Economic growth alone does not eradicate inequalities. Problems such as inadequate wages, exclusion from work, exposure to risks and insufficient protection in the workplace, as well as poor levels of social protection, continue to impact negatively on the quality of work in many countries. In this picture of September 2023, a garnment worker in Bangladesh.
Trade unions are working against the clock to overcome the obstacles to achieving the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN reports are unanimous: the world is far from achieving the 2030 Agenda. Neither the funds made available nor the political action being taken are sufficient to deliver on the promise of building a better world that leaves no one behind.
While all 17 of the SDGs set out in the 2030 Agenda are equally important, SDG 8, focused on decent work and sustainable economic growth, is particularly important as it acts as a catalyst for progress on all the other SDGs, and especially the targets related to innovation, productive diversification and environmental sustainability.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) recognises and promotes the crucial role of Goal 8, which is why it set up the Global Monitor on SDG 8. This tool, which assesses the status of Goal 8 around the world, focuses on four key dimensions: economic well-being, job quality, labour vulnerability and labour rights.
In its 2023 edition, the SDG 8 Monitor assessed the situation in more than 150 countries, covering more than 98 per cent of the world’s population.
The results of this analysis, both by geographic region and by income group, reflect the range of challenges facing workers. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, workers there are the worst affected by their countries’ poor performance on all four of the dimensions assessed by the SDG 8 Monitor. In the Asia-Pacific region, progress towards SDG 8 is hampered in particular by the relentless attacks on labour rights, while in Latin America, the very limited progress towards SDG 8 is mainly owed to the high levels of inequality in wealth distribution.
On analysing the data from an income perspective, the significant difference between low-income and high-income countries comes as no surprise. What is surprising, however, is that the progress in a number of high-income countries is interspersed with occasional setbacks. Low-income and lower-middle-income countries, meanwhile, are clearly regressing, which is a cause for concern, given the risks both for workers and the sustainability of the societies in which they live.
The review also indicates that economic growth alone does not eradicate inequalities. Problems such as inadequate wages, exclusion from work, exposure to risks and insufficient protection in the workplace, as well as poor levels of social protection, continue to impact negatively on the quality of work in many countries, including the most developed economies.
The workers in these countries have been faced with significant restrictions on their rights and freedoms, including labour standards violations, unfair dismissals, reduced working hours and wages, and breaches of occupational health and safety standards. This negative trend was exacerbated by the health crisis triggered by the Covid pandemic.
In view of all these challenges, the ITUC has been calling, since 2018, for the development of a new social contract to be agreed on between workers, governments and employers. The aim of this contract is to achieve SDG 8, by responding to six workers’ demands: the creation of climate-friendly jobs – and a just transition; a labour protection floor for all workers; universal social protection; decent minimum wages and wage and income equality; gender equality and the elimination of all forms of discrimination; and a more inclusive global development system with renewed multilateralism. This call has been translated into actions by workers, and these actions have produced tangible results in many countries around the world.
In Botswana, for example, the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) has secured official membership of the Government Steering Committee on the SDGs, which monitors the UN’s Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2022-2026) in the country. In Argentina, the trade union movement was instrumental in the creation of the Social Participation Forum for SDG Implementation and Monitoring, which serves as a space for social dialogue between the government, other actors in Argentine society and the United Nations. In Bangladesh, trade unions managed to secure inclusion of the decent and sustainable job creation goal as one of the main objectives under the UN’s Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework in the country. In Spain, the trade union confederation Comisiones Obreras has secured legislative recognition of trade unions as development actors within Spain’s international cooperation system.
The influence of the work done by trade unions to secure a new social contract can also be seen in global processes. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, for example, reaffirmed this call in 2021 as part of initiatives such as Our Common Agenda and the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions.
UN member states are now negotiating how to implement these proposals. But reaching a consensus is difficult and seeing it translated into national policies even more so. The recent SDG Summit (18-19 September), which assessed the state of SDG implementation around the world, clearly showed that short-term economic interests and geopolitical tensions are continuing to hinder the achievement of Goal 8 and the 2030 Agenda.
The ITUC is ready for action. It has a plan. It has a strong proposal. But are governments ready to show real leadership and work together with the social partners to achieve the SDGs?
