Global Compact International Yearbook Ausgabe 2010

Agenda
Corporate Citizenship
Global Core
Labour Standards
Are More Important
Than Ever
CLS are needed to address the wrongs of globalization. But
more than that, they are needed to ensure that future economic
recovery is sustainable and equitable. There is a growing
realization that the world economy confronts a massive
shortfall of aggregate demand that is obstructing recovery.
Important factors behind this shortfall are income inequality
and wage stagnation, both of which have been aggravated
by globalization. Increased income inequality and wage
stagnation were also important factors driving the pattern
of growth that ultimately resulted in economic crisis. That
is because many households – particularly in the United
States – turned to borrowing as a way of meeting livingstandard
expectations.
Now, the world economy is burdened by both debt and income
inequality, which, together, explain the aggregate demand
problem. Though governments can temporarily fill
the demand gap with deficit spending, sustainable recovery
requires addressing the deeper problems of income inequality
and stagnant wages. This is where labor standards enter the
picture. CLS can help improve income equality and create conditions
in which wages rise with productivity. That will tackle
a fundamental flaw in globalization that has contributed to
making the current crisis; help remedy the global aggregate
demand problem and encourage economic recovery; and
create a fairer global economy in which workers share in the
prosperity they produce.
What are labor standards?
CLS refer to five core articles of the International Labor Organization
concerning freedom of association and protection
of the right to organize; the right to organize and bargain
collectively; the prohibition of all forms of forced or compulsory
labor; the abolition of exploitative child labor; and the
elimination of discrimination with respect to employment
and occupation.
These standards are very much in the spirit of “rights” and
are intended to hold independently of a country’s stage of
development. This links CLS with the discourse of human
rights. Two of the standards are affirmative in character, giving
workers the right to organize and bargain collectively, while
three of the standards are prohibitive in character, banning
forced labor, exploitative child labor, and discrimination. The
standards are all “qualitative” in nature, not “quantitative.”
That means they do not involve such measures as setting
minimum wages or maximum hours, which are labor market
interventions that are clearly contingent on an economy’s stage
of development. Contrary to the claims of opponents, CLS do
not impose on developing countries quantitative regulation
befitting mature economies.
Finally, the freedom of association and right to organize
standard is particularly important. This standard covers labor
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