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Labour standards are those that are applied to the way workers are treated. The term covers a wide range of things: from use of child labour and forced labour, to the right to organize trade unions and to strike, minimum wages, health and safety conditions, and working hours."
(World Trade Organization,
Labour Standards: Consensus, Coherence and Controversy, visited 2011-03-31)
National Level
Each country has its own laws and rules referring to
labour standards. In Canada,
labour standards and related policies are developed in consultation with labour, management and government organizations and are administered by Labour Affairs Officers (LAOs) in regional and district offices throughout Canada.
[In Ontario,] the Ministry of Labour normally enforces the laws (information, awareness, investigation of possible violations, resolution of complaints, proactive inspections of payroll records and workplace practices, etc.)
If an employee thinks that an employer is not following the ESA (Employment Standards Act) law, he or she can contact the Ministry of Labour for help. Employment Standards Officers can inspect workplaces and look into possible violations of the ESA.
(adapted from Ontario's Ministry of Labour,
Employment Standards, visited on 2011-05-29)
International Level
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the organization in charge of defining international
labour standards and inducing member governments to respect them. From the beginning, the ILO agreed that "the global economy needed clear rules in order to ensure that economic progress would go hand in hand with social justice, prosperity and peace for all."
(International Labour Organization (ILO),
The Need for Social Justice, visited on 2011-05-29)
"In 1919, the signatory nations to the Treaty of Versailles created the International Labour Organization (ILO) in recognition of the fact that ‘conditions of labour exist involving such injustice, hardship and privation to large numbers of people as to produce unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled'. To tackle this problem, the newly founded organisation established a system of international
labour standards – international conventions and recommendations drawn up by representatives of governments, employers and workers from around the world – covering all matters related to work."
(Eurofound,
International labour standards, visited on 2010-03-31)
The international
labour standards cover all these themes: freedom of association, collective bargaining, forced labour, child labour, equality of opportunity and treatment, tripartite consultation, labour administration, labour inspection, employment policy, employment promotion, vocational guidance and training, employment security, wages, working time, occupational safety and health, social security, maternity protection, social policy, migrant workers, seafarers, fishers, dockworkers, indigenous and tribal peoples, other specific categories of workers.
Social Clause
Currently, the ILO and the ITUC are campaigning to have the WTO include core labour standards (CLS) in international trade agreements (the social clause). These standards are based on the
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (ILO, 1998).
However, some countries, those of the developing world in particular, have a different view of international
labour standards. "Member governments from the developing world believe attempts to introduce this issue into the WTO represent a thinly veiled form of protectionism which is designed to undermine the comparative advantage of lower-wage developing countries. Officials from these countries say that workplace conditions will improve through economic growth and development, which would be hindered should rich countries apply trade sanctions to their exports for reasons relating to
labour standards. Application of such sanctions, they say, would perpetuate poverty and delay developmental efforts including those aimed at improving conditions in the workplace."
(World Trade Organization,
Trade and Labour Standards: a Difficult Issue for Many WTO Member Governments, visited on 2011-03-31)