Governments protect the basic rights that allow access to dignified working conditions: without these stakes there is no balance.
The rights of workers are some of the least protected human rights in the world: to say it is the latest report of the Cights Data Project, the largest data collection on human rights in the world, which since 1981, every year, has assessed the level of respect for 25 universally recognized rights by governments of 195 countries. The initiative is co-directed by David Scambranelli, professor of Political Science of the University of Binghamton (New York).
Where it goes (a little) better. The analysis published in the magazine Human Rights Quarterlyfound that Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway and Portugal are the five countries where workers’ rights are more protected, while Iran, Syria, North Korea, China and Iraq those in which they are more often violated. But beyond geographical differences, it is important to note that the essential rights of those who work, including that to meet in unions and negotiate collectively, “are always violated to a certain extent”, the researchers write.
Protect the foundations. “Previous research shows that it is unlikely that governments protect rights to an adequate minimum wage, health and safety at work or reasonable limitations on working hours (including extraordinary voluntary work) unless they allow workers to train Independent unions and to contract collectively », explains Scirranelli. «In other words, union law, of bargaining and strike are” passage, or access “rights ((Gateway rights). If they are protected, all other workers’ rights are likely to be likely. But globally, the access rights are in decline ».
On the side of the strongest. Although in general the countries characterized by advanced economies tend to protect workers more more, economic inequalities have increased everywhere, and globalization has increased the economic competition between nations. As a result, governments do everything possible to fatten the favor of large industrial companies at the expense of workers’ rights, when the requests of these two parties are in conflict.
The voice of politics. In the economically less developed countries, large agricultural, oil and mining companies still manage to achieve what they want to prevail workers, as happened in countries like the United States in the early stages of the industrial era. “And corporate leaders generally prefer to distribute most of the profits deriving from their activities to shareholders, not to workers,” says Scirranelli.
The task of the governments is to make sure that the voice of the workers is heard.
