Decent work for all, is it an ideal?

Socio Economic Security Survey Conference 2007:

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Socio Economic Security (SES) is a broader concept encompassing security aspects of employment, working environment, income and even the space for voice representation at place of work ( individual and collective representation including trade union rights).

One of the important components of the Socio Economic Security is income security. A fixed income generated at the end of the moth in terms of profit or pay may not provide an income security. In addition to being a fixed income, the income generated should be able to meet the basic needs of an individual including housing, health, and education.

Employment security is another aspect of Socio Economic Security which looks into the aspects of security of employment against the dynamic in the employment market; whether there are employment opportunities or the employment opportunities are shrinking in some sphere of activities due to economic setbacks or conditions adversely affecting these sectors hampering growth.

The factors which affect the growth of labour markets include inflation, political instability and security conditions which has adversely affected tourism sector. Work Security looks into the aspect of safety at work place and how far the working environment is prone to workplace accidents, occupational hazards, health hazards, political threats or discrimination.

One's ability to improve skills and career prospects with upward mobility in career ladder is another dimension known as Skill Reproduction Security. This includes opportunities for learning, acquiring skills, improving knowledge and skills on the part of employees in order to advance their career.

Representation Security means the employees ability to air their grievances to an authority and get redressed in a satisfactory manner and whether there are institutional mechanisms to address the grievances in individual and collective capacities.

Representative security entails recognition of trade union rights including right to protest and represent workers' interest.

Basic Need Security is that the source of income should be adequate to meet the basic needs of an individual or a household; food, clothing, shelter and transport and other requirements.

In addition to Socio Economic Security, Enterprise Labour Flexibility and Security (ELFS) is used to assess the labour and employment practices and their outcomes at enterprise level.

Enterprise Labour Flexibility and Security (ELFS) survey is an international research tool which was launched in 1988. A primary objective of ELFS was to complement national Labour Force Surveys (LFS) and identify commendable labour and employment practices and the outcomes at the enterprise level.

ELFS were conducted in Bulgaria, Chile, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, South Africa and Ukraine to examine key issues such as changes in firms internal labour markets, links between structural adjustment policies and enterprise reactions, impact of labour, impact of changes in corporate governance, technology and work organisation on employment and its forms.

ELFS have also gathered a large amount of firm-level empirical information on vital areas such as hiring and training practices, structure of wage and benefit levels, working conditions, bargaining arrangements and safeguards, worker representation and the position of women against men in workplace.

In Sri Lankan context, ILO in collaboration with Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC) of the University of Colombo has conducted SES and ELFS in order to assess the current status of Socio Economic Security at household levels and the labor market flexibility at small, medium and large scale enterprise levels.

The research finding of series of SES and ELFS will be presented in a conference to be held on 16-17 July, 2007 at Blue Waters Wadduwa.

In his presentation on Survey methodology, Sagara Chandrasekara, stated that primarily two data collection methods were used in gathering information; a sample survey and comprehensive qualitative case studies with a sample of 2700 and the survey covered districts of Colombo, Kurunegala, Hambantota, Nuwara Eliya, and Ampara.

Household has been taken as a primary unit for SES while qualitative case studies were conducted in Batticaloa and Hambantota in order to get an insight into certain selected issue and problems on SES.

The principle objective of the ELFS was to examine the process of employment creation, labour utilisation, working conditions and labour relations at enterprise level. For ELFS, a sample of 600 Western Province based enterprises had been taken as more than 45% of total enterprises located in the province.

Among the sample a large number of establishments fell into the category of Food Production and Beverage accounting for 26 per cent, followed by Apparel 10 per cent and top managerial positions and executive were held by male (81.46 %) and only 18.54 per cent of female held such positions. District wise, a large number of enterprises were in Colombo District (226), Gampaha (206) and Kalutara (62) while 50 enterprises from Districts of Kurunegala and Ratnapura were taken for the study.

In the presentation Dr. Athula Ranasinghe, SPARC- University of Colombo, stated that the degree of basic security at household level was not satisfactory.

For instance, he pointed out that 21 per cent of the households had poor ventilation and 24 per cent of households had not maintained yards well. While 35 per cent of the households pay for water, 11 per cent worried about the safety of the drinking water and 19 per cent worried of quantity of water.

Among detail accounts of Socio Economic indications, Dr. Ranasinghe stated that large number of respondents were unsatisfactory of their present income and future prospects.

He has also pointed out that 40 per cent of enterprises did not have proper retrenchment policy and 60 per cent do not pay other than separation fees. Increasing phenomenon of casual and contractual labour arrangements had also been observed in the labour market.

Ms. Sarala Emmanuel's presentation on selected case studies conducted in Districts of Hambantota and Batticaloa dealt with structural vulnerabilities and people's coping mechanisms in situation of adversities.

She pointed out that the traditional safety networks had miserably failed to meet the situation of exigencies and peoples' coping mechanisms were very weak. Mahinda Pushpakumara's presentation will focus on Labour Pattern in Sri Lanka and its socio-Economic implications, citing violent separation as the major reason for labour turnover in Sri Lanka and that the labour turn over, by and large, depends on size of the firm and labour turn over is very low among BOI ventures.

Dr. Nimal Navaratne of Department of Management will focus on the fundamental changes that took place in the labour market including the structural adjustments with private sector taking the upper hand in the labour market, assuming the role of principal employment provider.

He focuses on the socio-economic implications of those changes. Prof. Siri Hettige will make a presentation on income security issues and the presentation covers the areas of level of income (absolute poverty), income distribution (relative poverty), stability in income and diverse social security schemes.

He will explore major issues relating to poverty and social exclusion in Sri Lankan context and implications for policy reform.

Presentation on Socio Economic Security through conflict sensitive and strategic CSR' by Ruwanthi Jayasundara and Dr. Markus Mayer provides an analysis of issues in CSR in Sri Lankan context, especially the mean understanding of the concept and CSR has not been incorporated into business strategies of companies and make some recommendations to rectify deficiencies.

The conference will shed light on the present status of labour market and how far the Sri Lankan employees enjoy decent work compared to other countries in the region.

[email protected]
 

****

Socio-Economic Security the seven dimensions

Labour Market Security refers to adequate availability of productive employment opportunities. (Based on a broad concept of gainful work for pay or profit).

Employment security refers to the security of keeping one's employment. In the context of an establishment this relates to policies and practices relating to recruitment, retrenchment and voluntary separation. It relates, establishment policies and practices relating to providing for (not providing for) continued employment to different categories of employees through various types of structural arrangements.

Income security means adequate compensation for employees. Therefore, it relates to wage and salary structure as well as the structure of monetary and non-monitory benefits for the employees.

Work Security relates to protection against workplace accident and illness. It includes provision of safe working condition, limits on working time and conformity to health and safety regulations.

Job Security refers to the occupational dimension of work which includes policies and practices relating to career development and job qualifications.

Skill reproduction security means the availability of widespread opportunities to acquire and retain skills through enterprise programmes and practices relating to training.

Voice representation security is the protection and promotion of collective voice of employees, including recognition of independent trade unions and their right to organise, negotiate and protest (Strike).