A role for World Bank Procurement

1

Construction Workers, Vulnerability and
International Labor Standards

• A role for World Bank Procurement

• Fiona Murie International Federation Building
  and Wood Workers
• 24 March 2004

2
Working life in construction

• Construction provides much needed employment for
  many of the worlds poorest, the most vulnerable
  people, low skilled or entry level workers
• Of special importance for the landless poor
• Large numbers of rural - urban migrants look for
  work in construction
• The industry is dominated by micro enterprises
• 90 of firms have less than ten workers
• 111 million workers 75 in developing countries
• Workers are recruited through intermediary
  agents, labor only subcontractors or directly at
  pick up points for day laboring

 
3
Decent Work

• This is the main policy agenda of the
  International Labor Organization. Decent Work
  applies to all workers, including those on daily
  wages and in very temporary, informal employment.
  
• Decent Work is work that is carried out in a
  safe physical environment with conditions which
  respect the rights of workers as defined in
  national law and international conventions.

 
4
Reality is far from decent

• Employment is almost completely informal
• Exploitative, dangerous, dirty working conditions
  
• Inhumane living conditions, no amenities, water,
  shelter
• Hazardous Child labour in brick kilnsand
  quarries, roads and infrastructure
• Bonded Labour through debts and advances,
  especially with migrant labour
• Discrimination in employment and Inequality in
  wages
• Exploitative wages and long working hours
• Active hostility towards workers who try to
  organise

5
Working Conditions

• Every year over 100,000 construction workers are
  killed in site accidents
• Almost all of these deaths are foreseeable and
  preventable

 
6
Invisible and ignored

• Work related ill health accounts for many
  hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.
  Asbestos diseases alone kill about 100, 000
  people every year
• yet.
• Published data grossly underestimates the real
  number of accidents, and reporting of work
  related ill health is practically non existent.

7
Building Ill Health

• Deafness
• Vibration syndromes
• Back injuries
• Musculo skeletal disorders
• Respiratory illness, asthma, cancer
• Central nervous system disorders
• Reproductive ill health
• Renal, hepatic,cardio-vascular problems
• Dermatitis
• Dengue, malaria
• HIV AIDS

8
Costs at macro economic level

• Prevention of injuries and ill health is a
  development issue
• 4 GDP of any nation lost on workplace accidents
  and ill health
• A practical area for immediate improvements and
  tangible benefits to the poor

9
Poverty Reduction

• Equitable access to fairly paid employment with
  reasonable and safe working conditions is an
  essential element of any poverty reduction
  strategy
• Real life problems of construction workers are
  addressed by International Labour Standards and
  very often by national laws which transpose them
  or which are in broad conformity with them

10
Exploitative employmentand labour practices

• Precarious contractual conditions, informal work,
  migration
• Workers seen as a cost by employers
• Productivity and time pressure
• Low trade union density, low social status,
  poverty, lack of respect for human and trade
  union rights
• Governments passive and permissive on workers
  rights and social protection

11
Laws essential but ignored

• Problem is not the legislation - its lack of
  implementation in practice
• Recognize lack of capacity of governments to
  enforce
• Lack of good governance and institutional
  participation to promote
• Some employers will take advantage and exploit,
  others are simply unaware
• Workers powerless given their lack of bargaining
  power in an unequal labor market

12
Informality and cutthroatcompetition undermine
rights

• There is an extremely high level of competition
  in the construction industry and contractors win
  bids by lowering their costs.
• Labor is a major component of these costs.

13
Construction contract

• Thus the winning tender may well be the one
  which pays the lowest wages, does not provide
  safety equipment or have coverage for accidents,
  and which has the largest proportion of informal
  workers, for whom no tax or social security is
  paid, and who are not covered in practice by any
  legal or social protection.

14
Construction contract

• In this situation, the construction contract
  becomes a potentially important mechanism both
  for taking forward the implementation of labor
  standards and for demonstrating the benefits.
• There is a clear need for clauses that relate
  specifically to labor standards to be included
  and strengthened in the Banks SBDs and other
  Contract documents.

15
Construction contract

• This places formal responsibility on the
  contractor, but it is important to develop a
  process around the contract, which involves
  awareness raising and capacity building for the
  client, contractor and employer, as well as for
  the workforce, and which puts in place agreed
  mechanisms for monitoring compliance.

16
International Labor Standards

• The ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principlesand
  Rights at Work (1998)
• Core Labor Standards cover four areas and are
  defined in eight ILO Conventions
• Freedom of association and the effective
  recognition of the right to collective
  bargaining,
• Elimination of forced or compulsory labor,
• Abolition of child labor
• Elimination of discrimination in respect of
  employment and occupation.

17
Other Key ILS

• Health, Safety and welfare of the workforce to be
  protected
• Wages to be paid in full and on time, to meet
  legal minima and be sufficient for basic needs.
• Working hours to be limited overtime to be paid
• All relevant social security regimes to be
  applied to all workers without distinction.
• Rights to Workers Representation
• Convention 94 Labour Clauses in Public Procurement

18
The Banks SBDs and Contracts

• Modernize and strengthen current labor clauses in
  Standard Bidding Documents
• The ILS should be integrated into World Bank
  procurement as mandatory elements of the Bank's
  Standard Bidding Documents
• Currently only a few recommended labor clauses
  are included in the SBDs.
• Increasing trend is smaller contracts.
• The SBDs for smaller works do not include any
  labor clauses.

19
SBDs and Contracts

• In conformity with the Bank's poverty reduction
  objective and its recognition of the necessity to
  reduce workplace risks faced by the poor, key
  protections contained in ILO health and safety
  Conventions, the Convention guaranteeing regular
  and full payment of wages, as well as the
  Convention on Government Procurement should be
  included

20
ILS and the WBmaking the ILS operational

• A clear policy statement from the Bank expressing
  commitment to ILS
• The inclusion of new labor clauses and
  strengthening of existing labor clauses in the
  Standard Bidding Documents and other contract
  documents
• Implementation through mainstreaming ILS into the
  Country Procurement Assessment reviews and
  Reports, Country Assistance Strategies and
  Poverty Reduction Strategies

21
Making ILS operational

• Capacity building in member countries,
  specifically in procurement and for the
  construction industry more broadly, including
  development of practical tools such as training
  courses and guidance notes.
• Encouraging implementation through verification
  and monitoring of compliance.
• Networking and increased cooperation on ILS in
  particular with the ILO but also with other
  multilateral development anks

22
Addressing workers rights

• All workers have rights, regardless of employment
  status, but in real life
• Unorganized, exploitative working conditions and
  inhumane living conditions,rural -urban migration
  as survival strategy
• Address immediate needs for shelter and
  protection water, fuel, food child care and
  education healthand above all employment and
  Decent Work.

23
Networking and Future work

• Work more closely with other IFIs, the ILO and
  the social partners, such as the IFBWW and
  Contractors Associations
• Capacity building,participatory approach to
  project management and contract compliance to
  demonstrate benefits of labor standards and
  Decent Work