Trade and Employment From Myths to Facts - International Labour ...

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Trade and Employment: From Myths to Facts the conditional cash transfer approach that is being implemented in several countries. The policy aims to provide economic incentives for families to encourage long-term attendance and school completion by girls (Latapí and de la Rocha, 2009). These schemes are proving effective in increasing school attendance by girls, improving health outcomes of children and reducing income poverty, and could be replicated in other developing countries. The challenge is for such schemes to also promote skill development by encouraging girls to study subjects that do not replicate the gender-segregated patterns of low-wage employment. More generally, gender inequalities in the type of schooling received need to be addressed through curriculum reforms so that schools develop skills in a genderequitable manner, especially technical skills that are needed to enable access to the new jobs in technology- and skill-intensive sectors. As Rodgers et al. (2006) emphasize, governments need to be proactive in creating incentives for girls to go into fields that prepare them for high-paying jobs and open up access to new training opportunities through stronger enforcement of equal opportunity legislation. In addition, in each sector of the economy, there is scope for promoting skills for women entrepreneurs that, along with technical and financial support, can help them gain entry and be successful in the more competitive and export sectors of the economy (Coche et al., 2006). For wage workers, the policy objective is to improve women’s skill sets so that they are able to qualify for jobs in sectors that are upgrading and expanding. Retraining workers who are likely to be disproportionately affected by shifts in trade composition of a country to provide for a smoother and genderequitable transition to the newly emerging job opportunities is an option, though it is difficult to identify affected workers. Second, another set of policies will have to address women’s unpaid care workload that constrains their employment options and underlies stereotypes about women’s weaker labour force commitment. Provision of quality, affordable and convenient childcare is an initiative that could be pursued to support secure and stable employment for low-income women, promote women’s well-being and increase workplace productivity. As Hein and Cassirer (2010) show, public policies and services concerning childcare are rarely adequate, especially in developing countries, but public support is needed to meet the childcare needs of low-income workers. 16 In addition, some types of infrastructure investments are more likely to benefit women as a group than men, given women’s time poverty, as well as improving economic efficiency 16 However, where governments legally require employers to provide on-site childcare in establishments that employ above a certain number of female employees, such as in Brazil, China and India, this requirement has functioned as a disincentive for hiring women. On the other hand, since most workplace initiatives provide childcare for higher-level workers in large firms, and in financial or business services, there is an unmet demand for childcare by low-wage workers. There are only a few examples of workplace initiatives that could be viewed as best practice cases in developing countries. Case studies of Chile, Kenya and Thailand provide examples of childcare provision for rural agricultural workers in a gender equitable manner through public-private partnerships and tax incentives for employers (Hein and Cassirer, 2010). 202
Chapter 5: Gender aspects of trade overall. Improving access to clean water and clean energy sources for cooking, for example, would reduce women’s unpaid care burden, enable their labour force participation and help promote women’s health. 17 Third, women workers in export sectors have to be supported through policies that facilitate the creation of decent jobs. In sectors where international competition has intensified in recent years, such as garments, as highlighted by this study, women workers face high risks of not only downward pressure on wages and working conditions but also employment insecurity due to export volatility. While the currently available jobs in export sectors are often better than the available alternatives (which in some cases are non-existent), policy should aim to set in motion a process of creation of decent jobs that are consistent with ILO Conventions and that achieve an adequate local living wage. The main obstacle in improving working conditions is weak enforcement of legislation, given that most countries have ratified the core ILO Conventions, including those pertaining to equal pay and non-discrimination at work, and have national laws that are consistent with these Conventions. Many developing country governments lack the resources or the will to uphold their labour laws to fight gender discrimination and give workers greater bargaining power. Far from protecting workers, governments seek to establish EPZs as islands where they do not fully implement national labour laws. Short of an international standard that prevents countries from implementing a two-tier application of their national labour laws (for example, in the form of an ILO Convention), there is little incentive for individual countries to do away with the EPZ exceptions in their own territory. In such a political-economic context, a useful strategy for nudging countries toward enforcement of labour laws is to set in motion international mechanisms to actively support developing country workers’ right to organize and collectively bargain so that workers themselves are able to push for improvement in working conditions. In addition, explicit international support for a broader set of ILO Conventions could leverage union rights. Currently, there are three options at the international level for promoting decent working conditions in tradable sectors. The EU and US can promote union rights in developing country trading partners through social clauses in regional or bilateral trade agreements, but this tool has weak enforcement mechanisms that need to be strengthened. Second, the ILO’s tripartite process, which has been energized by the Decent Work initiative after 1999, constitutes a pressure point at the national level that can be strengthened by building capacity for enforcement of national legislation. The third option is the corporate social responsibility (codes of conduct) approach, which holds the least promise despite being the most high-profile approach since the late 1990s. This approach not only has limited and uneven reach but also does not emphasize union rights or making improvements beyond a narrow set of corporatedefined goals. 17 Reducing reliance on solid fuels for cooking and heating will help decrease high levels of indoor air pollution and premature deaths of mostly women and children. 203
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Trade and Employment From Myths to
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Trade and Employment From Myths to
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PREFACE Trade negotiations -bilater
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Trade and Employment: From Myths to
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EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS EDITORS Ma
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors wish t
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NEW EVIDENCE ON TRADE AND EMPLOYMEN
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Chapter 2: New evidence on trade an
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Region Annualized percentage change
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Region 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 200
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Figure 2.4.b: Long-run association
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20 See Harrison and Rodriguez-Clare
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ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF TRADE ON EM
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Chapter 3: Assessing the impact of
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p * Chapter 3: Assessing the impact
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APPPENDIX 3.A: TABLES Chapter 3: As
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TRADE AND THE INFORMAL ECONOMY 4.1
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Chapter 4: Trade and the informal e
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For more than two decades, quantita
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