Measuring fundamental rights at work

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kucera, David

Affiliations: International Institute for Labour Studies, International Labour Office, Case postale 6, 1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 22 799 66 94; Fax: +41 22 799 85 42; E-mail: kucera@ilo.org

Abstract: National level measures of fundamental rights at work are being developed by the International Institute for Labour Studies (of the International Labour Organization) as part of its Decent Work research programme. The measures address freedom of association and collective bargaining, child labour, forced labour, and discrimination in employment. The measures are constructed from information in published sources, both quantitative and textual, emphasizing de facto more than de jure considerations. The paper summarizes previous work on these issues (the construction of measures and their application in empirical analysis) and then the methods employed by the Institute in constructing measures to quantify rights at work. The measures are being developed for two main reasons. First, in order to examine possible trade-offs and complementarities among rights at work and other employment objectives, these measures will be incorporated as explanatory variables into cross-sectional and panel data statistical models. Second, the measures will enable one to identify countries that have been able to achieve both greater rights at work as well other employment objectives, relative to these countries' level of economic development. Information on such success stories will be used to motivate country case studies aimed at identifying the causal mechanisms linking fundamental rights at work with other employment objectives as well as with economic development more generally.

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-2001-182-306

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 18, no. 2-3, pp. 175-186, 2001