Brussels, 19 October 2018 (ITUC OnLine): Trade union
representatives from 20 Asian and European countries, meeting in Brussels this
week at the Asia-Europe Labour Forum (AELF) https://www.ituc-csi.org/aelf,
have called for their governments to address
persistent decent work deficits and ensure minimum living wages in global
supply chains and digital businesses.
ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow and ETUC
Confederal Secretary Liina Carr delivered the labour forum’s message last night
to government leaders at a session of the intergovernmental Asia Europe Meeting
(ASEM), which now formally recognises the AELF.
“We called on the ASEM governments to require that
business embed due diligence on workers’and other human rights throughout their
supply chains and provide legitimate grievance mechanisms and access to remedy
in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We also
emphasised the new risks that so-called crowd work and digital platform
businesses will increase precarious work unless governments fulfil their
responsibility to ensure these forms of business are properly regulated. And we
stressed the need for governments to act decisively on climate change, to keep
the temperature rise under 1.5 degrees by guaranteeing a Just Transition to a
low-carbon economy. Immediate action is needed to increase resilience and
adaptation,” said Burrow.
“Low wages, precarious work, negotiations between
employers and unions, trade policy and globalisation are issues for working
people in Europe as well as in Asia and on every other continent. The global
market needs to be better regulated and companies obliged to offer fair wages
and decent work wherever they set up. A global economy based on exploitation
and greed will only serve to increase inequalities and instability in our
economies. EU and Asian governments have a duty to act if they have any
interest in protecting their own citizens,” said Carr.
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of 331 affiliates in 163 countries and territories.
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