News/Reports
Deprecated: Required parameter $article_grouping_direction follows optional parameter $type in /home4/globalh4/public_html/modules/mod_articles_category_verge/helper.php on line 402
| File | Description | File size |
|---|---|---|
 GFINewsletter041509.pdf | 254 kB |
| File | Description | File size |
|---|---|---|
| GFINewsletter021709.pdf | 272 kB |
G20 leaders: Focus on lifting citizens out of poverty through decent jobs and living wages
By Karen A. Tramontano, Founder, Global Fairness Initiative and Sharon Waxman, President and CEO, Fair Labor Associationi>
This weekend, India will host the G20 Leaders' Summit, bringing together the finance ministers of the major economic powers that drive the world’s global production.
This meeting is an essential forum to address significant issues related to the global economy. Critical issues are on the agenda, including climate change, the war in Ukraine, food insecurity, global poverty, and the U.S. inclusive economic growth agenda. One noticeably absent issue is a direct discussion about how the G20 countries can support decent jobs in informal and formal economies. Since India is hosting the G20, it is well-placed to lead this conversation.
In 2022, the World Bank identified India as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. It already is South Asia’s largest economy and ranks fifth worldwide at $3.5 trillion. But jobs in the informal economy – where there are no legal rights for workers – dominate. India's informal economy currently makes up 43.1% of its GDP. Some estimates indicate that up to 90% of Indians work in the informal sector without formal employment rights or contracts.
The laws in India – the Employee's State Insurance Act of 1948 and the Employee's Provident Fund of 1952 – require medical, sickness, maternity, disability, and retirement benefits for workers. But these benefits only apply to those working in the formal economy, specifically to enterprises that employ more than ten workers.
It’s the same story in Brazil, South Africa, and other countries attending the G20 Leaders' Summit. A majority of the workforce in these countries is in the informal sector, where benefits and legal rights remain elusive. And, while the percentage of workers in the informal economy in the U.S. is not large, the circumstances for those workers - who tend to be migrants and other vulnerable workers – are the same.
While over the last ten years, many G20 countries, including India, have reduced the number of people living in extreme poverty (below $2.15 per person per day), G20 leaders must focus on decent jobs and informality cohesively. Until they do, the related challenges of child forced labor and lack of living wages that have plagued the people of these countries will persist.
When the G20 leaders meet next week, they can tackle this issue head-on. They can start by challenging the ill-fated "trickle-down" economic model that strives to tie global reductions in state spending to increased private investment to boost incomes and reduce poverty, which consistently fails to reduce poverty or create decent jobs and often instead ushers a race to the bottom on wages and labor protections.
The G20 must re-prioritize the economic needs of the bottom half of its society and focus its policy initiatives on lifting them out of poverty through decent jobs and living wages. The economies of the G20 need to work for and meet the human needs of all their citizens.
Thank You Myrtle
It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Myrtle Witbooi, our dear friend, a GFI Board Member, and a champion of the rights of workers across the globe. Myrtle has been a guide star of the movement to secure the rights of domestic workers for nearly 60 years and she has ensured that the millions of women who work in our homes and care for our loved ones are afforded the protections and voice that has been denied them for so long. With her death we have lost one of the great labor leaders of our time and a resonant voice that would never be silenced, but through her work we have gained a movement and mission that can no longer be ignored or undone. Her cause is our cause and inspires our mission to create a more equitable, sustainable world for the working poor. We mourn her loss, but we celebrate her extraordinary contribution to our common good and to the countless women whose lives she uplifted.
Myrtle was the 2015 recipient of GFI's Fairness Award where she was honored for her leadership in influencing the adoption of the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers (No. 189) and for her life's work to secure greater rights and recognition for the more than 75 million domestic workers across the globe. As a domestic worker herself in apartheid South Africa, Myrtle organized the first South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU)s in 1965 and went on to found and lead the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) which was instrumental in influencing the creation of Convention 189. Throughout her life she lead the struggle to ensure greater dignity and security for women in their work and through her leadership countries across the Global South and North have adopted laws supporting domestic workers. Her commitment to the principles of self-reliance and collective action are the foundation of so many worker-centered organizations like the Global Fairness Initiative and with her passing we redouble our commitment to the mission and model that she set forth. Our thanks Myrtle for your leadership, your compassion and your dear friendship. You will be missed.
