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4.4 Social dialogue and poverty reduction: Working Out of Poverty

Written by: International Labour Organization

Article Overview: Although fundamental principles and rights at work are an essential foundation for the governance of labour markets, they do not address all the issues of regulation needed to promote decent work. The governance of the labour market requires rules of various types to encourage working arrangements that are both efficient and fair.

4.4 Social dialogue and poverty reduction: Working Out of Poverty

Although fundamental principles and rights at work are an essential
foundation for the governance of labour markets, they do not address all the
issues of regulation needed to promote decent work. The governance of the
labour market requires rules of various types to encourage working arrangements
that are both efficient and fair. In many work situations these rules are
informal, having evolved by custom and practice over time. However, precisely
because those involved accept them as a standard, they are powerful
influences on the production process. Many more formal rules have their origin
in such organic community norms. The need to have written rules in
some form for the labour market, not least to avoid disputes about what custom
and practice is or should be, is a feature of the overall development
process.

As economies become more complex, rules to cover a wide variety of
work situations are needed.In particular, with production organized
through firms of various types, the relationship between the employer and
the individual worker, and employers and workers in general, becomes a key
influence on output, earnings, working conditions and the economic performance
of the country. The quality of this relationship is, of course, a matter
of direct importance to the two parties, but is also of interest to society as
a whole. All States therefore have some form of legislation governing the
way employment issues are handled. However, the practical necessity of
having rules specific to the workplace, or similar workplaces in the same industry, and being able to change them if the work process is changed,
means that legislation can never cover all aspects of the work process and
working relations.

Governance of the labour market is thus a shared responsibility of governments,
and employers’ and workers’ own freely organized institutions.
The term “social dialogue” describes the process by which these three parties
set, change and apply rules concerning work and work-related issues. In
most countries, social dialogue is institutionalized to some degree with the
representative employers’ and workers’ organizations, often described as
the “social partners”, joining government in tripartite institutions of various
types to facilitate discussion and negotiation. In many countries, the topics
discussed through social dialogue mechanisms have expanded to include
economic and social policy in general. Given the central importance of work
to the well-being of all members of society, the quality of this tripartite relationship
is of considerable significance.

The form of the legal provisions for sharing responsibility for labour
market governance between the State and employers’ organizations and
unions continues to feature in political debates in many countries, with ILO
standards on freedom of association frequently used as reference points.
Over many years, dialogue between many countries and the ILO on the
application of standards concerning freedom of association has helped shape
the basic legal framework for social dialogue.

Investing in social dialogue is a key element in promoting a process of
institutional change to improve the performance of labour markets and thus
the poverty-reducing quality of growth. As discussed in Chapter 5, the ILO
is pledged to collaborating with its constituents to work out, through social
dialogue, country strategies for decent work that link into comprehensive
frameworks for development and poverty reduction.

This must mean more than the establishment of tripartite committees
and the holding of regular meetings with ministers to review policies and
their implementation, important as these are. Trade unions and employers’
organizations still face many legal and practical obstacles to organizing. In
many countries, laws on the right to form unions only apply to employees.
This has hampered union efforts to organize informal workers in urban
trades and agricultural labourers because they do not have a regular or
recognized employer. Registration requirements for unions are also often
restrictive and open to political manipulation. Similar problems also arise for
micro and small enterprises in the informal economy. Such legal obstacles,
coupled with the intrinsic difficulty of collecting even modest membership
contributions from workers and businesses with low incomes to finance the
services they need, mean that the collective voice of the poor is weak.

Nevertheless, in many countries workers and small businesses are managing
to form and join various types of organization for mutual support such
as credit unions, producer or seller cooperatives and other local community
organizations. Building bridges between such organizations and the established
social partners is in their joint interest and can lead to alliances and
campaigns for shared objectives. In some countries, the social partners have agreed to extend the membership of economic and social consultative councils
to other representative organizations of civil society. Helping to organize
and give voice to workers and employers living in poverty, according to their
own circumstances, is a key ILO responsibility for the future.

Related Articles
  1.15 Building an employment agenda: Working Out of Poverty
  1.19 Building trust: Working Out of Poverty
  1.9 Building local development through cooperatives: Working Out of Poverty
  1.4 Our experience: Working Out of Poverty
  5.12 Social dialogue: Working Out of Poverty

Article Tags: community norms, decent work, earnings, economic performance, employment issues, essential foundation, fundamental principles, governance, governments, institutions, labour market, labour markets, legislation, organic community, relationship, social dialogue, work situations, working conditions, workplaces



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