Editorial: The 80th anniversary of the Declaration of Philadelphia
and the Campaign for Working Time and Paid Holidays
This edition of IUR opens with a contribution from
the General Secretary of the ITUC, who has a stark
warning to all, that labour movement values “are
under attack worldwide”. Triangle argues that
“unregulated, neo-liberal globalisation” has “left
billions of people behind”. As he explains, this has
created the conditions for a backlash feeding a
worrying “rising tide of authoritarian and totalitarian
regimes”. To respond to these threats, and recapture
some initiative, Triangle outlines the ITUC’s For
Democracy campaign, which he describes as “a
blueprint for reimagining a more equal global
economy in service of humanity”. It is time, Triangle
urges, “to make good on the promises made in the
ILO Declaration of Philadelphia”. Law professor Alain
Supiot shares Triangle’s sense of foreboding,
observing in interview that “everywhere, we see the
dismantling of solidarity systems inherited from
tradition or the welfare state” and a “programming”
of workers that is “leading to new forms of
dehumanisation of work”. Social justice, he tells us,
“was at the heart of the Declaration of Philadelphia”
but “is totally absent” from the new agenda.
Ewing calls Philadelphia “the most progressive
legal text in international law ever created” and “a
timeless Bill of Workers’ Rights, which if fully
implemented would transform the lives of workers
throughout the world”. But he fears that the
Declaration “is in danger of becoming a relic of an
age long since passed”, and shares concerns about
new forms of work, where “the commodification of
labour is now hidden in plain sight, workers
disrespected as objects in a ‘labour market’ and
treated like any other article of commerce: paid by
the task, used only when needed, and discarded as
quickly as possible”. But while our contributors are
dismayed, they are not without optimism: Triangle
proposes “a more equal global economy in service of
humanity”; Ewing observes that the Declaration
“remains at least formally a live instrument” and that
of the choices currently being actively made by
governments around the world “none of these is
inevitable”; while Supiot reflects that the referral of
the right to strike dispute at the ILO to the
International Court of Justice is “a reminder of the
primacy of the rule of law over the power relations
in the international order”.
Turning to the second “focus” of this edition of
IUR, Byrne and Scalmer examine the regulation of
working time in the context of “a broad historical
survey of Australian union campaigns, from the
eight-hour day to a four-day week” of which modern
forms are now “continuing the movement’s long
tradition of taking action to secure a decent
work/life balance for working people”. While in
agreement that “shorter working hours are a marker
of social progress and job creation”, Yildirim sets out
a more cautious view from France’s CGT, observing
that some four-day week proposals come “without
any reduction in weekly working hours” and
warning unions that a reduction in working days on
that basis alone “is a false reduction”.
Zenroren’s Kurosawa is concerned by proposals
developed by a government panel reporting on “work
style” in Japan that favours ‘opt-outs’ or ‘derogations’
from working time limits that were only recently
established in a culture where karoshi (“death from
overwork”) remains a significant social problem.
Kurosawa observes that “the report’s proposals in
favour of exemptions from legal obligations are
pointless at a time when strict implementation of
worker protection provisions of relevant laws is called
for”. Kurosawa’s fears may be well-founded, judging by
the issues raised in Moretta’s contribution. In the UK,
even just three years after working time rules came
into force, those employers who were not restrained by
collective agreements “came to rely almost exclusively
on mass individual opt outs to exempt their
workforces from time limits”. This situation, Moretta
insists, is an “abuse of the individual opt out” and
“exactly what one would expect in the circumstances”.
Closing this edition, IUR looks at the long
development of the legal right to paid holidays
around the world, and the role of unions in both
advocating for these rights and in facilitating union-
backed holidays.
Daniel Blackburn, Editor
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IUR journal brings together the latest news, views and information on trade union rights worldwide, covering key issues from varied perspectives. IUR has an accessible format that is appreciated around the world by an audience of trade unionists, legal practitioners and academics. The journal is available in print and digital formats, with an online archive dating back to 1993.
Previous editions:
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Trade Unions Can and Must Help
to Rebuild Democracy
Luc Triangle
80th anniversary of Philadelphia
An Interview with Alain Supiot
The Declaration of Philadelphia:
80th Anniversary
Keith Ewing
ICTUR in Action "Interventions"
Union Struggles and
Working Time in Australia:
Past, Present, and Future
Liam Byrne and Sean Scalmer
The Four-Day Week,
a False Good Idea?
Ozlem Yildirim
Zenroren Demand
Government Panel’s Report
on ‘Work-Style’ Reform Be Retracted
Kurosawa Koichi
The UK and the regulation
of working time
Andrew Moretta
From Char-A-Bancs
to Holiday Camps:
The Campaign for Paid Rest
Daniel Blackburn
Worldwide
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