SOLIDAR celebrates 12th World Day for Decent Work and highlights its commitment to achieve SDG8

This year marks the 12th World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) on 7 October 2019. The international theme of the WDDW this year is to reinforce the call for investment in care, which is fundamental to achieving gender equality at work and in society.

As strongly emphasised in the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)’s campaign for investing in care:

• work in the care sector remains significantly undervalued and characterised by poor pay and working conditions;
• a majority of workers in the care sector are women;
• more than three-quarters of unpaid care work is done by women: this is equivalent to 13% of global GDP, or $10 trillion per year.

Care work is a crucial element for human well-being as well as an essential component for a vibrant, sustainable economy with a productive labour force. Care work ensures the complex and life-sustaining web on which our very existence depends. Women shoulder a disproportionate share of unpaid work around the world, and gender imbalances in the distribution of care work constitute a root cause of women’s economic and social disempowerment.

The recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work promotes multiple development objectives, going beyond Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 (gender equality) to also address SDG 1 (ending all poverty), SDG 3 (healthy lives and promotion of well-being for all at all ages), SDG 4 (inclusive and quality education for all), SDG 8 (creation of decent employment for all and promoting inclusive growth), and SDG 10 (reduction of inequalities).

SOLIDAR stands with care workers and the labour movement to call for decent care jobs and services; and takes this opportunity to recall its key role and crucial involvement in the campaign leading to the World Day for Decent Work.

SOLIDAR, through its network of Members and partners active in many countries inside and outside Europe, is committed to work towards the promotion of decent work for all, and thus works on its four pillars: productive and freely chosen work; guaranteeing workers’ rights; extending social protection and encouraging social dialogue. It does so by recognising that freedom of association and collective bargaining as preconditions for the realisation of economic and social rights.

Through its initiatives in the field, such as illustrated in this booklet of case studies and related infographics, SOLIDAR wishes to emphasise the crucial role of independent, democratic and representative civil society organisations and workers’ organisations in striving to promote access to social security, better working conditions, and adequate minimum wages for all workers in all sectors; in raising awareness of workers about their rights, including amongst the most exploited; and in strengthening social dialogue institutions to reduce informality and to improve working conditions and the lives of the most vulnerable workers.