On October 7, some 168 million unionised workers in 155 countries will mark the inaugural World Day for Decent Work.

The idea behind the campaign is simple: every person on earth is entitled to a job that delivers a fair wage and allows people to enjoy a good life provide for themselves and their families.

The key themes for this first ever World Day for Decent Work are:

Rights at Work Including the fundamental rights to organise and bargain collectively, to be free of forced labour, along with the right to a safe and fair workplace

Solidarity Building links between peoples and providing support to others in time of need

Ending Poverty & Inequality To put sustainable and equitable global development at the heart of everything we do.

Decent Work means equal and fair treatment in the workplace in tandem with the freedom to organise in trade unions and participate in the decisions that affect their working lives.

This is a global campaign that has as much relevance in the developing world as in the developed, in Ireland as in India.

The international trade union movement is calling for a New Globalisation that will operate for the benefit of the mass of people and act to raise standards the world over, reversing the race to the bottom we have seen over the last decade.

In today’s global economy 85 million young people are unemployed and the vast bulk of the employment opportunities available to them are informal and offer poor protections. Over 12 million people are still trapped in ‘forced labour’.

Almost 1.5 billion people earn less than two dollars a day, with women earning far less than their male counterparts. Women also comprise the majority of workers employed in the informal sectors.

Every year, in excess of 100 trade unionists are killed for the ‘crime’ of trying to organise their fellow workers. Thousands more are tortured, countless numbers are dismissed or face workplace victimisation for trade union activities. 

Bad work practices and unsafe workplaces kill more than 2.2 million people every year.

The World Day for Decent Work is organised by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), to which Congress is affiliated.