DFID

1
DFIDs Social Aspects of Construction (SAC)
programme????????????????(SAC)????

• Implementing labour standards in infrastructure
  programmes lessons from country pilots
• ????????????
• ???????
• Mary Jennings
• Consultant

2
The 9 Labour Standards 9???????

• 4 core (ILO)
• Freedom of association
• Forced labour
• Child labour
• Discrimination

• 5 broader
• Health Safety
• Wages
• Hours pay
• Casualisation
• Social Security

Broader standards based on international
conventions of the ILO provisions within
regional/national laws
3
The international context ????

• Organisations working on labour standards in
  infrastructure
• The ILO
• The World Bank
• Trade Unions
• Multilaterals ADB, IFC, EU, BNDES
• Bilaterals DFID, JICA, DANIDA
• NGOs

4
Labour Standards Poverty???????

• Construction sector worlds largest employer of
  temporary workers
• Impact on livelihoods
• Decent working conditions
• Security of employment
• Economic security protection from shocks
• Rights, freedoms, dignity, well-being
• Promotes productivity

5
Normal site practice ??our starting point
??????

• Notes from site visit, Zambia 2001
• 4 consecutive union reps dismissed
• Workers paid 0.68 per day (below min wage)
• Workers kept as casuals for years to avoid SS
• Injured workers pay own hospital treatment
• No women employed
• No overtime pay
• Water initially provided then stopped

6
Practical challenges ????

• Gaps between law and practice
• Low capacity of local private sector firms
• Constraints in operating environment - access to
  credit, plant, timely payment
• Initial resistance
• Government bias to lowest bid
• Sustainability?
• Informal practices - incorrect certification
  level, falsification of records, leakage

7
Things we knew we had to do in the SAC
programme????

• Base contract clauses on national law/ include
  social clauses
• Identify processes and issues for implementation
  monitoring
• Make capacity building a central aspect of the
  programme
• Provide incentives for contractors
• Inform workers - and reward them for compliance
• Address wider constraints - as far as possible -
  in collaboration with others (government, donors
  etc.)

8
Labour standards the SAC story????SAC???

• Implementation piloted in three countries
• Ghana - formal contracting, bridges and roads
  programmes (DFID funded)
• Kerala - community contracting in the context of
  state decentralisation (government funded)
• Zambia - unpaid labour and formal contracting in
  urban water and sanitation programme
  (International NGO implemented)

9
Ghana formal contracting??????

• Context Feeder roads bridges project
• Comprehensive legal framework but
• Practice!
• Monitoring! (weakness of Min of Labour TUs)
• Enforcement wont work talk, negotiate, draw in
  all stakeholders - incentives
• Cost labour standards into the contract
• Capacity building

10
Kerala decentralisation community contracting
?????????

• Context hospitals, schools, water supply,roads
• No legislative or regulatory framework
• Corruption
• Comprehensive worker protection in principle
• 5 of 9 LS being applied
• When transferring responsibility, how to transfer
  liability?
• Formal workers Informal workers

11
Zambia participatory unpaid schemes?????????
?

• Context urban water and sanitation
• Community contributions in kind
• materials, free labour or forced work?
• Objective of unpaid approach - ownership, cost
  sharing, sustainability?
• Be clear about conditions of unpaid labour
• Strong social relations () (-)ve

12
Constraints/misunderstandings??/??

• Myths ??
• LS are an outside imposition
• Compliance is required now
• It is against contractor interests
• Workers are not interested

• Reality ??
• Standards are based on (inter)national law
• Improvement is gradual
• Contractors welcome LS if supported
• Workers prefer to work for contractors who opt to
  address LS

13
Costs ??

• Ghana physical provision of protective measures
  2-3 of project costs
• Social security, insurance
• Facilitation of the process
• Kerala insurance for casual workers Rp17 per
  worker

14
Relevance to the China context ???????

• Closure of migrants detention centres has made
  their plight more visible
• Delays in payment of construction workers
  commonplace and publicly visible
• SARS / TB / HIV/AIDS construction sites are
  high risk transmission locations
• Civil society groups providing active support
  to injured migrant workers
• Research community documenting the plight of
  migrants
• Rural sector reform bringing movement of people
  to cities. Need to accord workers their legal
  rights