So this week’s topic is international labour standards. International labour standards are basically a set of minimum conventions, rights and conditions of work for workers across the world. These standards are put in place to ensure that workers are not exploited in the workplace against forced labour, bullying, discrimination and horrific working conditions. While the International labour organisation has put forth the concept of international labour standards it does not necessarily enforce the implementation of them to all organisations around the world.  It is in fact far more complex than that. Aish and I are doing a presentation on this topic this week and will explain this in more detail then, so stay tuned. 

What I really wanted to talk about today was this image. 

 

 I found this image when i typed international labour standards into google images, as I was curious as to what would come up. There were lots of pictures about the ILO (international labour organisation), however this one here stood out among the rest.  This man is carrying a large load of bricks of some sort on his back. This is something you don’t really see in Australia. Labourers mostly have machinery (e.g. a forklift) that would carry a load like this for them.  This is the premise of why international labour standards were created. There are millions employees in developing countries working in harsh conditions such as this. Many TNCs and MNCs are off shoring their suppliers to developing countries who offer cheap labour. While this is great for the organisations (cause it’s cheap) it’s the workers who are being exploited. 

The struggle the ILO and other organisations are having is how do we get everyone to abide by a set of labour standards? Even if it was compulsory for each organisation to adopt the labour standards; they are always going to find ways around them.  There are other alternatives to implementation of labour standards– things such as voluntary codes of conduct, direct trade sanctions, multilateral enforcement and private corporate initiatives. In addition to the proposal of these alternatives, there is also the concept of monitoring and enforcement of labour standards. Should this be more prominent? And if it was, would it work necessarily?

International labour standards are sooooo complex. There positives definitely weigh out the negatives. But the biggest struggle is getting the whole globe behind them. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_labor_standards

http://tribune.com.pk/story/644795/voicing-concerns-labour-laws-must-be-enforced-to-sustain-businesses/

Royle, T (2011). 'Regulating global capital through public and private codes: an analysis of international labour standards and corporate voluntary initiatives' in Research Handbook of Comparative Employment Relations, eds M Barry & A Wilkinson, Edward Elgar; Cheltenham, pp. 421-439 - unit reader.