Employmentweb_low

EMploYMEnt, work, And hEAlth inEquAlitiEs - a global perspective
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The term fair employment encompasses a public health perspective
in which employment relations need to be understood as a key factor
in the quality of workers' health. For example, most workplaces are
organised hierarchically, reflecting the distribution of power and
control over production. Power inequalities, therefore, will have a
profound influence on employees and ultimately on health, as power
determines what can be considered acceptable levels of exposure to
significant risk factors. Fair employment complements the
International Labour Organisation's (ILO's) concept of "decent
work", implying a just relationship between employers and
employees.
Much of the history of employment relations has been
characterised by unequal power and conflict between labour and
capital, with the former often represented by unions demanding
higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions through
strikes, and the latter resisting those demands through firings,
lockouts, or court injunctions.
Fair employment requires that certain features be present: (1)
freedom from coercion, which excludes all forms of forced-labour such
as bonded labour, slave labour, or child labour, as well as work
arrangements that are so unbalanced that workers are unable or afraid
to assert their rights; (2) job security in terms of contracts and safe
employment conditions; (3) fair income, that is, income sufficient to
guarantee an adequate livelihood relative to the needs of society; (4) job
protection and the availability of social benefits, including provisions that
allow harmony between working life and family life, as well as
retirement income; (5) respect and dignity at work, so that workers are
not discriminated against because of their gender, ethnicity, race, or
social class; (6) workplace participation, a dimension that allows
workers to have their own representatives and negotiate their
employment and working conditions collectively within a regulated
framework; and (7) enrichment and lack of alienation, where work is not
just a means of sustenance but, to the extent possible, an integral part
of human existence that does not stifle the productive and creative
capacities of human beings. Depending on the degree to which it
endorses each of these characteristics, employment could be placed in
a continuum ranging from the complete lack of these positive features
(e.g., slavery and bonded labour) to an "ideal job", with high levels in all
of them.
With the intention of basing this book on standards accepted and
shared by the scientific community and the general public, the
definitions of employment conditions that follow are the product of
an extensive review of specialised epidemiology and public health
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