. И най-важното посредством активен социален диалог между синдикати, работодатели и правителство да достигнем до решения, които да спомагат за подобряване живота на всички граждани. Тези решения трябва да зачитат водещата роля на синдикалните организации в отстояването на човешките права не само на хората на наемния труд, но и на всички граждани. Достоен Труд и Живот също означават да се борим за премахване на съществуващите огромни различия между богати и бедни, факт който допринесе в значителна степен за настоящата глобална криза.

Нека се присъединим към апела да световното синдикално движение с със своите инициативи и активно участие на 7 Октомври 2009 мобилизирани и единни да демонстрираме нашата твърда решимост за коренни промени в дневния ред на обществото и за поставяне на хората на наемния труд в центъра на мерките за преодоляване на световната криза и за ускорено възстановяване на икономиката!