On the first day of the
Commission on the Status of Women meeting, the Netherlands government hosted a
side event on decent work for women with the aim to engage all relevant parties
in support of paying living wages for women workers. This is of strategic
importance as women’s economic rights have not yet been receiving the attention
that they deserve.
Economic gender inequalities
remain notoriously unresolved and persistent in high, middle and low income
countries. Key issues are the gender wage gap and the hierarchical segregation
between women’s and men’s work. Women form the majority of workers in more
precarious, insecure, informal and unsafe jobs. The bulk of the burden of
unpaid care is carried by women.
Inspired by its campaign to
promote decent work for women in global production chains, such as the flower
industry, the garment sector and coffee production, Hivos encouraged the Dutch
government to host a dialogue in New York with the different parties involved,
to make the case for living wages and decent work for women.
Lilianne Ploumen, the Dutch
Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, in partnership with the
government of Bangladesh, called for urgent attention for women’s economic
empowerment, as this received insufficient attention in the global agenda of
the Millennium Development Goals. Almost a year after the Rana Plaza building
collapse in Bangladesh killed over 1,100 garment workers and injured over 2,000
more, the majority being women, both countries are committed to promote living
wages in the garment sector. Governments have the responsibility to set the
norms and ensure compliance with the labour laws, for which the ILO conventions
provide the minimum standards. Implementation of standards requires
collaboration between all parties involved.
In global production chains, governments, multinational companies, supplying industries, trade unions, civil society organisations, workers and consumers play a crucial role for accountability to the promises of decent work. Almost all parties were present in New York during the lively and well attended session facilitated by Hivos.
In global production chains, governments, multinational companies, supplying industries, trade unions, civil society organisations, workers and consumers play a crucial role for accountability to the promises of decent work. Almost all parties were present in New York during the lively and well attended session facilitated by Hivos.
The standard of a living wage as
a wage to pay for the basic needs of workers and their was families was already
recognized in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Implementation on
the ground is still a challenge. Many workers do not earn a living wage and
even where legal minimum wages exist, these do not cover the basic needs of
workers and their families.
Trade union representative Jenny Holdcroft,
from IndustriALL Global Union, was adamant about the problem of wages being
most serious in sectors where women work, like textile and electronics. Women’s
work is undervalued, supposedly not requiring any skills, whereas putting a
garment together is a skill in itself. The need to increase wages and to pay at
least a living wage, has to go hand in hand with the demand for collective bargaining
and the right to organise. Workers need to be involved in determining the
living wages in their contexts and in bargaining for annual wage reviews.
Ashim Roy from the Asia Floor
Wage Alliance emphasized the challenges in international production and supply
chains where global companies for decades have been using avoidance strategies
of relocating to other countries, at the expense of workers who cannot move. He
pleaded not to forget the many workers that got killed before the Rana Plaza
disaster and the urgent need for to move the living wage and decent work agenda
forward.
Pierre Borjesson from the brand
H&M demonstrated that through collaboration with all actors in the supply
chain, it is possible to pay the true costs of labour and improve purchasing
plans to reduce supplier production peaks.
Hivos as the facilitator of the
session received a lot of positive feedback for taking the case for living
wages for women to the Commission on the Status of Women meeting in New York.
The challenge for all parties involved is to turn good intentions at global and
national levels into practices of decent work and living wages for women
workers on the ground. For the CSW meeting in New York, the aspiration is to
have consensus from the European Union and other like minded countries to
include living wages in the outcome document.
Ireen Dubel, Hivos Senior Advisor
Women’s Rights
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