About Decent Work

Decent Work in South Africa, find out about Decent Work and Decent Wages, the ILO and more on Mywage South Africa

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What is Decent Work?

Since 1999 the ILO works according to the Decent Work Agenda. The Decent Work Agenda has been widely accepted as an important strategy to fight poverty and foster development. The Agenda has been incorporated in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

In short, the Decent Work Agenda supports:

An income which allows the working individual a good life
Everybody has an equal chance to develop themselves at work, and discrimination does not occur
There are proper and safe working conditions
Trade unions are allowed, and a real say in work related matters is in place
The creation of a state-supported social safety net for the sick, weak, elderly and for expecting women

With the Decent Work Agenda the ILO and the UN address governments and social partners. The international labour standards are laid down in ILO Conventions.

What is the Decent Work Check?

The Decent Work Check tool on Mywage South Africa makes the pretty abstract conventions and legal texts tangible. Because in the end you want to know what your rights on the job mean in practice, what you may claim and what protection you are entitled to in case something unexpectedly goes wrong.

What is the ILO doing?

The ILO is the International Labour Organisation of the United Nations, since 1919. In the ILO negotiations are going on between governments of the member states, national trade unions and employers’ associations regarding work related issues, labour law and social security. These negotiations may take years, but eventually lead to so called Conventions.

In Conventions minimum standards are laid down. Conventions are not the law, but the intention is that member states subscribe to the standard in question. The proper way to do that is have these Conventions ratified by parliament and then make national laws. National law can be enforced.

Most ILO-Conventions are accompanied by Recommendations on how to implement the standards. Countries can do more and better, but should not provide less protection than the Conventions prescribe.

Read more about the ILO's International Labour Standards.