ILO; Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security; Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Building a future with decent work. Training guide for teachers. Buenos Aires: ILO, 2005.

 

This text wishes to tell a story: a story that begins with the Industrial Revolution, when the bases of wage employment were set until today. As it may be gathered from the reading of these pages, numerous changes have occurred in the labour world during these years: organisation of work, labour relations, creation of a social protection network that defends workers and their families from the risk of diseases, old age or work accidents.

It is a story with steps forward and backward which exposes that the very concept of work is still under construction. Technological advances, worker struggles and capital needs as well as the reigning ideas of each period were factors that, with different weight according to the different historical moments, had a decisive influence on these paths.

No doubt the situation of work and workers during the years that followed the Second World War is not the same as the one today. During those years, economic growth was accompanied by an employment growth, with its subsequent social progress. Achieving the welfare of all citizens was an objective that was widely shared. Today the situation is different. Work has progressively become a scarce privilege. Its conditions have changed, its regulating frameworks have weakened, many workers have lost their right to social benefits and many others have lost their jobs. This has brought about a process of social exclusion and disaffiliation which has resulted in the breaking of the social network.

Nowadays, some pervading ideas question that values such as social justice and solidarity are the basis of the social contract. Work is also questioned in its social-building nature. However, as Robert Castel states, this situation does not necessarily lead to recognising "the end of work", the "disappearance of work" or the "farewell to proletariat"; work is still a vital need and a means of conquering dignity.

Therefore, this text suggests a new look: it considers that work is not only a source of income to people and homes, it is also an environment of social acknowledgement and subjective production. That is why he claims that wanting to have a dignifying job is a universal right.

Dignifying work is decent work and, as Director General of the International Labour Office Juan Somavia says, "there is no single path to build a society with decent work". "… Decent work begins with people and it refers to real situations that reflect diversity; it is not a straight jacket, that is, something that has only one solution: on the contrary, it is a way of dealing with the dynamism and consistency of different aspirations and goals of diverse people, culture and societies… All of us understand the possibilities of decent work that evolve at the pace of social and economic progress and have objectives that can change with time".

This text seeks to make the issue of work available to all teachers, together with the concept of decent work in particular, thus contributing to the reflection from a historical point of view. This publication is the first step in this direction. It is the product of the work done by specialists and confronted with the opinion of directors, teachers and students of educational institutions that have been selected by the called districts.

The first chapter of this book deals with the issue of youth labour insertion in today's context of employment crisis. Some considerations are made regarding the link between education and work. The second chapter makes a brief account of the last changes occurred in the organisation of work, in labour relations and the development and crisis of welfare States in Europe. The third chapter presents the case of Argentina. It describes the changes occurred in the labour world, the social rights achieved throughout over one hundred years and the relevant social actors that participate. The fourth and final chapter includes a brief description of the International Labour Organisation's history, an analysis of its fundamental principles and rights and a development of the concept of decent work. Finally two Annexes, a Glossary of key terms and a vast bibliography of reference and consultation are included.

Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1. Youth: education and decent work

Chapter 2. Brief overview on the social labour dynamics from the Industrial Revolution to our times

Chapter 3. Argentina, a social history of work

Chapter 4. International Labour Organisation, fundamental rights and decent work

Glossary of key terms

Annex
Operational definitions on employment according to the National Statistics Institute and Census of the Republic of Argentina

Bibliography of the topics treated

 

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