Romanian seminar on Decent Work: The next steps and new context for development
16 November 2010
Decent Work is seen by the UN and the EU as essential for lifting the many poor in the developing world out of poverty, and in 2008 was added as a specific target under the UN Millennium Development Goals to eliminate global poverty. Decent Work includes providing meaningful work with a living wage, respect for labour rights and social protections for workers when they cannot work.
The need to ensure Decent Work has become even more critical than ever in light of the devastating impact of the global financial crisis. With European countries purchasing fewer goods from overseas, tens of millions of workers in developing countries have been thrust into unemployment.
On Tuesday 26 October 2010, War on Want, in collaboration with the Romanian NGO ADO SAH ROM, organised and took part in a seminar in Bucharest entitled ‘Decent Work and Development Cooperation’.
The day-long seminar was designed to bring together NGOs, activists and trade unionists from Eastern Europe to raise awareness of the importance of the campaign for Decent Work and to make sure it remains a key driver in terms of reducing poverty. The seminar also considered the impact of international and national policies on decent work.
The seminar heard from speakers who are campaigning for Decent Work as well as representatives from peak Romanian trade union body Cartel ALFA National Trade Union Confederation; Ergon Associates, which has conducted research for governments and the private sector, and a representative from the UN-Global Liaison Service (UN-GLS).
War on Want gave a presentation on the campaign for Decent Work, highlighting evidence of the exploitation of workers in developing countries making goods for well-known European companies. Khorshed Alam, a researcher with the Alternative Movement for Resources and Freedom in Bangladesh and a long-term collaborator with War on Want, also gave a powerful presentation on problems achieving Decent Work in the garment industry.
The debate following the presentation centred on how to promote the Decent Work agenda among a relatively new audience in Eastern Europe. There were also discussions on what the global economic recession will mean for Decent Work, especially with regards to employment, both in Europe and the developing world.
In the second morning session, we heard how national government and EU policies, as well as international macro-economic policies, were impacting on the implementation of Decent Work principles.
A critical point emphasised by our guest speaker from UN-GLS was the need for Decent Work and a living wage to ensure that developing countries are able to boost their domestic demand, which will generate more jobs. This need has become more dire since the collapse in demand for goods from the developed world as a result of the financial crisis. The decision of governments to cut back on public spending during the crisis is only likely to reduce overall demand, and lead to even more job losses across for the export-orientated economies of the developing world.
These contributions fed into workshops in the afternoon, where links between campaigns were made and discussions took place around future action. Local representatives from Romania suggested that NGOs and trade unions could target local authorities to support decent work in order to build support at a local level. For example, groups could challenge local schools and authorities to buy only food that was produced by suppliers that support Decent Work.
Discussions in the other workshop focused on the ramifications of large new aid donors like China and India on Decent Work. It was concluded that dialogue with these donors was needed to work out how they too could ensure Decent Work through their aid programmes.
As Europe and the west seek to prop up a failed financial system that has deepened global poverty, it’s vital that action takes campaigners around the world fight for Decent Work.
To view the full agenda and speakers, see attachment below.
 Romanian seminar on Decent Work agenda | [ ] | 393 Kb |
Other links:
- Decent Work and Fair Globalisation by Hamish Jenkins, UN-GLS
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The seminar was organised with the financial assistance of the European Union. The points made were the sole responsibility of War on Want and other participants and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. |
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