Global Citizenship
Global
Labour
and
Employment

 
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00Introduction

Welcome to the Global Labour and Employment module.

It focuses on global labour systems and the relationships they create between companies, governments, and workers.

In this module you will more specifically learn about the opportunities and challenges that these systems create, as well as the power dynamics that characterise them.

You will engage in activities that will allow you to understand the condition of workers in the globalised, digital world, as well as current labour practices.

You will also examine solutions to the issues faced by the labour force at local, national, and global levels.

The module features self-reflection and references sections at the end to help you go further and take action for social justice.

01Global Labour Systems

Let’s begin with a brief overview of global labour systems and the main forces that drive them:

02Worker Challenges

The latest report from the International Labour Organisation makes the situation very clear regarding the challenges that workers face in the world today:

“Hundreds of millions of people lack access to paid employment. Those who are employed all too often lack access to social protection and fundamental rights at work, the majority of workers being informal or unable to express their interests through social dialogue. Incomes are distributed highly unequally, such that many workers fail to escape poverty. Labour market prospects are highly unequal, not only across but also within countries. Gender gaps exist in all areas of the world of work, and young people face particular challenges.”

Samaan, D., Ernst, E., Sánchez Martínez, M., Horne, R., Kühn, S., & Gomi, R. (2023). World employment and social outlook. Trends 2023, p.11. 1st ed. International Labour Organisation.

Let’s take a closer look at the key challenges this report identifies.

Access to work

Look at the following national unemployment rates for 2022 and answer the questions at the end.

National Unemployement Rates for 2022
Please make your selection.
Incorrect. Take a closer look at the data for Africa.
Correct. With a 35.6% unemployment rate, South Africa is the country with the highest rate in the world.
Please make your selection.
Incorrect. Take a closer look at the data for Europe.
Correct. The lowest unemployment rate in the world is in the Czech Republic, at 2.3%.

As you can see on the following world map from the International Monetary Fund, many nations in Africa, the Arab States, and other regions do not share their unemployment data, which makes it difficult to fully grasp the issue of unemployment worldwide:

Unemployment Rate Map (2023)
20% or more
15% - 20%
10% - 15%
5% - 10%
Less than 5%
Source: International Monetary Fund

Youth Employment

People aged 16 to 24 face particular challenges when trying to enter and to stay in global labour systems.

Here is a key term that relates to those issues:

Here are some key points about the NEET status in the world today:

quote
“There are currently around 1.3 billion young people globally, of whom 267 million are classified as NEET.”
quote
“In 2020, more than one in five (22.4 per cent) young people in the world were categorised as NEET, the vast majority of them, young women (14.0 per cent of young men compared to 31.2 per cent women). NEET status also appears to be more permanent for young women than for young men.”
quote
“Being NEET is said to have a strong negative impact on physical, emotional, and psychosocial wellbeing of young people (Dickens and Marx 2020) and life-long negative socioeconomic consequences, including chronic unemployment and poverty (Backman and Nilsson 2016). While critiqued by some, SDG Target 8.6 engages a pressing societal challenge regarding the declining quality of work worldwide. Gig work and temp jobs are some of the examples of the changing relations of work, leading to the emergence of the 'precariat - a social class of workers who lack work security, predictability, occupational identity and benefits (Standing 2011).”
Source: Cieslik, K., Barford, A. & Vira, B. (2022). Young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) in Sub-Saharan Africa: Sustainable development target 8.6 missed and reset, Journal of Youth Studies, (25:8), pp.1126-1147.
DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2021.1939287

Youth who are not in education, employment, or training are in this situation for very different reasons, but they are among the most vulnerable when it comes to work.

Youth unemployment is indeed on average three times higher than for adults. In many countries, especially developing ones, there simply is a lack of job opportunities for young people, even for the many who have completed university degrees, and women are particularly affected.

Gender Gaps

Even though there have been some improvements over the past 30 years, women are still far from having equal access to income in the world, as the graph below shows. Notice how low women’s income share is in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), and how it has declined in China.

Source: Chancel, L. (lead author), Piketty, T., Saez, E. & Zucman, G. (2021). World inequality report 2022, p.104. World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics.
https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2023/03/D_FINAL_WIL_RIM_RAPPORT_2303.pdf
Female Labour Income Share Across the World, 1990-2020
Interpretation: The female labour income share rose from 34% to 38% in North America between 1990 and 2020.
Sources and series: wir2022.wid.world/methodology and Neef and Robilliard (2021)

Key Points

Although it does happen, the problem is not simply that women earn less for the same jobs as men. One point is that, for various reasons, more women on average choose careers in teaching, nursing, and other fields that tend to be lower-pay. Another is that when women go into higher-pay fields, social expectations and stereotypes often make it more difficult for them to reach high-level positions. They also tend to have more breaks in their careers when they have children, which makes them rise more slowly on the corporate ladder. In some regions, as in the Middle East, the problem is simply that few women are allowed to work at all. In other words, there are many factors that explain the gender income gap, and equal pay for equal work is only one of the many changes that need to happen to close the gap.

Income Inequality

Income Gaps

Look at the following map to get a global picture of income inequality in 2021, based on the income gap between the top 10% of the population and the bottom 50% (the darker the colour, the more income inequality there is), then answer the question below.

Top 10/Bottom 50 Income Gaps Across the World, 2021
5-12
12-13
13-16
16-19
19-50+
Intepretation: In Brazil, the bottom 50% earns 29 times less than the top 10%. The value is 7 in France. Income is measured after pension and unemployment payments and benefits received by individuals but before other taxes they pay and transfers they receive.
Sources and series: wir2022.wid.world/methdology
Source: Chancel, L. (lead author), Piketty, T., Saez, E. & Zucman, G. (2021). World inequality report 2022, p.12. World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics.
https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2023/03/D_FINAL_WIL_RIM_RAPPORT_2303.pdf
According to the map, can a wealthy country also have high income inequality?
Yes
No
Please make your selection.
Incorrect. Look at the United States.
Correct. The United States, for instance, is a wealthy country with a high average income, but it also has a high level of income inequality.
Income Shares Across the World

The following graph shows what percentage of the total regional income share the bottom 50%, the middle 40%, and the top 10% of the population get. Study it and answer the questions.

The poorest half lags behind:
Bottom 50%, middle 40% and top 10% income shares across the world in 2021
Source: Chancel, L. (lead author), Piketty, T., Saez, E. & Zucman, G. (2021). World inequality report 2022, p.13. World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics.
https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2023/03/D_FINAL_WIL_RIM_RAPPORT_2303.pdf
Please make your selection.
Incorrect. Look at the chart again.
Correct. In the Middle East and North Africa region, the top 10% of the population get 58% of the region’s income, while the bottom 50% only get less than 10%.
Please make your selection.
Incorrect. Look at the chart again.
Correct. In Europe, the top 10% of the population get about 36% of the region’s income, while the bottom 50% get about 19%.
A bit of historical perspective.

Income inequality has roughly doubled in the world since 1820, as the following graphs indicate. The first one compares the average income ratio of the top 10% of the population to the bottom 50%. The second one compares the top 1% to the bottom 50%.

Global Income Inequality: T10/B50 Ratio, 1820-2020
Intepretation: Global inequality, as measured by the ratio T10/B50 between the average income of the top 10% and the average income of the bottom 50%, more than doubled between 1820 and 1920, from less than 20 to about 40, and stabilized around 40 between 1910 and 2020. It is too early to say whether the decline in global inequality observed since 2008 will continue. Income is measured per capita after pension and unemployement insurance transfers and before income and wealth taxes.
Sources and series: wir2022.wid.world/methdology and Chancel and Piketty (2021).
Global Income Inequality: T1/B50 Ratio, 1820-2020
Interpretation: Global inequality, as measured by the ratio T1/B50 between the average income of the top 1% and the average income of the bottom 50%, more than doubled between 1820 and 1910, from about 70 to about 180, and stabilized around 150 between 1910 and 2020. It is too early to say whether the decline in global inequality observed since 2008 will continue. Income is measured per capita after pension and unemployement insurance transfers and before income and wealth taxes.
Sources and series: wir2022.wid.world/methodology/ and Chancel and Piketty (2021).
Source: Chancel, L. (lead author), Piketty, T., Saez, E. & Zucman, G. (2021). World inequality report 2022, p.55, p.59. World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics.
https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2023/03/D_FINAL_WIL_RIM_RAPPORT_2303.pdf

Key Point About Global Income Dynamics

“In certain countries, outward flows reduce actual incomes received by nationals by a large margin, while in others, they increase income significantly. Typically, capital income flows go from poor nations to rich countries, which own capital abroad. It is essential to have a proper sense of these dynamics when looking at global inequality.”

Source: Chancel, L. (lead author), Piketty, T., Saez, E. & Zucman, G. (2021). World inequality report 2022, p.55, p.59. World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics.
https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2023/03/D_FINAL_WIL_RIM_RAPPORT_2303.pdf

Protection and Rights

Social protection refers to all the forms of assistance that workers can receive whenever they are not able to work, which is essential to helping them climb out of poverty, withstand economic crises, and become productive citizens. Many people in the world do not have any social protection at all, however.

Take a look at the map below and answer the question that follows.

Social Protection Coverage Around the World

Share of population covered by at least one social protection benfit (in percent), latest year

The boundaries shown on this map do not imply endorsement or acceptance by the ILO.
Last updated on 9 September 2022
Source: ILOSTAT
Please make your selection.
Correct. In these regions the percentage of workers covered by at least one social protection is the lowest in the world.
Note
In addition to all those issues,

digital technology is still transforming labour markets. The rise of digital technology is indeed referred to as “the fourth industrial revolution,” and it comes with both opportunities and new challenges for workers worldwide.

So let’s now focus more specifically on digital labour platforms and their consequences on global labour dynamics.

03Digital Platforms

Watch the following video:

04Solutions and Advocacy

Globalisation has led to interconnectedness at every level, bringing all labour stakeholders into increasingly complex dynamics. Local changes now have consequences nationally and internationally, often affecting workers the most. To face the challenges associated with new labour practices in the globalised digital age, policymakers, business leaders, worker representatives, as well as international organisations, have to come together to find solutions that foster healthy contributions to societies by all. Here are some of the main solutions available at this time.

Governance and Social Protection

The most powerful tools are laws and regulations, and it is first up to governments to find the right balance so that labour may bring benefits to all parts of society. Public governance relies on state power to make sure that this happens within countries, and on international cooperation to make sure that it can happen globally.

A major example is the effort spearheaded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G20 to end corporate tax avoidance, which began after the 2008 financial crisis and continues today.

Here is the 2018 video that marks a major step forward, with 80 countries signing tax treaty reforms to end profit shifting and base erosion. By December 2022, 135 countries had signed on, and progress is still being made. Watch the video and answer the questions below.

Strengthening Tax Treaties to Fight Tax Avoidance

According to the video, how much tax money disappeared from state funds worldwide due to corporate tax avoidance?
Please make your selection.
Key Point

As governments’ tax revenues increase thanks to decreases in corporate tax avoidance, it is essential that public spending on social protection should increase accordingly.

Social Protection Types

Here are the types of social protection that have been identified as essential for workers and that about 4 billion people still lack in the world. Tap or click each one to see a definition.

Unemployment Benefits Injury Benefits Invalidity Pension Maternity / Paternity Leave Healthcare Plan Old-Age Pension

Unemployment Benefits

Money given to workers by the state while they are trying to find a job.

Injury Benefits

Money given to a worker by the state in case of a work-related injury until they can return to work.

Invalidity Pension

Money given to a worker for the rest of their life in case of a work-related injury or illness that prevents them from ever working again.

Maternity / Paternity Leave

A certain amount of time taken off work to care for a baby, with the guarantee that the parent will have his or her job back when returning to work. In most cases, the state and the company both contribute to pay the worker during parental leave, but sometimes the time off is unpaid.

Healthcare Plan

Access to health services and financial help to cover associated costs.

Old-Age Pension

Money given by the state to a worker for the rest of their life when they reach the legal retirement age.
Adapted from International Labour Organisation. Our story, your story, Chapter 5: Social protection. https://www.ilo.org/100/en/story/protection/
The Informal Economy Challenge

“The informal economy is the diversified set of economic activities, enterprises, jobs, and workers that are not regulated or protected by the state. The concept originally applied to self-employment in small unregistered enterprises. It has been expanded to include wage employment in unprotected jobs. The informal economy tends to be stigmatised as “illegal”, “underground”, “black market” or “grey market”. It is often called the "shadow economy" and characterised as illegal or unethical activity. The generalisation is unfair. The vast majority of informal workers are trying to earn an honest living against great odds. Rather than working in the shadows, a great many work in public spaces and make huge contributions to communities and economies.”

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). Informal economy.
https://www.wiego.org/informal-economy
Informal Economy Worldwide
61 %
of the working population

Percentage of the working population earning a living in the informal economy worldwide according to the International Labour Organisation’s 2018 estimate. This represents 2 billion people.

Universal Social Protection
Universal Social Protection

The informal economy is central to many people’s livelihood strategies, which refer to all the activities people engage in to make a living and to survive, but because it operates outside of government rules, it cannot easily offer social protection to its workers. Formulating protection policies that include informal economy workers is therefore a necessary solution to ensure global social justice.

Child labour is closely related to the lack of social protection, affecting 160 million children as of 2021, according to UNICEF.
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/child-labour-rises-160-million-first-increase-two-decades

The ultimate goal is to reach universal social protection, which refers to a basic level of social protection for everyone in the world.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility refers to the need for companies to make meaningful contributions to society beyond profits. It involves the acknowledgement and protection of the needs and interests of their workers, customers, partners, and of the communities in which their activities take place.

Watch the following video and answer the questions to find out more about this key solution.

Please make your selection.
Which of the following defines a socially responsible company according to the video?
Please make your selection.
Careers in Corporate Social Responsibility

As companies increase their corporate social responsibility efforts, many jobs and careers have opened up in this area. This allows an increasing number of young professionals to participate and make a positive change from within companies themselves.

Collective Bargaining and Social Dialogue

Workers themselves also have the power to improve their conditions, but they cannot do it individually. Collective bargaining refers to the process of workers standing in solidarity and sending representatives to negotiate their working conditions with employers and governments.

Collective bargaining and the dialogue it makes possible are a major force for social justice. Throughout history they have allowed workers to make significant progress and gain important rights, but billions of workers in the world still have no representation and are still excluded from such progress.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), social justice can be achieved when there is a balance and openness on all sides, leading to what it refers to as tripartism. In this situation, meaningful and constructive conversations can lead to solutions and progress. This is how the ILO represents it.

Source: https://www.ilo.org/100/en/story/tripartism

Key Points

Power asymmetries in labour systems can be balanced by collective, local, national, and international efforts to implement practices that foster social justice, enabling governments to contribute through legislation and public spending, companies to contribute through tax compliance and corporate social responsibility, and allowing employees to work safely and participate in the definition of their working conditions.

Based on those elements, here are some key questions to assess any labour practice or decision:
  1. Does it promote fair treatment, non-discrimination and equal opportunity of workers?
  2. Does it promote worker well-being in safe and healthy conditions?
  3. Does it respect and / or advance the social protection rights of workers?
  4. Does it comply with national labour and employment laws?
  5. Does it promote a fair distribution of income and profits?
  6. Is it monitored by government and / or industry agencies?
  7. Does it allow for input by worker representatives?
  8. Does it benefit the local community?

05Recap and Glossary

Key Points

  1. The relationships between companies, governments, and workers are determined by legislation, regulation, contracts, and terms of use.
  2. The less regulation there is, the more companies can do what they want. This can lead to great innovation and opportunities, but also to threats to jobs and working conditions.
  3. Globalisation has led to much deregulation, which has allowed multinationals to relocate jobs, activities, as well as their profits, to take advantage of the best conditions in the world. This gives these companies a lot more power.
  4. Job displacement leads to labour reallocation, or reskilling and upskilling, as workers lose their jobs in their countries, but it also leads to job creations and new opportunities in other countries.
  5. Profit shifting leads to base erosion and is one of the most important causes of decline in state funds in the world, affecting both developing and developed nations.
  6. The main challenges workers have to face in the world are: access to work, youth-related education, training and employment issues, gender gaps, income inequality, and the lack of social protection.
  7. The informal economy takes up 61% of the world’s labour force, which makes universal social protection difficult to reach.
  8. Digital labour platforms are the latest developments in labour practices. They provide new money-making opportunities for millions in the world, but they also have replaced the traditional employer-employee relationship with a more precarious one that considers workers as independent and therefore not protected by the platform and its parent company.
  9. The main solutions to local, national, and global labour challenges depend on public governance and spending, corporate tax compliance and social responsibility, and on collective bargaining and social dialogue.
  10. Labour practices and decisions can be assessed based on the extent to which they respect and protect workers’ rights, labour laws, and income fairness, as well as on the degree to which they benefit local communities.

Glossary

The following definitions are adapted from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, and the articles, webpages, and books on the reference list.

  1. Algorithmic management The matching of workers with businesses or clients on digital labour platforms, based on sets of rules and automated processes.
  2. Base erosion The decrease in the amount of taxable corporate profits.
  3. Contract An official written agreement between a work or service provider and the person or business hiring the worker, which details all the features of the work relationship.
  4. Corporate social responsibility The need for companies to make meaningful contributions to society.
  5. Corporate tax rate The percentage of net profits that companies have to pay to a country’s government in the form of taxes.
  6. Digital economy All the economic activities that rely on digital technology and data.
  7. Digital labour platforms Online entities that connect workers with businesses or clients, or directly engage workers to provide labour services, through online applications.
  8. Gig economy All the labour activities that are based on short-term, part-time assignments undertaken by independent workers.
  9. Gig work Short-term, part-time work undertaken by independent workers.
  10. Global labour systems The complex relationships involving employers and workers worldwide.
  11. Informal economy The diversified set of economic activities, enterprises, jobs, and workers that are not regulated or protected by the state.
  12. Intellectual property An idea, a design, etc. that somebody has created and that the law prevents other people from copying.
  13. Job displacement The relocation of jobs from one country or region to another.
  14. Labour reallocation The transfer of a sector’s labour force to another sector.
  15. Livelihood strategies All the activities people engage in to make a living and to survive.
  16. Multinational A company that exists or is involved in several countries.
  17. NEET A young person who is not in education, employment, or training.
  18. Offshoring The transfer of a company’s jobs to the same company’s location in another country.
  19. Outsourcing A company contracting a third-party to do specific work for it.
  20. Platform mediated work All the labour activities that take place on and through digital labour platforms.
  21. Precarious work Work that is unstable and unprotected.
  22. Profit shifting The practice of having corporate entities in several countries and moving all these entities’ profits to the country that has the lowest corporate tax rate.
  23. Regulation The rules implemented by government agencies in every industry to enforce national and international laws.
  24. Reskilling Learning new work skills.
  25. Social protection All the systems, policies, and programmes that are designed to protect people from shocks and crises throughout their lives.
  26. Subsidiary Of a business or company, owned or controlled by another company.
  27. Upskilling Improving one’s working skills.
  28. Universal social protection A minimum level of social protection for everyone in the world.
  29. Working poor The people living under the poverty line even though they work.

06Self-Reflection

Now that you know more about global labour and employment, here are some questions and suggestions to go further.

Questions

  1. What kind of company or institution would you most like to work for and why?
  2. What work skills do you think will be the most valuable in the future and why?
  3. How are your studies and your extracurricular activities preparing you for the future labour market?
  4. If you have volunteer, work, or internship experiences, how did those experiences shape your understanding of labour dynamics?
  5. In the career you are planning to have, what actions will you be able to take to promote and foster social justice?

Activities

  1. Go to the corporate website of your favourite brand (fashion, electronics, food, drink…) and find out how the company communicates about its workers, then evaluate this communication based on your experience with workers from this brand in reality (in stores, online…).
  2. Find a job listing website and do a search for “corporate social responsibility” positions, then identify the ones that can make the biggest positive difference.
  3. Next time you use a digital labour platform for a delivery, a car ride, or any other service, think about the working conditions of the person the platform matches you with and about how the platform makes you interact with that person.
  4. Ask your family and working friends about their working conditions and relationships with their employers, then write a short post or make a short video to share your impressions and assessments of those relationships.
  5. Find out what your local government is doing to promote equity, social protection, and social justice in your area, then see if you can participate in any way.

07References

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