The Work in Freedom Handbook a Critical Glossary of Terms Relating to Freedom and Unfreedom in the World of Work

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X The Work in Freedom Handbook A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work

Igor Bosc

First published June 2021

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Opinions in this paper do not necessarily reflect the positions of the International Labour Organization, its constituents, nor the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. X Acknowledgments

he author would like to thank Ryszard Cholewinski, Coen Kompier, Bharti Birla and Torsten Schackel from the ILO for having reviewed this paper and provided Tvaluable feedback, and Borislav Gerasimov and Bandana Pattanaik from the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) for having inspired and also provided valuable insights on this critical glossary. Gratitude should be expressed to the rest of the Work in Freedom team of the ILO and particularly to Neha Wadhawan, Sandhya Basini Sitoula, Suha Labadi and Zeina Mezher for having kindly reviewed the glossary. Finally, Mike Dottridge, Prabha Kotiswaran and Thérèse Blanchet deserve special thanks for having provided thoughtful comments and inputs from their respective perspectives.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 3

X Abbreviations

ACTRAV The Bureau for Workers’ Activities CEACR Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations CIDH Inter-American Commission of Human Rights FCDO Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office GAATW Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women ICLS International Conference of Labour Statisticians ILC International Labour Conference ILO International Labour Organization IOE The International Organisation of Employers ITUC The International Trade Union Confederation NSWP Network of Sex Work Projects ODHIR The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights OPSC Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography OSCE the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe SDG Sustainable Development Goal SNA System of National Account UFW Unacceptable Forms of Work UNDP The United Nations Development Programme UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme UNSG The Secretary-General of the United Nations

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 5

X Foreword

ost of us would agree that we should take action against forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) refer Mto eradicating forced labour and ending modern slavery and human trafficking (SDG Target 8.7).1 However, each one of these conceptual constructs implies a different way of seeing the world, a different history of understanding and a very different framework of action. The purpose of this critical glossary is to deconstruct some of these commonly used concepts in order to flag their blind spots, merits and other characteristics. Each term is situated in a specific polarity between what it describes and its opposite to be desired (e.g., some type of freedom) or to be freed from (e.g., some type of unfreedom). While those polarities indicate different moral orders, this glossary does not seek to attribute a moral judgement to these taxonomies, but rather to highlight the breadth of the semantic fields they are situated in, and the contested polarities that they encapsulate or don’t. Throughout history there have been multiple ways of describing different forms of freedoms or unfreedoms connected with work. Some taxonomies are more characteristic of certain forms of economic, social and political organization and specific periods of history. For example, serfdom is usually associated with feudal economies in the Middle Ages. Generally, these taxonomies have been changing through processes of social, economic and political contestation. The analysis of the dichotomy between labour freedoms and unfreedoms reveals the dual nature of work that oscillates between specific chores, tasks and activities, and work as a recognized social construct linked to rights and entitlements. While an individual may undertake certain concrete activities that s/he may consider work, there is no guarantee that such labour is socially recognized as labour. In that sense, labour history is a reflection of struggles to define the meaning of work. This glossary lists terms in alphabetical order. The choice to include different terms was based on two factors: (1) the need encountered to explain terms during the implementation of the Work in Freedom programme,2 and (2) the need to highlight terms that are situated in specific spectrums of labour freedoms or unfreedoms that are rarely discussed in public narratives.

Igor Bosc

1 Trafficking is also referred to elsewhere in the SDGs, i.e. SDG Target 5.2 (women and girls) and 16.2 (children). 2 The Work in Freedom Programme is a development cooperation programme funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK and the ILO.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 7

Notes on the grammar of “work” and “freedom”

Most entries in this glossary include expressions with adjectives that qualify work (e.g., decent work), verbs or verbal nouns that denote a dynamic somehow linked to work (e.g., trafficking, abolishing), and nouns denoting a type of work (e.g., slavery).

X Adjectives describing work range from those that are specific to those that are broad. When adjectives qualifying work are specific, it is generally easy to find clear legal definitions and infer what their opposites mean. However, when those adjectives are general, more extensive explanations are needed to clarify what they and their opposites mean. For example, it is easier at face value to describe what “hazardous” work is or isn’t, but it is more difficult to describe what “decent” work is or isn’t.

X Expressions which are constructed around a verb depict action towards a specific state which itself is indicative of a specific polarity. Some of those terms can include verbal nouns. Some of these verbs appear to be more specific (e.g., abolishing), while others appear more diffuse (e.g., trafficking). Most of these expressions tend to focus on either ending a certain type of work (e.g., ending slavery) or accessing or leaving a certain type of work (e.g., survivor of modern slavery).

X Nominal expressions that do not contain the word “work” or “labour” tend to represent particularly egregious (e.g., serfdom or sale of children) or outstanding representations of work, or social and economic relationships that involve work but do not explicitly acknowledge it (e.g., forced marriage).

Notes on the semantics of “work” and “freedom”

Each term illustrated in this glossary is situated in a specific semantic spectrum of labour freedom ranging from an absence of freedom to an abundance of freedom. While most terms are minimalist, in the sense that they tend to establish a minimum benchmark of what unfreedoms or freedoms are or are not, very few universal terms actually define a situation of abundant freedom. Borrowing the concept of binary opposites of structuralist linguists, most terms tend to be understood within a specific polarity of what they describe and their absence (e.g., “decent work” versus “indecent work”). For the purpose of this glossary, these polarities can be grouped into at least six variable and somewhat overlapping fields or spectrums representing different themes of contestation. They include: the recognition of work, access to work, autonomy in work, remuneration, safety and health at work, and freedom to work for a common public interest. Some of these semantic spectrums are rather wide, such as the one describing autonomy, and they include several terms that constitute a semantic network. For example, “autonomy” includes the variable ranges of autonomy and control over workers. It also separately includes variable ranges of employer accountability over working and living conditions and variable relevance of technology in enabling freedoms for workers, employers or both. Other spectrums are rather narrow and less commonly discussed. For the purpose of this glossary, at least one term from each spectrum has been included. While some terms related to each spectrum are listed, the spectrums themselves are left undefined since these spectrums are variable and overlapping. Defining them would lock their signified attributes in definitions that would be imperfect.3 The context of each of these spectrums is important: for example, the availability and distribution of resources influences what type of work is recognized as work, which work can be accessed, etc.; access to means to make a living influences the autonomy one has in relation to work; and type and size of economies influence each spectrum in very different ways.

3 P. Bourdieu, Méditations Pascaliennes (Paris: Seuil, 1997, p.3).

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 9 X Recognition of work ranges from the full recognition of work to the complete denial of labour and other human rights in the context of work. Laws, regulations and social norms enable or hamper the acknowledgment of work, valuation of work and enjoyment of universal worker rights. Roles that are necessary for social reproduction are often formally not considered as work, especially when they involve women or the elderly. More generally, work that is not part of the production boundary within Systems of National Accounts tends not to be recognized as work. Many societies also attribute religious or spiritual dimensions in defining “purity” and “impurity” of work. Some work is connected with social interpretations of the divine or spiritual, while other work is considered material and polluting, hence affecting the valuation of work. Regulation of work also varies depending on whether it allows for a public state role or whether regulation is privatized and left for the employer to decide his or her own standards. Key words or concepts: forced marriage, unpaid work, voluntary work, informal work, unacceptable forms of work, atypical forms of work, precarious work4 (Standing 2011), non-standard employment,5 sex work, workers with family responsibilities,6 maternity protection,7 domestic workers, good work,8 decent work. Terms or concepts that are related: concrete or abstract labour (Marx 1973).

X Access to work ranges from full freedoms in accessing decent work to complete absence of such freedom. Scarcity and availability of jobs are central to accessing them. Access varies between possible access based on qualifications linked to skills and impossible access based on impossibility of acquiring qualifications and the absence of jobs. Class differences play a central role. The more scarcity of decent jobs prevails, the more other factors kick in, such as identity and history of negotiation to access work, access to qualifications, the need to migrate to find a job, the possibility of being trafficked, having to deal with multiple labour intermediaries and having to face others who are willing to work for less. Key words or concepts: human trafficking, smuggling (of migrants), unfree work, forced migration, labour mobility, fair recruitment, public employment, right to education and vocational training (to access decent work).9 Terms or concepts that are related but seldom used in public discourse: decent job scarcity.

X Autonomy in work includes autonomy and consent over work processes and conditions as follows:

• The degree of control over a worker depends on his/her degree of consent to work processes and conditions. This can range from coercion, violence, harassment, disciplining, immobilization, isolation, extent to which it is possible for a worker to “consent”, and other practices that a worker consents to or not (e.g., overtime), to the possibility of freedom of association and collective bargaining, or being able to take independent decisions such as working in a worker- owned cooperative. Key words or concepts: modern slavery, slavery, child labour, worst forms of child labour, forced labour, exploitation, exploitation of the prostitution of others, serfdom, abolition, violence and harassment,10 sponsorship system, freedom of association,11 collective bargaining.12 Terms or concepts that are related but seldom used in public discourse: freedom to exit work, democracy at work (Wolff 2012).

4 ACTRAV, Policies and Regulations to Combat Precarious Employment (ILO, 2011). 5 ILO, Non-Standard Employment Around the World: Understanding Challenges, Shaping Prospects, 2016. 6 ILO, Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156). 7 ILO, Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183). 8 Cooke, G., J. Donaghey, and I.U. Zeytinoglu, “The Nuanced Nature of work Quality: Evidence from Rural Newfoundland and Ireland”, Human Relations 66, No. 4 (2013): 503–527. 9 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 10 ILO, Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190). 11 ILO, Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87). 12 ILO, Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

10 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work • The degree of public accountability for working and living conditions of workers. This ranges from full accountability for working conditions based on the fundamental principles and rights at work that are recognized by the ILO/international community, effective labour inspection, access to justice and remedies, to work that is self-regulated by employers, self-employment or employer-less work. Terms or concepts that are related: self-employed worker, gig worker, flexible labour, sub-contracted labour, permanent worker. • Technological autonomy and control. This spectrum emphasizes a degree of control by workers, employers or others over resources and technology related to work. Key words or concepts: manual work, marginal labour13, driver, machine operator, engineer. Terms or concepts that are related: automated work, workers controlled by algorithms.

X Remuneration ranges from living wages or wages that make social reproduction possible, to poverty wages and debt bondage. Pay for work depends on access to financial and social capital and the type of economy (e.g., market economy, planned economy). Access to financial capital may involve banking or illicit money lenders, while access to social capital usually depends on education, qualifications linked to skills and other similar factors (but sometimes to kinship relations or membership of a particular group). Public regulation affecting access to free or subsidized public services, monetary policies and cost of living affects expectations around remuneration. Key words or concepts: life-long wage (Friot 2012), living wage,14 access to services enabling social reproduction, minimum wage, social protection floors,15 universal basic income, unpaid work, debt bondage.

X Work safety and health ranges from work enabling full access to health care, safety and health at work, and hazardous work at the other end of the spectrum. The ILO has established a non-exhaustive list of hazardous occupations. Key words or concepts: full health care access linked to work, precarious work,16 hazardous work,17 occupational safety and health at work,18 “zero” concept including zero injuries, illnesses or fatalities. Terms or concepts that are related but seldom used in public discourse: safe work.

X Freedom or lack thereof to work for a common public interest that gives social meaning to work (recognition of civic engagement as actual work versus corvée labour19). The spectrum ranges from work devoted first and foremost to a specific finality perceived as common public need (e.g., reconstruction after a disaster, wartime work, environmental sustainability), a needed civil and public service, preservation of the commons, and at the opposite end, work that is subordinated to other individualized logics such as a market logic or individual supremacy or survival. Note that there are inherent antagonisms between public and individual logics. For example, some types of public employment may be seen as socially important (e.g., health professionals during a pandemic), even though they may also be seen as a public “expenditure” from a market-economy lens unless they are privatized and subordinated to a market logic. Environmental sustainability may involve jobs allowing for ecological sustainability, and its opposite includes jobs that are irreparably destructive to ecosystems. The concept brings in a long-term time dimension to work. Key words or concepts: unsustainable jobs, dead land and dead water (Sassen 2014), speculator, green jobs, blue economy, sustainable

13 In the Persian Gulf context, the term “marginal labour” refers essentially to work that is not very productive. 14 The ILO Declaration of Philadelphia refers to the importance of “a minimum living wage to all employed and in need of such protection”. 15 ILO, Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202). 16 ACTRAV, Policies and Regulations to Combat Precarious Employment (ILO, 2011). 17 Hazardous work includes three subdivisions: hazardous industries (such as the construction industry, where the entire environment on a construction site is inherently dangerous); employment in hazardous occupations (e.g., leather tanning, where the tanning process is dangerous); working in hazardous conditions (e.g., in situations which make any worker vulnerable to danger). 18 ILO, Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155). 19 Historian Ogden Goelet defines corvée labour as “unpaid, unskilled manual labour exacted in lieu of taxation in the form of money or goods. … it generally entailed involuntary service and normally involved a great mass of people from a given locality.” (Hudson 2014, p.3).

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 11 work,20 activist, social workers, military service, civil servant, corvée labour, 3-D jobs (dirty, dangerous and demeaning). Terms or concepts that are related but seldom used in public discourse: unsustainable work, destructive work.

Note on the tabular form of presentation of each entry

Concepts underpinning each entry are described and discussed within a limited tabular form to provide an exhaustive reference. There are long debates on each of these terms in several reputed peer-reviewed journals in legal studies, labour studies, labour history, development and gender studies. In addition to academic commentaries, some of these terms have been codified into laws, while some have also become international norms.

20 UNDP, Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development, 2015.

12 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work X List of terms

Abolition 15 Bonded labour, debt bondage or peonage 17 Decent work 19 Domestic worker 21 Exploitation 23 Exploitation of the prostitution of others 24 Fair recruitment 25 Forced marriage 27 Forced labour 29 Green jobs 30 Trafficking in persons 32 Informal work 34 Labour mobility 36 Labour recruiter 38 Modern slavery 40 Practices similar to slavery 41 Serfdom 42 Sexual exploitation 43 Sex work 44 Slavery 46 Smuggling (of migrants) 47 Sponsorship system 48 Subcontracted labour 49

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 13 Survivor (of human trafficking, modern slavery) 50 Unacceptable forms of work (UFW) 51 Unfree labour 52 Unpaid work 53 Worst forms of child labour 54

14 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Abolition

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics This term is Article 1 of the 1956 1956 Abolition implies drastic Abusive labour is based on norma- However ambitious they commonly used Supplementary Slavery measures such as legal, tive and customary practices re- may appear, abolitionist in reference to Convention specifies that: 1957 criminal and developmental flecting the political economy of statements related to unfree forms of “Each of the States Parties to 2015 measures that may involve labour. Abolitionist laws or decrees labour unfreedoms have work, including this Convention shall take all legislators, judiciary and are ineffective without multilayered the merit of depicting a slavery, child practicable and necessary executive authorities. It also laws, policies and enforcement resolve to end such labour, debt legislative and other measures implies that there is an practices of a structural nature. In situations. Abolitionist bondage, to bring about progressively institution or cultural practice the last twenty years, despite statements tend to be serfdom and the and as soon as possible the to abolish, rather than a commitments to reduce modern inspired by variable kafala system complete abolition or aban- (mere) pattern of behaviour slavery, forced labour and human understanding of social, (sponsorship donment of the following insti- to change. Law enforcement trafficking by a specific date, succes- economic and political system). tutions and practices…” agencies tend to play an sive estimates of forced labour have injustice in which class Alternative important role in enforcing tended to highlight increasing plays an important role. words include: The Abolition of Forced Labour abolition policies. numbers, hence suggesting that “suppressing”21, Convention, 1957 (No. 105) Development efforts tend to programme efforts were insufficient “eradicating”22, calls for the complete aboli- focus on SDG Target 8.7. or not based on accurate assess- “ending”, tion of forced or compulsory Alliance 8.725 has three ments of the root causes. This also “eliminating”23 labour and its “suppression”, strategic objectives: (i) suggests that solutions that ques- and “combat- including “not making use of increasing collaborative tion the political economy of con- ting”24. it”. action on Target 8.7, ensuring temporary labour are simply not acceleration, focus and considered. Recognition of the

21 i.e. the term is used in relation to slave trade and slavery. 22 i.e. the term is used in relation to forced labour in the context of Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.7. 23 i.e. the term used by the ILO in relation to child labour. 24 In recent years, the term has been used increasingly to refer to sex work/prostitution and to trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of exploitation of the prostitution of others. 25 In September 2015, a summit of heads of state adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which frame the global development agenda between 2015 and 2030. One of the seventeen goals (goal 8) calls for the promotion of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all by 2030. A specific Target 8.7 under this goal calls for effective measures to end forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour in all its forms, including the worst forms of child labour. Alliance 8.7 is a global partnership fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration to support governments in achieving Target 8.7 of the SDGs.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 15 Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics The 2015 UN General coherence; (ii) driving innova- current social, political and eco- Assembly Resolution on the tion and scaling up solutions; nomic challenges involved in 2030 Agenda for Sustainable and (iii) providing a platform “abolishing” forced labour tends to Development includes to engage in dialogue and to be lacking. Such failures can erode Sustainable Development Goal share knowledge and infor- public trust in such proclamations, targets referring to eradicating mation. programmes and abolitionist forced labour and ending discourses. modern slavery and human trafficking (SDG Target 8.7).26

26 Trafficking is also referred to elsewhere in the SDGs, i.e. SDG Target 5.2 (women and girls) and 16.2 (children).

16 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Bonded labour, debt bondage or peonage

Dates of Drawbacks, Strengths and International legal recent blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics Bonded labour The 1956 Supplementary Slavery 1956 Legal systems to prevent debt bondage • Debt is intrinsic This is the only concept is usually Convention specifies that debt have existed since antiquity and were to how market that elaborates on the perceived as a bondage is a practice similar to 2011 common in the Sumer, Babylonia and the economies central connection condition in slavery. It further clarifies that debt 2018 Akkadian Empires. For example, the work. Unless between debt and which a person bondage, while a type of servitude, Andurārum edicts of the Akkadian Empire there are labour, a structural works as a can be characterized as slavery if released bonded workers from debt structural and cornerstone of a type of result of a debt the characteristics of ownership peonage.30 effective unfreedom that has that was forced are present.27 Debt bondage measures in existed over different upon him or should not be confused with In a modern context, India’s Bonded place to periods of history and her. indebtedness.28 Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976 prevent odious remains relevant today. provides a good example of the wide range debt accumula- Structural measures to Furthermore, the report of the UN of measures that are commonly intended tion, conditions prevent odious debts Special Rapporteur on to be used to abolish bonded labour. Most for debt from occurring may have Contemporary Forms of Slavery frameworks of action include: bondage tend a transformational dedicated to debt bondage in 2015 • Extinguishing debts related to bonded to re-emerge, spillover effect on some mentioned that definitions used by in spite of other domains of unfree regional human rights courts are labour by law, regulation of credit, interest and debt default in connection temporary labour. relevant as they have binding relief measures. relevance for their member states. with work (e.g., limits on debt in relation In 2011, the Inter-American to income; auditing, investigating and Commission of Human Rights identifying odious debts). The ILO sets a (CIDH) listed nine characteristics of standard that determines a maximum for debt bondage.29 advances to workers. The Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962 (No. 117) is concerned

27 There are, however, more liberal and expansive interpretations of the definition of the bonded labour system. Justice Sri P.N. Bhagwati of the Supreme Court of India, in a judgment dated 16 December 1983, arising out of writ petition No. 2135 of February 1982 and filed by Bandhua Mukti Morcha, specified that it is not necessary to prove beyond doubt the element of loan/debt/advance in a creditor–debtor relationship; if the debtor is rendering certain services to the creditor free of cost, it is to be presumed that he/she is doing it out of some economic consideration – he/she, therefore, is a bonded labourer entitled to the benefits of law. 28 Debt bondage doesn’t refer to every situation in which a worker is in debt and feels pressured to work in order to repay it. Moreover, remedies for debt bondage are available that are not remedies for indebtedness in general. 29 This definition was repeated in the Inter-American Court judgment on the Brazil case of Fazenda Brasil Verde in 2016. Paragraph 210 of the CIDH report mentions that: “the Commission noted that the contemporary notion of slavery includes debt bondage as a practice analogous to slavery, and is thus also prohibited by the American Convention on Human Rights. The elements of debt bondage are: i) the provision of services as security for a debt, but without the value of the services being applied toward its liquidation; ii) absence of a limit on the length of service; iii) absence of definition of the nature of the services; iv) residence on the property on which the services are provided; v) control over the person’s movements; vi) the presence of means to prevent escape; vii) psychological control over the person; viii) the person’s inability to change his or her status and ix) cruel and abusive treatment.” Unfortunately, in this part of the Commission’s report it did not cite specific sources for its nine-point list (CIDH 2011). 30 It was understood that people’s incapacity to pay certain types of debt undermined the sustainability of the political system (Hudson 2018; Toussaint, 2017).

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 17 Dates of Drawbacks, Strengths and International legal recent blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics Peonage refers According to the ILO’s Department with reducing forms of wage payment • The concept to a system of Statistics:31 “bonded labour is a that foster indebtedness and requires does not where an form of forced labour in which the state parties to take “all practicable elaborate on employer job or activity is associated with (i) measures” to prevent debt bondage.32 non-debt compels a advance payments or loans or related labour worker to pay excessive fees from recruiters and/ • Prohibiting bonded labour practices or abuses. off a debt with or employers to the worker or to a customs together with penal measures. work. person’s family members; • Establishment of vigilance committees at (ii) a financial penalty, meaning the local level to identify bonded labour that the terms of repayment are and implement abolition measures. unspecified at the outset and/or in contravention of laws and regula- • Provision for rehabilitation, material relief tions regarding the amount of of bonded workers and special measures interest or other repayment for bonded workers (e.g., protections conditions, or the job or activity is from home evictions). under‐remunerated (in relation to legal regulations or the labour market); and (iii) some form of coercion until a worker or family member has repaid the loan or payment advance.”

31 ILO, Guidelines Concerning the Measurement of Forced Labour, the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), 2018. 32 The Convention stipulates that wages must be paid regularly “at such intervals as will lessen the likelihood of indebtedness among the wage earners”. It also places responsibility on a “competent authority” to ensure that when food, housing, clothing or other essential supplies and services are being used to pay the worker, their cash value is fairly assessed.

18 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Decent work

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance action limitations characteristics In prac- Decent work is defined by the ILO as 1999–200034 • The concept implies a • “Decent work” has become the • The concept enables tice, the being productive work for women measured focus on rallying aspirational paradigm for focus on working concept and men in conditions of freedom, 2008 improving working the promotion of labour rights, in conditions, including popularly equity, security and human dignity. conditions through the some way overtaking the dominant international labour refers to The ILO has redefined its entire policy 2015 implementation of labour role that reference to “international standards. accept- focus around the “Decent Work standards. labour standards” had in the 1960s • The 2030 Agenda for able and Agenda”. up until the mid-90s. It represents • The 2008 Declaration on Sustainable dignified what some would argue is a lower Earlier theorizations of the concept Social Justice and Fair Development and the conditions yet more realistic aspirational bar specified that “decent work is not Globalization articulates Decent Work Agenda of work. and a more diffuse and flexible defined in terms of any fixed stan- the Decent Work Agenda refer to “decent work” paradigm.35 While “international dard or monetary level. It varies from by outlining four objec- as a goal post to be labour standards” are backed by a country to country. But everybody, tives which include achieved. Statistical corpus of conventions, “decent work” everywhere, has a sense of what employment, social indicators and legal is loosely defined in the 2008 decent work means in terms of their protection, social dialogue framework indicators Declaration and does not have a own lives, in relation to their own and rights at work. frame the discursive comparable legal status. The society”33. proposition of decent • Much revolves around the aspirational nature of “decent work” work. The 2008 ILO Declaration on Social notion of workers’ con- gives rise to variable interpretations, Justice for a Fair Globalization sent to working condi- depending on constituents’ evolving • The concept assumes delineates the outlines of decent tions and social dialogue views and negotiation strength. that decent work is work (see side column). Also, in the to overcome challenges. the result of a negoti- • “Decent work” should be “mean- same year, the ILO Committee of ation and an antago- • While the 2008 ingful work”, however, the current Experts issued guidance listing nistic power Declaration reflects framing of “decent work” doesn’t statistical indicators and legal relationship resulting political commitment, the provide for workers to construct framework indictors to monitor in an outcome that is concept does not have a what “meaningful work” is for them decent work. neither ideal nor legal definition. Within the (Deranty and MacMillan 2012; unacceptable. Blustein et al. 2016).

33 Speech of Director-General, Juan Somavia Altamirano, at the Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, 18 February 2000. 34 Report of the Director-General of the ILO, 87th Session of the International Labour Conference, June 1999. 35 Critical discourse analyses of texts produced by the ILO, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization have revealed discursive shifts in the ILO’s agenda “away from social conceptualizations of work toward neoliberal, market-driven definitions following the global financial crash of 2008–2009” (Di Ruggiero et al. 2015).

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 19 Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance action limitations characteristics At the UN level, decent work is now four broad objectives the • While decent work influences living • The concept provides an integral element of the 2030 concept is rather elastic, conditions of workers, including for a certain degree Agenda for Sustainable Development including and excluding their habitat, from an environmental of flexibility enabling (2015) and is central to SDG 8. The different angles of work, and health perspective, there is contextualization. ILO has also referred to what is not depending on the local limited deliberation on the topic. decent work as “unacceptable forms political economy of of work”. labour.

20 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Domestic worker

Dates of recent Strengths and Common International legal impor- Implicit frame- Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition tance works of action limitations characteristics Domestic According to article 1(b) of the Domestic Workers 2011 The Domestic The legal exclusion of workers • The term as defined workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189): the term “domestic work” Workers who perform domestic work in Convention No. usually “means work performed in or for a household or house- 2018 Convention (No. only occasionally and sporadi- 189 represents a refers to holds”, and “domestic worker” “means any person 189) and cally is problematic for several significant break- workers engaged in domestic work within an employment Recommendation reasons: (a) it can be inter- through in enabling contracted relationship”. Convention No. 189 applies to all domestic (No. 201), 2011 preted to leave many part- a process of greater to under- workers and not necessarily to all domestic work.36 delineate a Decent time workers whose recognition of the take Work Agenda to livelihoods depend on earning human and labour domestic The ILO’s 20th International Conference of Labour uphold the rights of from such work in a sort of rights of many work. Statisticians (ICLS) Resolution I (2018) mentions that domestic workers. legal limbo, (b) the exclusion domestic workers domestic work is defined for statistical purposes as “all This includes of such workers is often around the globe. work performed in or for a household or households to fundamental compounded by gender and provide services mainly for consumption by household principles and caste biases that conflate • The process leading members. Domestic work is performed with payment rights at work and women’s work with traditional to the Convention made to employees of the household, to agencies that international labour unpaid work, and (c) the and succeeding it provide domestic services to households and to self-em- standards. loophole lends itself to inter- has enabled the ployed domestic service providers. Domestic work is Article 1(c) of the pretations that generate at emergence and performed unpaid by household members or by persons Convention men- least two or more categories mobilization of a not residing in the household, such as family members, tions that “a person of workers with different significant workforce neighbours and volunteers. In statistics on employment, who performs hierarchies of rights – those that was invisible in domestic workers are defined as workers of any sex domestic work only that are full-time workers who public discourse in employed for pay or profit, including in-kind payment, occasionally or are employed by high-income earlier decades. who perform work in or for a household or households sporadically and not employers in wealthy residen- to provide services mainly for consumption by the • The Convention has on an occupational tial zones and those who been ratified by 31 household. The work may be performed within the basis is not a perform multiple domestic household premises or in other locations. Based on the countries as of 1 domestic worker.” and other services across April 2021. statistical definitions of domestic work and domestic This is a noteworthy different urban zones to make workers, the following categories of domestic workers in a living and tend to reside in • In spite of the employment may be identified: working-class neighbour- exclusion of

36 Article 2 of Convention No. 189 makes it possible to exclude certain categories of workers from its scope: “2. A Member which ratifies this Convention may, after consulting with the most representative organizations of employers and workers and, where they exist, with organizations representative of domestic workers and those representative of employers of domestic workers, exclude wholly or partly from its scope: (a) categories of workers who are otherwise provided with at least equivalent protection; (b) limited categories of workers in respect of which special problems of a substantial nature arise.”

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 21 Dates of recent Strengths and Common International legal impor- Implicit frame- Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition tance works of action limitations characteristics a) Domestic employees, defined as all workers engaged clause as it can be hoods. The latter arguably occasional and directly as employees of households to provide interpreted to constitute a significant sporadic workers services mainly for consumption by the household exclude many number of people who tend to involved in domestic members, irrespective of the nature of the services workers who are in remain without labour protec- work, the provided including: (i) live-in domestic employees; (ii) such situations, a tions and invisible from Convention rep- live-out domestic employees; possibility that is employment statistics. resents an important allowed by article 2 step towards greater b) Domestic workers employed by service providers; and of the Convention.37 recognition of paid c) Domestic service providers employed for profit.” domestic work.

37 Article 2 of Convention No. 189.

22 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Exploitation

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots visibilizing Common use definition importance action and limitations characteristics The concept There is no international legally accepted defini- 1867 Exploitation is not legally In a market-economy con- The concept visibi- denotes tion of labour exploitation. defined, hence, efforts to text, nobody wants to be lizes the systemic systemic abuse 2000 address exploitation could seen as facilitating nature of labour In his theory on surplus labour (mehrarbeit), Marx in a labour 2020 lead to both labour and exploitation, hence, there exploitation. Marxist relationship. theorized exploitation as the appropriation of criminal justice responses. is a reluctance to use the interpretations surplus labour. term in formal contexts, propose an alterna- In a Marxist framework of 38 which may explain why it tive form of social Article 3 of the Palermo Trafficking Protocol action, collective worker (2000) mentions some specific types of exploita- has not been legally organization. ownership of means of defined. tion as purposes for which people may be traf- production eliminates 39 ficked but does not define this term. surplus labour and In the first half of the The 2020 Compendium of Good Practices in prevents labour exploita- nineteenth century, the Addressing Trafficking in Human Beings for the tion. term exploitation had a Purpose of Labour Exploitation by the Council of more positive connota- Europe suggests that: “While a range of disci- tion and was usually used plines (economics, politics, philosophy, law) have in reference to agricul- sought to establish what ‘exploitation’ is, the tural or industrial produc- concept remains ambiguous and has both tion as it involved the temporal and cultural dimensions. Within the exploitation of natural context of human trafficking, there is general resources. It then began support for understanding ‘exploitation’ – in the to be used in reference to sense of taking unfair advantage – as a con- labour and acquired a tinuum, albeit one that is poorly defined and is negative connotation. not static. At one end lie situations which amount to labour-law violations, such as failure to pay a mandated minimum wage, and at the other extreme are situations where the unfair advantage is acute and the resulting harm very severe.”

38 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. 39 In recent years, some international organizations have used the term “labour exploitation” as a shorthand for most of the purposes of trafficking mentioned in Article 3 of the Palermo Protocol that DO NOT involve sex, i.e., “forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude” (the full list is: “Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 23 Exploitation of the prostitution of others

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance action limitations characteristics This is legal The 1949 Convention for the Suppression of 1949 The Convention lays out a • The concept remains unde- • The concept brings termi- the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation criminal justice frame- fined. It potentially conflates out the notion of nology. It is of the Prostitution of Others establishes who work to address the sex work with traffic in persons. sexual abuse in the rarely used is punishable but does not define the exploitation of the prosti- Indeed, state parties agreed to context of work. in common exploitation of the prostitution of others. tution of others. It pro- punish anyone who “exploits parlance. Article 3 of the Palermo Protocol also lists hibits trafficking in the prostitution of another • The phrasing of the “the exploitation of the prostitution of persons and delineates person, even with the consent Convention has others” as a form of exploitation without specific administrative of that person” (Point 2, Article enabled some defining it (entry on exploitation). enforcement and social 1). countries that are measures aimed at party to it to inter- trafficked persons. • The concept focuses on crim- pret that commercial inal measures but does not sex that does not delineate their scope. involve children is legal under specific • The use of the pejorative provisions. terminology of “prostitution” stigmatizes the very persons the Convention purports to defend. • The concept ignores the social, economic and political factors that underpin exploitation and criminal measures.

labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”).

24 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Fair recruitment

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics Fair recruit- The ILO’s 2016 General 191941 Convention No. 181 is meant to While the ILO’s general principles and While the notion ment Principles and Operational “allow the operation of private guidelines on fair recruitment call for fair of “fairness” in 42 commonly Guidelines for Fair Recruitment 1933 employment agencies as well as recruitment to “decent work”, in practice, recruitment is only refers to define recruitment as including: 194843 the protection of the workers the concept of fair or ethical recruitment indirectly men- recruitment “the advertising, information using their services, within the risks being used in abstraction of decent tioned, this practices dissemination, selection, 194944 framework of its provisions”. In work requirements. Measures taken tend concept is one of that may be transport, placement into that sense, the convention to focus on transparency and hiring the few that considered employment and – for migrant 1997 formalizes the role of private procedures but pay less attention to frames a desirable respectful of workers – return to the country 2014 recruitment and employment underlying working and living conditions, outcome. the rights of of origin where applicable. This agencies. While the General which also affect recruitment outcomes. workers. The applies to both jobseekers and 2016 Principles and Operational The concept term “eth- those in an employment Guidelines provide for the respect The concept of fair and ethical recruit- visibilizes the ical” recruit- relationships.” There is no 2019 of fundamental principles and ment is often used by actors who assume complex nature of ment is also definition of what “fair” implies; rights at work and other human that fixing recruitment practices from one labour intermedia- used.40 however, the general principles rights in recruitment processes, location to another, one by one, compre- tion and bro- and guidelines also define due they are non-binding and en- hensively prevents human trafficking. In kerage. diligence as: “an enterprise’s courage due diligence, self-ac- reality, the scale at which decent work is Transparency in ongoing process which aims to countability and transparency unavailable creates the conditions for the various layers identify, prevent, mitigate, and measures regarding recruitment greater intermediation needs: employers of recruitment can account for how it addresses processes. The discourse on prefer to avoid accountability for working enable workers to the adverse human rights promoting fair recruitment is conditions by choosing intermediaries to hold recruiters and impacts of its own activities or often closely linked to anti-traf- deal with workers; and workers opt for employers ac- which may be directly linked to ficking frameworks of action that their own intermediaries to find better countable for poor its operations, products or accept formal labour intermedi employers in an environment of decent recruitment services by its business relation- work scarcity. Workers often need such outcomes. ships”.

40 “Ethical recruitment” has also been used in the context where over-recruitment of certain categories of workers (e.g., health professionals) from a developing country or specific region in that country risks undermining the sector in question by facilitating “brain drain”, leading to adverse development consequences. 41 ILO, Unemployment Convention, 1919 (No. 2). 42 ILO, Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention, 1933 (No. 34). 43 ILO, Employment Services Convention, 1948 (No. 88). 44 ILO, Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 34).

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 25 Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics According to the Guidelines: aries but see informal ones as the intermediaries to help them negotiate “Governments bear the ultimate main cause of human trafficking. with employers and exit abusive employ- responsibility for advancing fair Efforts to improve recruitment ment relationships. recruitment.” In addition to this, processes across different corri- in 2019 the ILO defined “recruit- dors of recruitment are seen as Other policies such as those promoting ment fees and related costs” incremental steps to prevent labour flexibility, temporary work, and (p.25). trafficking. ease of doing business have affected the regulatory framework of labour recruit- Article 8.2 of the Private The Employment Services ment and increasingly enabled formal Employment Agencies Convention, 1948 (No. 88) reiter- employers to delink themselves from the Convention, 1997 (No. 181) also ates the need for a system of free direct responsibility of recruiting and refers to the need to “prevent public employment agencies. contracting.45 abuses and fraudulent practices in recruitment, placement and Simultaneously, this has often also employment in a context of enabled employers to delink themselves international migration”. from the responsibility of ensuring decent work and allowed recruiters, The Protocol of 2014 to the contractors or gig-sector platforms to set Forced Labour Convention, 1930 the working conditions of workers in a which identifies “protecting kind of bubble that is kept isolated from persons, particularly migrant state regulations. In other words, labour workers, from possible abusive standards tend to remain un-enforced in and fraudulent practices during the field of labour intermediation, and the recruitment and placement the non-binding and privatized nature of process” among the measures recruitment regulation is insufficient to to be taken for the prevention guarantee the application of international of forced or compulsory labour labour standards. (Article 2(d)).

45 In a 2015 paper written for the ILO on labour recruitment in a supply-chain context, Jennifer Gordon mentions that sometimes labour recruiters contribute proactively to the “demand” for flexible and temporary work to boost business opportunities by bringing more migrant workers to a country to fill such jobs.

26 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Forced marriage

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance of action limitations characteristics This Article 16 of The Universal Declaration 1948 • There is legislation The practice of transferring a woman into • The concept has concept of Human Rights (1948) stipulates and policy banning wedlock and the payment of a dowry by a served as a key commonly that “marriage shall be entered into 1956 the unwilling wed- bride’s family to the bridegroom are reference to mobilize refers to only with the free and full consent of 1962 lock, sale or inheri- common practices of social reproduction support for women’s customs the intending spouses”. tance of a woman to in many societies. In such contexts, right to choose through 1966 another family or women (and men) will tend to be socially whether and whom which The 1956 Supplementary Slavery clan. acculturated to accept it so that it doesn’t they marry. As such it women are Convention refers to servile marriage 2006 appear to be involuntary. Even the reac- represents a break- (an institution or practice similar to • The Global Slavery forced into 2017 tions to exceptions prove that the per- through for women’s wedlock, slavery) but not to forced marriage in Index began refer- sistence of the practice is rooted in rights movements in transferred general. Servile marriage happens ring to forced traditional customs and social and eco- many countries. into a when “a woman, without the right to marriage in 2017. nomic organization. This often occurs family or refuse, is promised or given in among social groups attributing markedly • The concept indirectly marriage on payment of a consider- • While men may also visibilizes systemic clan and/or be forced into different roles to women and men in inherited as ation in money or in kind to her which class hierarchies, sectarian or ethnic unpaid and involun- parents, guardian, family or any other marriage, forced tary women’s work in a com- marriage is more divides, and/or clan dynamics play an modity. person or group; or the husband of a important role in social, economic and the context of house- woman, his family, or his clan, has the common for women holds or other social and girls. political spheres. Hence, all forms of right to transfer her to another forced marriage should not be considered groups. person for value received or other- tantamount to slavery. Leveraging cultural wise; or a woman, on the death of her • Situations of fake acceptance to discontinue such practices marriages resulting husband, is liable to be inherited by depends on long processes of social and another person.” from trafficking or economic reorganization, including forced sex work are The 1962 Convention on Consent to cultural and economic international also brought out by Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage influences that cannot be changed by such this concept. and Registration of Marriages reaf- abolitionist laws or policies alone. In fact, firms that: “marriage shall be entered policy positions that assume such mea- into only with the free and full sures to be sufficient can polarize tradi- consent of the intending spouses” tional majoritarian resentment and (Preamble, Point 2). produce opposite outcomes.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 27 Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance of action limitations characteristics The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted in 1966 mentions that: “No marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses” (Point 3, Article 23). The UN has not recognized that other situations in which forced marriage occurs result in a form of slavery. However, the UN Secretary-General has defined “forced marriage” in very broad terms: “A forced marriage is one lacking the free and valid consent of at least one of the parties” (UNSG 2006), an in-depth study on all forms of violence against women.

28 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Forced labour

Dates of Drawbacks, blind spots Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks of and visibilizing use definition importance action limitations characteristics The concept The concept has an internationally agreed 1929 Control, force and coercion • The term assumes that • Compared to some other focuses on upon legal definition: “forced or compul- are central to forced labour. abuses cannot happen concepts of unfree labour, the lack of sory labour shall mean all work or service 1957 with individual consent. By the definition of forced consent and which is exacted from any person under The framework of action to zeroing in on the narrow labour is rather unequiv- the use of the menace of any penalty and for which 2014 address forced labour differs dichotomy of forced and ocal. force or the said person has not offered himself between a specific focus on voluntary labour, the threat over voluntarily” (Forced Labour Convention, addressing individual cases concept in itself glosses • Convention No. 29 is widely an individual 1929 (No. 29)). The Convention lists five and broader measures over variable and systemic ratified, and as of April worker in exceptions, including work related to defined more recently. The factors behind labour 2021, the ILO Protocol on relation to military service, convict labour under a Protocol of 2014 to the abuses. Forced Labour has been his or her public authority, work exacted in cases of Forced Labour Convention ratified by 51 countries work. national emergencies, and direct com- and the Forced Labour • The notion that better since it was adopted by the munal services. Supplementary Measures alternative employment International Labour Recommendation, 2014 (No. choices exist, other than Conference in 2014. Convention No. 105 further prohibits 203) highlights the series of those in which forced forced labour as a means of political measures that can be taken labour tends to occur, is • The ILO recognizes that the education or punishment for political to address forced labour. not always true. In such elimination of all forms of views, mobilizing the labour force for They include multiple cases, the concept of forced or compulsory economic development, labour discipline, prevention measures, such consent is less meaningful. labour is one of the punishment for participating in strikes, as those that tackle root In such situations, a fundamental principles and racial, social, national, or religious causes, several protection contract may appear to and rights at work; and discrimination.46 In many countries, forced measures and remedies, demonstrate consent, that such principles require labour is framed from a bonded-labour specific action against even if the worker doesn’t integrated action involving lens. trafficking in persons for have a choice. all other principles in order forced labour, other effective to be addressed (e.g., the The ILO has established forced labour Protocol of 2014 to the 47 measures, implementation, indicators which include abuse of vulner- consultation and interna- Forced Labour ability, deception, restriction of movement, tional cooperation. Convention). This is a tacit isolation, physical and sexual violence, acknowledgment that intimidation and threats, retention of forced labour is part of a identity documents, withholding of wages, continuum of other debt bondage, abusive working and living unacceptable forms of conditions, excessive overtime. work.

46 ILO, Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention elaborates on the gaps in the implementation of Convention No. 29 relating to prevention of forced labour, protection of victims, and remedies. 47 ILO Indicators of Forced Labour, 2012.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 29 Green jobs

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics The concept The concepts of green 2008 The Guidelines for a Just • There is no international standard on • “Green jobs”, generally refers economy and green jobs Transition Towards green jobs. Green jobs cover a broad together with the 49 to jobs situated have not been precisely 2013 Environmentally Sustainable spectrum, and the 2015 Guidelines are concept of “sus- in a path defined and universally 201550 Economies and Societies for non-binding. tainable jobs”, is towards a new agreed to as yet. A 2008 All, adopted by an ILO one of the few economic UNEP/ILO report,48 under- 201751 Tripartite Meeting of Experts in • While the Guidelines do mention funda- concepts that model that is taken in collaboration with 2015, describe a set of non- mental principles and rights at work, the address work in based on IOE and ITUC, defined binding principles and policy 2008 UNEP/ILO definition does not relation to the ecologically green jobs as: “work in areas and recommendations. question the structural factors in market environment. compatible use agricultural, manufacturing, Principles include the need for economies that tend to affect working and of resources research and development social dialogue, respect of living conditions. In that sense, there is no • Within a relatively and economic (R&D), administrative, and fundamental principles and guarantee that green jobs translate into short time frame, efficiency. service activities that rights at work, inclusion of decent jobs. A few studies on the quality of a significant Terms such as contribute substantially to gender dimensions of environ- green jobs suggest that the green number of en- “green”, preserving or restoring mental challenges and oppor- economy is not necessarily associated deavours that “environ- environmental quality. tunities, the need for with quality jobs (Clarke, Gleeson, and Wall were part of the mental” and Specifically, but not exclu- governments to create an 2017). Green jobs are spread across Green Initiative “sustainable” sively, this includes jobs that enabling environment, the industries and sectors, where working have contributed 52 are often used help to protect ecosystems need for a just transition to conditions differ greatly (Littig 2018). to advance a interchange- and biodiversity; reduce more decent-work jobs, no common under- • While the ILO recognizes that “without a standing on green ably. energy, materials, and one-size-fits-all approaches, consistent gender mainstreaming in all water consumption through and international cooperation. jobs based on

48 UNEP, Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-carbon World. Green Initiative, 2008, p3. 49 ILO, Resolution concerning sustainable development, decent work and green jobs. General Conference of the International Labour Organization, 102nd Session, 2013. 50 ILO, Guidelines for a Just Transition Towards Environmentally Sustainable Economies and Societies for All, 2015. 51 ILO, Work in a Changing Climate: The Green Initiative. Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, Report I, 106th Session, 2017. 52 In “Good Work? Sustainable Work and Sustainable Development: A Critical Gender Perspective from the Global North”, Beate Littig (2018) proposes the following characteristics of sustainable work: “Following the normative principles of sustainable development – particularly the right to live a life in dignity and socio-ecological justice – and incorporating the findings advocated from eco-feminist gender-studies, the sociology of work and sustainability studies, the main characteristics of sustainable work are as follows: Sustainable work facilitates mixed work options for men and women (paid work, community work, caring and family work, and self-providing/ self-educating work); Sustainable work allows for a self-determined sustainable way of life for men and women; Sustainable work guarantees long term (physical and mental health) and enables a healthy lifestyle; Sustainable work demonstrates a secure, sufficient and fair remuneration structure for men and women (income and transfers); Sustainable work strives for the ecologically and socially compatible production and supply of goods and services.”

30 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics high-efficiency strategies; The notion of a “green aspects of development, sustainability in a studies, resolu- de-carbonize the economy; economy” suggests a frame- green economy is inconceivable”, gen- tions and guide- and minimize or altogether work of economic develop- der-disaggregated data on green jobs is lines. These are avoid the generation of all ment focused on technological still insufficient;53 decent green jobs, which precedents for forms of waste and pollu- solutions to unsustainability. usually require technical or scientific possible future tion.” “Green jobs” may also appear qualifications, are fewer in number and standard-setting. as a response to solve the tend to employ men. job-loss resulting from “greening” technologies. • Reproductive work in private households is not directly mentioned in the 2008 definition.

53 ILO, Gender Equality and Green Jobs: Policy Brief, 2015, p. 1.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 31 Trafficking in persons

Dates of Drawbacks, blind spots Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics In public The commonly called “Palermo Trafficking 2000 55 • Frameworks of action • While exploitation is not • The victim’s consent to discourse, the Protocol”54 defines trafficking as the “recruit- are usually referred to defined, the concept of exploitation when force concept refers ment, transportation, transfer, harbouring as the four Ps: preven- trafficking tacitly overem- or deception is used is to deception or receipt of persons, by means of the threat tion, prosecution, phasizes the labour immaterial for estab- involving the or use of force or other forms of coercion, of protection and partner- intermediation and lishing a traffick- movement of a abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the ships. They focus on migratory dimension ing-in-persons case (for person for the abuse of power or of a position of vulnera- informing the general (migration within countries prosecution). purpose of bility or of the giving or receiving of pay- public and risk groups included). exploitation. ments or benefits to achieve the consent of about trafficking in • The concept visibilizes In practice, a person having control over another persons, prosecuting • The trafficking-in-persons the situation of migrant some crimi- person, for the purpose of exploitation. labour recruiters and framework fails to take workers who play an nal-justice Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the employers perceived to into account that workers increasingly important practitioners exploitation of the prostitution of others or be involved in decep- won’t enjoy decent work role in modern econo- tend to differ- other forms of sexual exploitation, forced tion, protecting victims, unless their fundamental mies. entiate labour labour or services, slavery or practices labour rights are re- and fostering partner- • Although the concept trafficking from similar to slavery, servitude or the removal ships. Since trafficking is spected. It empowers sex trafficking, of organs.” The Protocol further adds that does not address considered a form of security-sector authorities, and trafficking the consent of a victim of trafficking in background conditions organized crime, which tend to see collec- in persons for persons to the intended exploitation is irrele- of distress, its focus on partnerships tend to tive action of workers as a other criminal vant where any of the means listed above the migratory dimen- involve cooperation law-and-order issue, but purposes. have been used, or when it involves children sion and the fact that a between the police, not as a situation arising There is no under eighteen years of age. victim’s consent is not border officials and from systemic labour definition of abuses. They will see needed if the listed labour traf- The ILO’s Operational Indicators of civil- society organiza- means are used Trafficking in Human Beings (ILO 2009), tions. informal labour intermedi- ficking, sex ation as a crime even when visibilizes how distress trafficking or based on a Delphi methodology, provide

54 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2000. 55 Date of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

32 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Dates of Drawbacks, blind spots Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics any other type guidelines on how to identify individual • Criminal-justice perspec- it can also offer escape migration can lead of trafficking in victims of trafficking. However, in 2012, the tives tend to see labour from unfree forms of migrants to accept persons for ILO developed forced-labour indicators as one of many pur- labour. abusive working and criminal which are applicable in trafficking-in-person poses of human traf- living conditions out of purposes. contexts56 (entry on Forced Labour). ficking, such as • Criminal-justice perspec- desperation. trafficking for organ use, tives tend to crowd-out the surrogacy, militancy, etc. significance of labour in all forms of human trafficking.

56 ILO, Indicators of Forced Labour, 2012.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 33 Informal work

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frame- Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance works of action limitations characteristics Informal As of yet, no international standard defines informal 1993 The framework of The concept encompasses • The ILO’s 2015 work refers work. Cognate terms are used, including: action to address varying conceptions of formality, definition on the to eco- 2003 informality is which range from those in which informal economy Informal economy: The Transition from the Informal to nomic 2015 implicit in the state regulates labour calls for a transi- activities by the Formal Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 202) Recommendation protections regardless of the tion towards workers defines the informal economy as “all economic activities No. 202. The type of work, and those in which formality which and eco- by workers and economic units that are – in law or in Recommendation the state privatizes the regula- encompasses nomic units practice – not covered or insufficiently covered by formal outlines guiding tion of work depending on decent work and 57 that are – in arrangements”. principles on the sectors and types of workers. In respect of funda- law or in Informal employment: The 17th International transition to a other words, formalization in mental principles practice Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS)58 held in 2003 formal economy, itself is not a panacea. and rights at work. – not provides a statistical definition of informal employment which include Throughout history, many forms covered or sustainable of abusive work had formal • Within a relatively as “all remunerative work (i.e. both self-employment and short time frame, insuffi- wage employment) that is not registered, regulated or development, pro- underpinnings. Not all formal ciently motion of a work is necessarily desirable a significant protected by existing legal or regulatory frameworks, as number of initia- covered by well as non-remunerative work undertaken in an conducive busi- (e.g., work under restrictive formal ness and invest- sponsorship systems). While the tives have contrib- income-producing enterprise. Informal workers do not uted to advance a arrange- have secure employment contracts, workers’ benefits, ment 2015 definition on the informal ments environment, economy does call for formaliza- more nuanced social protection, or workers’ representation.” understanding of (Williams Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal decent work, tion towards decent work and and Lansky respect for and respect of fundamental princi- informal work employment included a specific reference to the types based on studies, 2013). of jobs included under informal employment. promotion and ples and rights at work, in realization of the practice, market logics, including resolutions and

57 The Recommendation further stipulates that the informal economy “does not cover illicit activities, in particular the provision of services or the production, sale, possession or use of goods forbidden by law, including the illicit production and trafficking of drugs, the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, trafficking in persons, and money laundering, as defined in the relevant international treaties”. 58 ICLSs have been convened periodically since 1923, and in accordance with the decision taken by the Governing Body of the ILO at its 283rd Session (March 2002), the 17th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) was held at the ILO, Geneva, from 24 November to 3 December 2003.

34 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frame- Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance works of action limitations characteristics Informal sector: The 15th ICLS59 held in 1993 provided a fundamental capital accumulation, underpin guidelines. These statistical definition of the informal sector as “a group of principles and the political economy of work. are precedents for production units comprised of unincorporated enter- rights at work, There is therefore a mismatch future possible prises owned by households, including informal own-ac- etc. between the “proclaimed jurid- standard-setting. count enterprises and enterprises of informal It also outlines an ical freedom of contract and the employers”. This definition is limited to enterprises. integrated policy actual domain of production • The concept framework to where a crude market reality visibilizes work The 2015 definition of “informal economy” combines the promote formal- dominates. Formal equality can that should enterprise-centred definition of 1993 on “informal ization. therefore coexist with informal benefit from employment” with the job-centred definition of 2003 on domination” (Mohapatra 2005). labour protec- the informal sector. tions.

59 In January 1993, the 15th International Conference of Labour Statisticians adopted an international statistical definition of the informal sector, which was subsequently included in the revised international System of National Accounts (SNA).

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 35 Labour mobility

Dates of Drawbacks, blind Strengths and International legal recent spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics Labour mobility usually There is no internationally agreed upon 1930 In the context of globalization, Regardless of legal The concept is refers to the possibility definition on labour mobility; however, the “labour mobility” is important frameworks sup- helpful in ques- for workers to move UN Migrant Workers Convention of 1990 1964 for market economies to porting labour tioning existing from one employment contains a provision granting freedom of 1975 attract competitive labour mobility, in practice barriers to relationship or occupa- mobility under certain conditions (Article 52): supply that can lower produc- labour mobility is employment and tion to another. The “Migrant workers in the State of employment 1990 tion costs for businesses and closely associated migration into latter is also referred to shall have the right freely to choose their employers. However, once with the economic, decent work. as occupational mo- remunerated activity, subject to the following mobilized, it is usually con- social and symbolic bility. restrictions or conditions.” strained to extract greater capital of persons. surplus value under the Income, class and The term is used by The Migrant Workers (Supplementary argument that migrant workers qualifications tend to economists referring to Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143), Article don’t enjoy the same labour frame options of the ease with which 14(a), provides for the right of migrant and other rights as native labour mobility. In workers are able to workers to free choice of employment, populations. In that sense, other words, signifi- move around within an subject to certain conditions: “A Member may although the freedom-of-move- cant barriers can economy and between (a) make the free choice of employment, ment element of “labour exist for low-income different countries. In while assuring migrant workers the right to mobility” is celebrated as a and working-class this sense it is closely geographical mobility, subject to the condi- fundamental freedom, norma- populations regard- connected to migration tions that the migrant worker has resided tive restrictions lay out the less of how permis- for employment. lawfully in its territory for the purpose of premise for the segmentation sive the legal employment for a prescribed period not of labour rights. framework may be. Migrant workers often exceeding two years or, if its laws or regula- refer to the non-legal tions provide for contracts for a fixed term of There are at least three dif- While Convention term “free visas” as an less than two years, that the worker has ferent frameworks of action No. 122 provides for aspired condition, completed his first work contract.”60 that are implicit in the concept some worker protec- presumably allowing of labour mobility: those that tions in seeking workers to shift jobs. The ILO has referred to labour mobility as a relate to employment policies employment, in proxy for labour migration in some docu- as per Convention No. 122; practice, the concept 61 ments, however the concept is also articu- those that relate to the disman can be lated in certain standards:

60 Further guidance on the application of this provision is provided by the CEACR in its 2016 General Survey concerning the migrant workers instruments. 61 Labour mobility has been used as a synonym for or complement to labour migration and indeed found its way into the title of Outcome 9 in the ILO Programme and Budget (P&B) 2018–19 (but interestingly not in Output 7.5 in the P&B 2020–21) so that access to the labour market for refugees could also be covered.

36 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Dates of Drawbacks, blind Strengths and International legal recent spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics The Employment Policy Convention, 1964 tling of sponsorship systems; misused to promote (No. 122) mentions that employment policies and those that relate to the flexible hire-and-fire “shall aim at ensuring that (a) there is work removal of migration barriers options that foster for all who are available for and seeking such as visas and specific abusive working and work; (b) such work is as productive as migration bans. living conditions. possible; (c) there is freedom of choice of employment and the fullest possible opportunity for each worker to qualify for, and to use his skills and endowments in, a job for which he is well suited, irrespective of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin.” Article III or the Forced Labour (Indirect Compulsion) Recommendation, 1930 (No. 35) highlights the principle of “desirability of avoiding any restrictions on the voluntary flow of labour from one form of employment to another or from one district to another which might have the indirect effect of compelling workers to take employment in particular industries or districts, except where such restrictions are considered necessary in the interest of the population or of the workers concerned.”

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 37 Labour recruiter

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics Labour The ILO’s General Principles and 1948 Convention No. 88 (1948) reiter- • The term labour recruiter can The concept of “labour recruiters are Operational Guidelines for Fair ated63 the key role of public em- be used in such a way that it recruiter” sheds light commonly Recruitment (2016) define the 1997 ployment offices and the roles that overplays the role of labour on labour intermedia- referred to as term labour recruiter as “both 2016 they play in facilitating recruitment. intermediation in enabling tion processes which “middlemen”, public employment services and workers to find a job. In that should be more sometimes as private employment agencies and Convention No. 181 sidelined the sense, it overshadows the fact transparent. It is labour all other intermediaries or central role that public employment that people don’t always need important that all intermedi- subagents that offer labour offices were supposed to play intermediaries to find jobs, labour intermediaries aries or recruitment and placement according to previous conventions especially when employment in a recruitment brokers. services. Labour recruiters can as it “allows the operation of private processes are publicly adver- process can be held take many forms, whether for employment agencies as well as tised directly by employers or accountable to the Different profit or non-profit, or operating the protection of the workers using public employment offices. worker and not only terms exist in within or outside legal and their services, within the framework to the employer who different regulatory framework.”62 of its provisions”. In that sense the • In the context of decent-work pays a fee. languages, convention formalizes the role of scarcity, labour-intermediation depending on Article 1 of Convention No. 181 private recruitment and employ- needs, whether formal or the type of defines private employment ment agencies. informal, increase: employers agency as “any natural or legal prefer to avoid accountability work, sector, While the General Principles and and legality person, independent of the public for working conditions by authorities, which provides one or Guidelines provide for the respect choosing intermediaries to of their of fundamental principles and involvement. more of the following labour deal with workers; and market services: (a) services for rights at work and other human workers opt for their own matching offers of and applica- rights in recruitment processes, informal intermediaries to find tions for employment, without they are non-binding and en- better employers in an envi- the private employment agency courage due diligence, ronment of decent-work becoming a party to the employ- scarcity. Workers often need ment relationships which may such intermediaries to help arise therefrom; them negotiate with employers and exit abusive

62 The term also appears in the Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014 (No. 203), accompanying the 2014 Protocol but is not defined there. 63 The central role of public recruitment agencies had first been raised in the Unemployment Convention, 1919 (No. 2).

38 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics (b) services consisting of em- self-accountability and transpar- employment relationships. ploying workers with a view to ency measures regarding recruit- That said, human-trafficking making them available to a third ment processes. The discourse on frameworks tend to end up party; (c) other services relating to promoting fair recruitment is often incriminating primarily in- job-seeking.” closely linked to anti-trafficking formal labour intermediaries frameworks of action that tolerate who play an important eco- Convention No. 88 (1948) pro- formal labour intermediaries if they nomic role in enabling access vides for the existence of free are accountable but see informal to better, if not necessarily public employment agencies and labour intermediaries as the main decent, jobs. defines some parameters of cause of human trafficking. services that are needed.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 39 Modern slavery

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics In public Although “modern slavery” 201366 The 2030 Agenda for • The concept remains uncertain and • The concept recognizes discourse, has no legally agreed upon Sustainable Development, vague in the absence of an interna- an asymmetrical power the concept international definition,64 there 2015 and more specifically SDG tional legal definition. relationship of domina- refers to were earlier international Target 8.7, refers to tion. • Most individual stakeholders extreme, instruments addressing “modern slavery”. involved or complicit in systemic egregious slavery, such as the 1926 • When referring to The concept refers to such labour abuses will tend to claim current Slavery Convention, which “modernity” the concept an infamous past that its that the concept is too distant or situations include a definition of slavery tacitly suggests (while occurrence today calls for a extreme to apply to themselves. reminiscent (see below the heading for leaving it undefined) that swift criminal-justice there are new forms of of chattel slavery). However, the notion response, rather than a • The concept calls for criminal-justice slavery in of what is “modern” about responses that overshadow rights- control over people’s response based on a labour labour freedoms today’s today’s slavery is not defined. or human-rights frame- based approaches. context. Instead, it is sometimes needing regulation or work. Perpetrators are seen • The notion of modernity opens punishment. argued that the term is an as slavers, who should be umbrella term covering a set more questions than it answers and treated as criminals, and as such blurs understanding. of specific legal concepts with subjects as “victims” or 65 a common element. “survivors”, who deserve • The connotation towards sale and compassion. The concept buying of a person as a commodity, implies “extreme exploita- which defines classic slavery, rarely tion”, which tends to go occurs in a direct manner in existing beyond the realm of labour labour relations and is unlikely to legislation. be extensively used in current legal regimes.

64 Some countries have defined the term “modern slavery”, such as the UK Modern Slavery Act, 2015. There is no definition of the term, just definitions of components like slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour. 65 For example, a recent Walk Free Foundation report in 2020 on the Asia Pacific region mentioned that “Countries use differing terminologies to describe modern forms of slavery. This includes how they describe slavery itself, but also other concepts such as human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, and the sale and exploitation of children. In this report, modern slavery is used as an umbrella term that focuses attention on the commonalities across these concepts. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power, or deception.” 66 While the term had been used by some countries, the first time the term was applied at an international level was in 2013, when the Walk Free Foundation published the first edition of its “Global Slavery Index” to explain how many people were trapped in “modern slavery”. However, definitions used have varied in different subsequent reports.

40 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Practices similar to slavery

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance action limitations characteristics This concept Article 1 of the 1956 Supplementary 1956 Different frameworks of • This is a composite concept, Strengths depend on each usually refers Slavery Convention67 lists a series of action apply depending on regrouping multiple, very listed practice that is to practices institutions and practices that are specific listed practices different realities. similar to slavery. Refer to that can be considered similar to slavery. They (see headings below for relevant heading accord- associated include bonded labour, serfdom, relevant frameworks of • Conceptual limitations depend ingly. with slavery. family practices akin to forced action). on each listed practice that is marriage and child exploitation or similar to slavery. Refer to labour (see headings below). relevant heading accordingly.

67 The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 41 Serfdom

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics The concept is rarely According to Article 1(b) of the 1956 The framework of action Notwithstanding the historical • The concept sheds light used nowadays, 1956 Supplementary Slavery includes a legal or policy significance of having framed on how control over except when Convention, it is “the condition measure abolishing serfdom the analysis of abuse in resources, such as land, referring to specific or status of a tenant who is by (e.g., abolition of feudal specific regions that led to a are an important historical contexts law, custom or agreement rights of the nobility in 1789 reorganization of the society element underpinning (e.g., Middle Ages), bound to live and labour on in France), supported by and economy, the direct legal unfree work. specific situations of land belonging to another strong mobilization. restriction of a worker to a unequal sharecrop- person and to render some location and a form of inher- • Some abusive types of ping, and some determinate service to such ited tenancy is rare in the contemporary labour contemporary other person, whether for current contemporary context. regimes bind workers situations (e.g., reward or not, and is not free to to a specific location some forms of rural change his [her] status”. where they can be work in South Asia exploited (e.g., migrant up until the 1960s, domestic workers in some forms of work sponsorship relations). in haciendas in • The term has served to Chiapas up until the frame thinking behind 1990s). structural societal change.

42 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Sexual exploitation

Dates of Drawbacks, blind spots Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks and visibilizing use definition importance of action limitations characteristics The concept Articles 2 and 3 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention 2000 Frameworks of action • The concept excludes • “Child sexual usually on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child to address sexual dimensions of labour and exploitation has a refers to Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC), 2000 define 2003 exploitation vary. The work which are important generally agreed systemic the framework of child sexual exploitation within the OPSC requires that (See the Violence and meaning and/or sexual concepts of “sale of children”, “child prostitution” and state parties criminalize Harassment Convention, can be used abuse. “child pornography”. Beyond the scope of children, the the sexual exploitation 2019 (No. 2019)), and without stigma- definition of sexual exploitation is highly contested, and of the child in the instead focuses on sexual tising and/or hence there isn’t a normative international definition. context of what the relations that carry very otherwise However, in 2003, the UN Secretary-General issued OPSC defines as “‘sale polarized referents. harming the “Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation of children”. Other child.”70 and Sexual Abuse”68 that defined sexual exploitation as legal, administrative, • The term exploitation refers “any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnera- investigative, protec- to the systemic nature of • The concept bility, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, tive, and informational sexual abuses and as such acknowledges the including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially measures are foreseen. focuses on egregious existence of or politically from the sexual exploitation of another”. The sexual relationships, while structural power Rome Statute (1998) encompasses crimes against hu- Frameworks of action leaving out more regular imbalances manity (Article 7), which include “enslavement” (Article meant to confront forms of abuse that are between sexual 7.1.c) and “sexual enslavement” (Article 7.1.g) as a war sexual exploitation vary also important. Conversely, abusers and crime and a breach of the Geneva Conventions. significantly between the term can also be used victims. abolitionists who hold to recast consenting sexual According to the ILO’s Department of Statistics,69 forced that sex work is a relationships or other • The concept commercial sexual exploitation refers to “forced labour in violation of human commodified relationships circumscribes the private economy imposed by private individuals, rights, those who (e.g., surrogacy) as forced sexual exploitation groups, or companies for commercial sexual exploitation. defend sex work and or abusive. to the abuse of It includes women and men who have involuntarily seek to confront vulnerability, entered a form of commercial sexual exploitation, or who exploitation through a • The definition provided by hence excluding have entered the sex industry voluntarily but cannot leave labour-rights frame- the 2003 UNSG “Special other contested it. It also covers all forms of commercial sexual exploita- work, and others. Measures for Protection sexual relation- tion of children, including the use, procuring, or offering from Sexual Exploitation ships related to of children for prostitution or pornography irrespective of and Sexual Abuse” is not a work. their consent.” normative one.

68 On 9 October 2003, the Secretariat of the UN adopted the “Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse”. It was published in the Secretary-General’s General Bulletin No. ST/SGB/2003/13. 69 ILO, Guidelines Concerning the Measurement of Forced Labour adopted by the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, 2018. 70 Terminology Guidelines for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, adopted by the Interagency Working Group in Luxembourg, 28 January 2016, ECPAT Luxembourg.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 43 Sex work

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics The concept The term is highly While the term The juxtaposition of the term “sex” • In many countries, the provision of • The association of sexual refers to adult contested, and hence it “working girls” with “work” implies a labour sexual services in exchange for activities with work work related does not have an has existed for framework of accountability. In a material compensation is prohib- removes the criminal to the provi- international legal a long time, policy brief “Sex Work as Work”, ited, considered a crime and highly connotation that is sion of sexual definition. While some the concept of NSWP 73 lays out elements of a stigmatized. In such cases, sex common in countries that services or countries have made sex work Decent Sex Work Agenda, which work is not recognized as work, have criminalized “prosti- products in sex work legal, other emerged in includes fundamental principles and being associated with it tution”. exchange for countries criminalize the late 1970s. and rights at work and other undermines the social capital of sex material clients of sex workers, 72 specific points, such as the decrimi- workers. In such cases, sex workers • The concept removes compensa- while others criminalize nalization of all aspects of sex tend to remain invisible. traditional stigma associ- tion. it as prostitution. The work; fair labour practices in line ated with prostitution and concept of sex work with existing labour laws; clean and • Sex work may include violence and removes obstacles to generally refers to a safe working environment; access health hazards – conditions that, realization of their rights type of consensual adult to condoms and personal protec- admittedly, may also exist in other as human beings, espe- occupation involving the tive equipment; access to volun- legal occupational sectors. cially against discrimina- provision of sexual tary, non-stigmatizing and tion. services for material comprehensive health services; • Just as non-consensual work can compensation. freedom from violence and sexual exist in other occupations, there • The concept allows sex Children’s involvement harassment; the right to choose are situations when sex work is also workers to avail labour in sex work tends to be work arrangements; the right to non-consensual. At one end of the rights in their struggles universally proscribed.71 social protections and benefits spectrum this includes trafficking against work-related which are the right of all em- and forced labour, while at the abuses. Other terms such It is important to ployees; access to statutory other end, it may arguably include as “prostitution” that tend highlight that people complaint mechanisms to address “survival sex work”. However, in to deny a legal work engaged in providing contraventions of employment such cases it is unclear how the lack relationship ipso facto sexual services for standards legislation; the right to of alternatives that is implicit in the deprive sex workers from material compensation refuse services; the right to access term “survival” is different from the labour rights and put prefer to describe their health and social services free from lack of alternatives among agricul- them at risk. work as “sex work”, stigma and discrimination; tural workers, construction rather than other freedom from discrimination by workers, domestic workers, etc. pejorative terms such as other employers, landlords, or judges in family court

71 UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The protocol entered into force in 2002. 72 Carol Leigh, 1978. See Carol Leigh coins the term “sex work”, Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), 2014. 73 NSWP, 2017.

44 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics “prostitution”. See: due to current or prior involvement – conditions of work which may also • The concept implies that a Language Matters: in sex work, and several other involve sexual harassment. sex worker enjoys the Talking about sex work points. freedom and agency to (NSWP 2013). • Some see sex as an intimate use her or his body as she Note that social networks accessed relationship that should not be or he wishes. through sex work may enable commodified. This argument, cross-class relationships and hence however, does not take into ac- • In comparison with other be perceived as a threat to tradi- count the fact that all work involves terms, the term “sex work” tional and modern forms of social some form of compensation and is the preferred term used reproduction and gender roles, hence commodified transaction. It by sex workers themselves particularly of higher-income also does not account for the right to describe their work. groups. This may partly explain the of agency of those involved in sex This, however, does not historically contested nature of the work, or the possibility that some necessarily mean that they concept. sex workers may not have eco- are all willing to publicly nomic alternatives. present themselves as sex workers, given the stigma associated with it and the social consequences such publicity may entail.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 45 Slavery

Strengths and International legal Dates of recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance action limitations characteristics The concept focuses on a The 1926 Slavery 1926 There are regulatory mecha- The concept assumes that in • Ownership and sale of person being treated as Convention defines nisms allowing a person to be order to address labour people are addressed. property and sold slavery as the “state or released from slavery, such as unfreedoms it is enough to accordingly. condition of a person manumission agreements for prohibit people from (1) • The relation of domina- over whom any or all the individual cases or abolition owning others and (2) being tion and abuse is powers attaching to the laws and policies barring the able to sell them in a com- visibilized. right of ownership are ownership and sale of mercial transaction. It fails to • Article 2 of the 1926 exercised…”. The 1956 humans. However, in most take into account the condi- Slavery Convention Supplementary Slavery cases, these mechanisms do tions and structural factors recognizes the need to 74 Convention further not include provisions for that led to those relation- abolish other forms of specifies different economic alternatives (to ships in the first place. slavery. conditions similar to allow a person who has been Ownership of people over slavery, such as bonded released to get access to land each other and their sale can labour, serfdom, and or capital and thereby earn a be prohibited, and yet, for all certain kinds of exploita- living). practical purposes, people tion of women and can be tied in unfree forms children. of work. Possession is often considered foundational to slavery.75

74 NSWP 75 Guideline 3 of the “Draft Bellagio-Harvard Guidelines on the Legal Parameters of Slavery”, 2011. This is a research network composed of Canadian, US and British academics and other officials.

46 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Smuggling (of migrants)

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Implicit frameworks Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance of action limitations characteristics Smuggling The Smuggling of Migrants 2000 Enforcement happens • The concept has generally allowed the • The Protocol estab- of migrants Protocol76 defines smuggling of through border surveil- negative connotation that was and still is lishes that smuggled usually migrants in Article 3(a) as the lance and criminaliza- associated with the contraband of goods migrants need protec- refers to facilitation of a person’s illegal tion of irregular entry to delegitimize the irregular assisted tions and should not be paid ser- entry into a state, for a financial or into another country movement of people across borders. As criminalized for having vices other material benefit. The and people facilitating such, it represents an important para- been smuggled even if provided by Protocol does not distinguish such passage. In spite digm shift legitimizing restrictions to the they consented to it. intermedi- between facilitating the illegal of explicit safeguards in freedom of movement of people across aries to entry of refugees and that of the definition and in borders. • The Protocol includes irregularly others.77 other clauses of the safeguards specifying facilitate the Protocol, in national • In spite of the definitional clarity of the that it will “not affect entry of In comparison with trafficking, a practice, the concept is Protocol, in practice, the definition of the the other rights, migrants to key difference with smuggling is often used to crimi- Protocol has been expanded at the obligations and respon- another that smuggling involves the nalize all intermediaries national level to apply to all those sibilities of States and country. consent of the migrant. assisting border facilitating irregular entry to another individuals under passage even if they country. For example, humanitarian international law, did not obtain financial assistance to migrants has been con- including international or material gains from flated with complicity in smuggling, humanitarian law and such assistance; it is hence leading to convictions of humani- international human also often used to tarian actors in several countries. rights law and, in impose penalties on particular, where • In spite of numerous safeguards in the applicable, the 1951 migrants themselves Protocol, the concept has been (mis)used (Gallagher 2018). Convention and the to criminalize migrants. For example, 1967 Protocol relating national interpretations of the concept of to the Status of smuggling have been used to convict Refugees and the smuggled asylum-seekers in contradic- principle of non-re- tion with principles established in foulement as contained 78 international refugee law. therein” (Article 19).

76 The Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2000. 77 The Protocol also covers “Enabling a person who is not a national or a permanent resident to remain in the State concerned without complying with the necessary requirements”, i.e., hiding or sheltering a migrant in an irregular situation. 78 UNHCR Summary Position on the Smuggling Protocol

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 47 Sponsorship system

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics It is the The practice of sponsorship 1960s and The sponsorship system allows for the “delega- The CEACR noted that “the While sponsor- system subor- of migrant workers is contro- 70s in the tion or ‘outsourcing’ of responsibility by the so-called visa ‘sponsorship ship systems are dinating the versial and limited to certain Gulf States; state to the private employer to oversee both a system’ (or kafala system) in conducive to immigration countries. There is no inter- migrant worker’s immigration and employ- certain countries in the forced labour, and employ- nationally agreed upon A number of ment status”.80 Such systems are compatible Middle East may be condu- some govern- ment status definition of the sponsorship legislative with neo-liberal economic policies in which cive to the exaction of forced ments argue that of a migrant system, however there are efforts to spending for labour (migration) administration labour” and urged govern- the delegation of worker to the studies describing character- modify is limited. They are also antithetical to freedom ments to “adopt legislative the responsibility will of the istic features of it. An ILO sponsorship of association and collective bargaining. provisions specially tailored to by the state to employer report focusing on eight arrange- the difficult circumstances the sponsor for who acts as a countries in the Middle East ments Efforts to remove sponsorship systems tend to faced by this category of the oversight of “sponsor”. In from 201779 described a have taken focus on addressing one or two of the many workers and to protect them the immigration some Arab range of situations giving place during factors that make migrant workers completely from abusive practices”81, and and employment States, the employers full authority over the period of dependent on their sponsors, such as making to “take the necessary mea- status is an term kafala is migrant workers to decide on 2015–2020 in it legally possible to terminate employment sures in law and practice, to inexpensive way used. their entry into a country, the a number of before the end of the contractual period, ensure that migrant domestic of controlling renewal of residence and countries in change employment or leave the country. workers are fully protected labour relation- labour permits, the termina- the Middle However, it is important to note that removing from abusive practices and ships of large tion of contracts, their East. all features of a sponsorship system cannot conditions that amount to the migrant work- transfer to another employer, happen without addressing all migrant worker exaction of forced labour”82. forces. It reduces and exit from the country. dependencies, strengthening labour inspec- the role of labour tion, and ensuring fundamental principles and In a full sponsorship context, (migration) rights at work, including freedom of associa- migrant workers tend to be administrations. tion and collective bargaining. Given the criminalized for no fault of multilayered challenges that this involves, the their own, usually for the ILO prefers to refer to such efforts as “disman- failure of their employer to tling” rather than “abolishing” the sponsorship renew a work or residence system. permit, or similar situations.

79 ILO, Employer-Migrant Worker Relationships in the Middle East: Exploring Scope for Internal Labour Mobility and Fair Migration, 2017 80 ILO 81 ILO, Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, ILC, 104th Session, 2015. 82 ILO, Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, ILC, 105th Session, 2016.

48 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Subcontracted labour

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and limita- visibilizing Common use definition importance action tions characteristics The concept usually While the ILO attempted to 1998 Measures to provide Even though it is acknowledged that Standard-setting refers to work define “contract labour” in the protections for subcon- contract labour is a central practice in attempts related to provided by an 86th Session of the ILC, no 2006 tracted workers depend on most world economies and that “contract labour” and enterprise or work consensus was reached.83 The the law and practice of each there are significant abuses related “employment rela- by a self-employed term “contract labour” was country. to it, there is no international binding tionships” have person, depending proposed to mean: “work set of standards that address it. contributed to on the context. performed for a natural or legal The Employment shedding light on the Subcontracted work person (referred to as a ‘user Relationship While contract labour is often lauded accountability of often involves a enterprise’) by a person (re- Recommendation, 2006 (No. as a form of freedom enabling different actors in labour intermediary. ferred to as a ‘contract worker’) 198) highlights the need for workers to freely enter into labour ensuring better where the work is performed by national policies for the relationships (as opposed to slavery), working and living Other terms such as the contract worker personally protection of workers in an it has been argued that numerous conditions of subcon- contract labour, under actual conditions of employment relationship. barriers exist that effectively under- tracted workers. Such outsourced labour, dependency on or subordina- Such policies are supposed mine the freedom to choose and exit efforts are important gig work are also tion to the user enterprise and to “(a) provide guidance for work (Brass 1999). for future stan- used, depending on these conditions are similar to the parties concerned, in dard-setting options. the context. In the particular employers and Policies promoting labour flexibility those that characterize an and ease of doing business have nineteenth century, employment relationship under workers, on effectively it was usually establishing the existence of enabled formal employers to delink national law and practice but themselves from the direct responsi- referred to as “the where the contract worker is an employment relationship sweating system” and on the bility of contracting. Simultaneously, not the employee of the user this has often also enabled em- (leading to the term enterprise”. distinction between em- “sweatshop”). ployed and self-employed ployers to delink themselves from workers; and (b) combat the responsibility of ensuring decent disguised employment work and allowed recruiters, contrac- relationships…” tors or gig-sector platforms to set the working conditions of workers in a kind of bubble that is kept isolated from state regulations.

83 ILO, 86th Session of the ILC, Report V (2B) Addendum, Committee on Contract Labour, 1998. Views of constituents on the definition of contract labour are available in Report V (2A).

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 49 Survivor (of human trafficking, modern slavery)

Dates of Strengths and International legal recent Implicit frameworks Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition importance of action limitations characteristics This term has been in The term “survivor” has 2013 This term tends to • The concept only leaves space • In comparison with other use primarily by some no definition in interna- direct policy and for the protection and rehabilita- analogous terms that are feminist groups tional law. However, 2015 programme efforts tion of “survivors” for having used, such as “runaway” or dealing with gender some governments that towards protection and been the subject of extreme and “absconder”, the term “sur- survivors of domestic have adopted laws rehabilitation of egregious situations similar to vivor” doesn’t place any stigma abuse/violence or related to modern survivors of modern slavery. Experience of regular on the subject. sexual violence and slavery do refer to slavery. The Freedom abuses hardly qualifies one as a rape. It has also been “survivors”. Fund and some North “survivor”, even if such abuses • Women’s rights groups used by anti-prostitu- American organiza- are integral elements of unfree working on anti-trafficking tion campaigners for tions have also tried to work (e.g., harassment, non-pay- agendas have preferred to some time, referring organize survivors of ment of wages, etc.). refer to “survivors” rather than both to women and trafficking. “victims” to encourage action girls who had been • One is only entitled to specific that enables the trafficked trafficked into “prosti- The Office for protections after having been women to get back their belief tution” and to others Democratic Institutions subjected to human trafficking in themselves, their strength who had been in sex and Human Rights or slave-like situations. One can and power and move on from 85 work without being (ODHIR) of the hardly enjoy such protections ex “victimhood”. Organization for ante. forced or trafficked. • The term implies the need for Today, it is increasingly Security and Cooperation in Europe some type of victim compensa- common among tion and non-criminalization advocacy groups (OSCE), which has used trafficking and modern for illegal acts committed advocating for aboli- when trafficked. tion of modern slavery. slavery interchange- The term “victim” has ably, recently set up an also been used in the International Survivors context of trafficking in of Trafficking Advisory persons, although it is Council. increasingly discon- tinued in favour of the term “survivor”.84

84 See adjacent columns for explanation. 85 Organizations like Shakti Samuha in Nepal called themselves survivor-led groups and rejected the term “victim” as descriptors for themselves. They organized national level closed-door conferences with “survivors”.

50 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Unacceptable forms of work (UFW)

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics This term The concept has no international 2013 As the antithesis of acceptable • Even though the ILO has explored • The concept of “dif- is not definition. In 2013, the Director- work or its closest more common and qualified what the concept ferent forms of work” commonly General of the ILO referred to it cognate term “decent work”, the refers to in detail, it is not directly recognizes that there used. as: “work arrangements that framework of action of “unac- backed by a specific international are multiple dimen- deny fundamental principles and ceptable forms of work” is the normative definition. sions to work and a rights at work, put at risk the Decent Work Agenda. In 2008, continuum of unaccept- lives, health, freedom, human the ILO Tripartite Meeting of • Beyond the ILO and some aca- able forms of work. dignity and security of workers Experts agreed on decent work demic circles, the concept is not or keep households in conditions indicators that integrate ten commonly used. • The concept of “unacceptability” draws a line of poverty”. statistical and legal dimensions of • For those who are unfamiliar with decent work: employment on what is or not The concept is explained in detail the ILO’s description of the permissible in different opportunities; adequate earnings concept, “acceptability” varies in an ILO publication (Fudge and and productive work; decent forms of work. McCann 2015) and is meant to across class, culture and countries working time; combining work, and as such is a subjective term. • The combination of build on other concepts, such as family, and personal life; work “decent work”, “good jobs”, This subjectivity and the com- “forms of work” and that should be abolished (forced posite nature of the concept “unacceptability” “precarious work”, “vulnerable labour, hazardous child labour, workers” and “informal work”. invites multiple interpretations, establishes an ambition and other worst forms of child which may be confusing. to define an interna- labour); stability and security of tional floor of rights work; equal opportunity and • The composite nature of the related to labour. treatment in employment; safe concept makes it more difficult to work environment; social secu- grasp and prevent misinterpreta- rity; social dialogue and em- tions in spite of clarification ployers’ and workers’ efforts. representation.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 51 Unfree labour

Strengths and Common International legal Dates of recent Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance action limitations characteristics This term is There is no established normative 1999 Frameworks of action While a normative internation- • This is one of the usually definition of unfree labour. In market related to unfree labour ally agreed upon definition few concepts that associated economies within liberal democracies, depend on the varying would be difficult to reach and allows a worker to with “freedom” in relationship to “work” tends interpretations of freedom not necessarily advisable, the partially define work different to be interpreted primarily as the and labour and the cognate diversity of interpretations on their own. concep- freedom to choose and enter into a work terms that are associated based on variable understand- tions of contract. Alternatively, unfree labour is with them, such as labour ings of freedom and labour, • The concept enables freedom sometimes used as a synonym for forced mobility and related make this concept rather a focus on both and work, labour. In other words, unfree work is employment policies, intangible. labour and markets. depending seen as the combination of the absence forced labour and decent • The concept sug- on social of free-labour mobility and prevalence of work policies, or exploita- gests that there may and coercive threats or menaces related to tion and democratization of be a multidimen- economic work. In a market economy and liberal the workplace. sional continuum of status and democracy context, unfree labour is different unfree- the histor- therefore associated with slavery and doms in work.86 ical context certain types of unfree work of planned of labour economies or non-democratic societies. relations. Anthropologist Tom Brass, however, has demonstrated that the capitalist transfor- mation of the agrarian sector has not automatically led to the replacement of unfree workers with free equivalents (Brass 1999). If a worker cannot sell his/ her own work, such a person is not free, even in a market economy. Unfree labour includes multiple angles that are being explored in the context of the global political economy (LeBaron and Howard 2015).

86 See Jens Lerche, “The Unfree Labour Category and Unfree Labour Estimates: A Continuum within Low-End Labour Relations”, Manchester Papers in Political Economy Working Paper No. 10, 2011.

52 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work Unpaid work

Dates of Strengths and Common International legal recent Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing use definition importance Implicit frameworks of action limitations characteristics This term There is no international 2013 Many forms of unpaid work are • While Resolution I of the 19th • The concept acknowledges usually definition of unpaid work; widely accepted (e.g., prison ICLS approximates a possible that work exists that may not refers to however, many countries labour), hence the idea that framework to describe be acknowledged and hence work that a distinguish unpaid work that some sort of political action is unpaid work, there is no undervalued. It tacitly brings person contributes to the Gross needed to address unpaid work international standard out the difference between believes is Domestic Product and work is controversial. It’s usually in the defining its meaning. concrete labour linked to work and that does not (based on case of informal unpaid and actual work and abstract yet remains Systems of National undervalued work (e.g., care • The description of paid work labour linked to work as unpaid for. Accounts). work) that different frameworks under Resolution I of the defined by social conventions. It is some- of action exist – either through 19th ICLS is gender blind and 87 times Resolution I of the 19th ICLS the formalization of the informal fails to acknowledge the prev- • The concept offers the poten- conflated attempts to define five forms economy and/or the valuation of alence of unequal unpaid tial to bring out the unequal with in- of work, which include some work. (See informal work.) work among women, particu- gender distribution of unpaid formal work. forms of unpaid work such as larly in connection with care work. unpaid trainee work, volun- The UN’s SDG Target 5.4 commits work and social reproduction. teer work, and other forms of to reducing, recognizing and • The concept has the potential work, including unpaid redistributing unpaid care and • The concept doesn’t directly to visibilize the double burden community service, unpaid domestic work as nationally account for the non-financial of unpaid work and the work by prisoners, and appropriate.88 social and symbolic capital care–work penalty. unpaid military or alternative that unpaid work bestows civilian service. upon the one who performs The UN’s SDG Target 5.4 it or his/her relatives. refers to paid work but does not offer a definition.

87 In 2013, the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians adopted Resolution I “concerning statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization”. It includes several references to unpaid work. 88 The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Target 5.4 aims to “recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate”.

The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 53 Worst forms of child labour

Dates of recent Strengths and International legal impor- Implicit frameworks of Drawbacks, blind spots and visibilizing Common use definition tance action limitations characteristics The concept The ILO has proposed three “uncondi- 1956 The framework of action to Child labour is connected with • Even though the worst refers to repre- tional” concepts that frame the legal deal with the worst forms of poverty and inequality. The forms of child labour hensible prac- definition of child labour: (1) transfer 1973 child labour is described in concepts don’t structurally are left to be defined tices of child into child labour (Article 1(d) of the Articles 4–7 of Convention No. acknowledge the economic by national legislation, labour that are 1956 Supplementary Slavery 1999 182. It includes periodically conditions that generate Convention No. 182 is more harmful to Convention89); (2) minimum age of establishing and reviewing incentives for such practices to specific on the need to the children work as per the Minimum Age lists of worst forms of labour occur. eliminate worst forms concerned than Convention, 1973 (No. 138); and (3) together with constituents of child labour. other cases of redlining of the worst forms of child (Point 3, Article 4); “establish child labour. labour as per the Worst forms of Child or designate appropriate • Considering that “worst Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182). mechanisms to monitor the forms of child labour” The fourth concept consists of haz- implementation” (Article 5 need to be eliminated, ardous work; however, it is supposed and 7); “design and imple- this is the only concept to be the subject of a technical list ment programmes of action analysed in this glos- drawn up at the national level that to eliminate as a priority the sary that links funda- differs from one country to another. worst forms of child labour” mental child rights by The first ILO global report on child (Article 6). default to education. labour referred to the first three as “unconditional”, in the sense that they were defined in international law.

89 The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery.

54 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work X References

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The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work 57 Work in Freedom Work in Freedom is an integrated development cooperation programme aiming to reduce the vulnerability to forced labour for women migrating for garment and domestic work. The programme works along migration pathways in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Jordan, Lebanon and Gulf countries. It is funded by UK Aid from the Department of International Development. However, the views expressed in this policy brief do not necessarily reflect the department’s official policies.

For more information please contact: International Labour Organization Regional Office for the Arab States Aresco Centre - Justinien Street - Kantari P.O.Box 11-4088 Riad Solh 1107-2150 Beirut – Lebanon

58 The Work in Freedom handbook: A critical glossary of terms relating to freedom and unfreedom in the world of work