Labour is not an Article of trade

In today’s world defending the dignity of work is a constant uphill struggle. Prevailing economic thinking sees work as a cost of production, which in a global economy has to be as low as possible in order to be competitive. It sees workers as consumers who because of their relative low wages need to be given easy access to credit to stimulate consumption and wind up with incredible debts. Nowhere in sight is the societal significance of work as a foundation of personal dignity and or as a source of stability and development of families or as a contribution to communities at peace. This is the meaning of ‘decent work’. It is an effort at reminding ourselves that we are talking about policies that deal with the life of human beings not just bottom line issues.

It is the reason why the International Labour Organization constitution tells us “Labour is not a commodity.” And we know that the quality of work defines in so many ways the quality of a society. So we must begin by helping the working poor step out of poverty and informality into quality livelihoods, self-employment or a formal job. And that’s what our policies should be about: keeping people moving into progressively better jobs with living wages, respect for worker rights, non-discrimination and gender equality, facilitating worker’s organization and collective bargaining, universal social protection, adequate pensions and access to health care.

This is what millions of human beings are telling us worldwide: “Give me a fair chance at a decent job and I’ll do the rest; I don’t want charity or handouts.” It will take longer and require different emphasis in developing and developed countries, but all societies face decent work challenges, particularly in the midst of the global crisis that still haunts us in Zambia.

 There are many converging historical and policy explanations, but there is a solid underlying fact: in the values of today’s world, capital is more important than labour. The signs have been all over the place—from the unacceptable growth of inequality to the shrinking share of wages in GDP. We must all reflect on the implications for social peace and political stability, including those benefitting from their present advantage.

All must work so that the economic system in which we live does not upset the fundamental order of the priority of work over capital, of the common good over the private interest.” As Gandhi said, “There is enough for everybody’s needs, not for everybody’s greed.” But things are changing. Many emerging and developing countries have shown great policy autonomy in defining their crisis responses, guided by a keen eye on employment and social protection, as this Report advocates. Policies leading to the crisis overvalued the capacity of markets to self-regulate; undervalued the role of the State, public policy and regulations and devalued respect for the environment, the dignity of work and the social meaning of work.