Esther Lynch is Legal & Social Affairs Officer at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
‘Decent Work’ sums up the working life to which we all aspire. It means having a job and future prospects, it’s about balancing work and family life; it’s about a living wage, a decent income, a fair share of the wealth that you have helped to create. Decent Work is safe and healthy work, where you are not discriminated against and where you have a voice in your workplace.
Human rights obligations underpin the call for Decent Work. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 23) recognises the right to ‘just and favourable conditions of work’ and the ‘right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring… an existence worthy of human dignity and supplemented if necessary by other means of social protection’.
No discussion on Decent Work can credibility ignore the decent work deficits associated with the situation of zero-hours workers. But recognising the deficits is not sufficient – solutions must be put forward ensuring fairness in employment contracts.
In this paper Esther Lynch, Legal and Legislative Officer at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions aims to contribute to the debate on decent work by proposing responses to decent work deficits in the field of employment and labour law.
Click here to read the full paper.