LABOUR PROTECTION

A system of socio-economic, organizational, technical, health and safety arrangements, based on legislative and other normative acts, that ensures good working conditions.

"The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions strongly criticized the new edition of the World Bank's highest-circulation publication, Doing Business, for including recommendations that governments should do away with labour market regulations and emulate those countries that have almost no worker protection rules of any kind and are not members of the International Labour Organization (ILO)."
(Libération Afrique, World Bank Publication Promotes Elimination of Worker Protection, 2006, visited 2011-03-10)

"Wages, working time, work organization, arrangements to adapt working life to the demands of life outside work, and working conditions are core elements of the employment relationship and of workers' protection. They are major dimensions of human resources management at the enterprise level, collective bargaining and social dialogue as well as socio-economic policies of governments. These terms and conditions of employment are therefore crucial aspects of decent work at the enterprise level."
(International Labour Organization (ILO), Conditions of Work and Employment Programme , visited 2011-03-31)

"There is a particular need for protection of workers in export sectors such as agriculture, services and textiles and clothing, as very often their dependence on such work is abused; they work long hours under difficult conditions and often without the possibility to organise themselves, due to repressive measures by their employers that go unchallenged by their governments."
(ICFTU Statement, To UNCTAD XI Hearing with Civil Society and the Private Sector, Geneva, 2004, visited 2011-03-31)

Actors for Labour Protection

On a national level, labour legislation helps to ensure appropriate labour protection for workers.

Trade unions also have a unique role as representatives of workers' interests: "The role and the very positive contributions of trade unions in advancing the social agenda in critical areas such as occupational health and safety, decent jobs, conditions of work, human and trade union rights, multinational corporations, gender equality, issues related to young workers, HIV/AIDS, poverty eradication, debt and MDGs [(Millennium Development Goals)] need to be recognised."
(ICFTU Statement, To UNCTAD XI Hearing with Civil Society and the Private Sector, Geneva, 2004, visited 2011-03-31)

On the international level, the International Labour Organization, among others, is a key player. It protects workers by implementing programmes intended to strengthen the institutional and legal framework for the operation of a market system and the protection of workers, and to support the formulation and implementation of a sound national labour policy based on international labour standards.

Labour Protection and Economic Growth

It is argued by some that if the labour market is to be dynamic, labour protection should be avoided. The assertion that labour protection hinders economic growth by decreasing workers' productivity and, to a certain extent, hampers competitiveness, needs to be reconsidered in the light of examples such as Japan whose levels of production and worker protection remain very high.