The Hindu Business Line : `Economic insecurity most important problem of working class'

Mr Guy Standing, Director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Programme on Economic Security, has been working for five years to prepare a report on economic security of the global labour force. Today he released the report titled `Economic Security for a Better World' which points out towards various contradictions of traditional support system and the process of economic globalisation and free trade. In an exclusive interview with Business Line, Mr Standing shares his thought s on the report and its findings.

Mr Guy Standing, Director, ILO

New Delhi , Oct. 3

MR Guy Standing, Director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Programme on Economic Security, has been working for five years to prepare a report on economic security of the global labour force. He released the report titled `Economic Security for a Better World' last week which points out towards various contradictions of traditional support system and the process of economic globalisation and free trade. In an exclusive interview with Business Line, Mr Standing shares his thoughts on the report and its findings.

Excerpts:

What prompted the ILO to go in for such a report?

Economic insecurity is the most important problem for the working class. Before this report nobody has tried to measure economic security. Standard measures like Gini coefficient etc do not reflect the true state of affairs. So we have calculated an Economic Security Index (ESI) for over 90 countries based on seven forms of work related security. We collected data for close to five years since 1999 and have been able to formulate this new index.

What purpose will this new Economic Security Index serve?

We have created the index by which policy makers can assess which country has done what at providing economic security. We looked at social, economic and institutional factors that determine the economic security of workers in various countries. It is important to note that per capita income is not the main determinant but income security is most important. Countries that have highest income do not necessarily provide the highest amount of income security.

The report states that globalisation has led to slowing of growth in many countries. What, according to you, is the reason for this?

Globalisation has increased the degree of economic instability at the macro level and in the micro level it has generated more insecurities of workers, their families and local communities. In the rich countries there has been an erosion of social protection system and the lower income groups are more insecure in terms of access to pensions, unemployment benefits and the likes. On the other hand in the developing countries there has been very little development of state level social protection systems and simultaneously growth of market economy has weakened the traditional support systems of providing security to the people. Inter-generational support systems are breaking down and there are more tensions there. And the existing trade unions that provide representations have become less effective.

What could be the reasons for the trade unions to become less effective?

Traditional industrial trade unions are now very weak and emerging open informal economic voice of the people requires more innovative types of representations as well as representative trade unions. Higher insecurities induce people to be less tolerant and less committed to socially responsible behaviour and people who are chronically insecure are likely to drift to socially violent actions. Also, a very large number of people do not trust the unions and the unions are also not addressing the problems of the new types of workers, the group which is growing in number. Unless the trade unions can change their characters and reach out to communities of workers who are in precarious conditions and stop protecting small minorities, they will not be able to give the workers representational security. This is weakening the unions.