How to pay to extend social protection?

 ITUC, with FES and WSM brought together 140 participants from over 30 trade unions and civil society organisations in the world to look at ways to finance social protection 17-18 September in Brussels. Worldwide, social protection is increasingly recognised as a priority: by the ILO (with Recommendation 202 on social protection floors adopted in 2012), the EU, the World Bank, the IMF and even the G20. As a result, it features very prominently in the Sustainable Development Goals (1.3).

Gijs Justaert from the policy department of WSM: “Though the consensus on the need for social protection grows, the main question remains: how to achieve universal social protection in each country?”. Alison Tate, Director of Economic and Social Policy at ITUC feels that “extending social protection shouldn’t be seen by governments as an increased expense, as many do - in an environment of austerity, but as an investment that pays off in terms of better skills, greater equality and inclusive economic growth.”

Several international organisations (ILO, WB, IMF, EU and OECD) and development partners shared their views on the question of sustainable financing. Bruno Deceukelier, Asia Coordinator for WSM sees “a big difference in approach between some of them. The World Bank and IMF want to assist the extreme poor or crises affected population, whereas Social Protection with a right based approach would ensure universal coverage, which would also gather larger support from all citizens.” The FES Social Protection Index and other research shows that in the short term, 71 countries could achieve social protection floors for all by investing an extra 2% of GDP or less.

Sulistri, from KSBSI

“In South Asia, the informal workers still have to be reached and covered by the newly adopted social security schemes, because they represent over 80% of the population, as well as labour migrants, both in the sending or the destination countries”, says Umesh from GEFONT in Nepal. 

Sulistri, from KSBSI, and also Steering Committee member for Indonesia of the Asia Network on the Right to Social Protection (ANRSP) echoes this: “As a union we successfully pushed for the inclusion of workers from the informal economy in the law on social security, but it is complicated because the contributions come only from the workers, and have to be paid regularly; if not, they lose their benefits. This seminar looked at eight options to finance Social Protection, and, hopefully with the assistance from ITUC, we can analyse which are most appropriate for us in Indonesia.” 

Prit SoUot from CLC Cambodia, highlights existing gaps: “the NSSF only covers employment injury insurance for the enterprises employing at least 8 workers and that the Cambodian Government’s plan to extend social insurance for disabled, unemployed and retirement needs to be closely monitored.”

Francisca Altagracia Jimenez
AMUSSOL-CASC

Francisca Altagracia Jimenez from AMUSSOL-CASC explained their efforts to cover the informal workers in the Dominican Republic, which wasn’t an evident choice for trade unions, but which has allowed them to increase their membership. “Today, more than 60.000 informal economy workers, 40% of them women, enjoy health care, employment injury insurance and an old age pension.” 

But social protection is not only for the workers, and Drissa Soare from CNTB, Burkina Faso highlights the importance of working together with other actors of civil society, like health cooperatives to help ensure the access to health: “with the support of WSM, we have been working together in a multi-stakeholder network to lobby for better legislation and extend the services and coverage to their members.”

 Drissa Soare from CNTB, Burkina Faso and Alison Tate, ITUC

In short, as Alison Tate, Director of Economic and Social Policy of ITUC says: “Promoting Social protection is part of the core business of trade unions, as it links directly to the fight against inequality.” This seminar allowed trade unionists and civil society representatives from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe to share experiences and good practices. Several of them highlighted the need to work together in strategic alliances to address the huge challenges that remain.  Something WSM and its partners already do within their network on the right to social protection. Something ITUC, FES, WSM and several other civil society organisations do within the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors.

In short, the conference was an excellent opportunity for WSM and its partners to increase their visibility and highlight some of their work, not only to other trade unions, but also to stakeholders like the ILO, potential donors and partners which could support our rights-based approach to promote the right to social protection for all around the world.

International Women's Day: message from Latin America

Women have rights, including the right to a dignified life! This also means a life without violence! Women, either organized or not in social movements, have already struggled for a long time against violence of which they are too often victims. On the occasion of this International Women's Day, the "continental network for the right to social protection" in Latin America, facilitated and supported by WSM in recent years, sheds light on these women who suffer from physical violence, psycho -social and sexual in the workplace. The network calls for the International Labor Organization to adopt a new international regulation that clearly defines the concept of violence in the workplace and the responsibility of governments to provide an adequate response. Part of the answer is to guarantee access to a strong system of social protection.

Amussol: informal workers have access to social security in the Dominican Republic!

Let's share an update on some of the recent achievements in other regions where WSM supports networks on the right to social protection. 

The Dominican trade union ‘CASC’ is a long-standing partner of World Solidarity (WSM), the ACV-CSC trade union and the Christian Mutuality, three organisations from the Christian labour movement in Belgium.

In this thematic brochure, we took an interest in AMUSSOL, a mutual association set up in 2005 by CASC. It allows men and women workers in the informal economy to access social protection, a right that is not guaranteed by the Dominican state for this part of the population.

The mutual association serves as a ‘virtual employer’ for these men and women workers in the informal economy. Affiliates pay their monthly fee to AMUSSOL, which channels it to the national Social Security Treasury.
Therefore, more than 60,000 men and women workers of the country are entitled to a family health coverage, workplace accident allowances and a pension.

The initiative is a great example of the transformative power of a social movement that uses its expertise to change the existing system. By enabling men and women informal workers to access the social security scheme, AMUSSOL has developed good practices in the field of the extension of social protection, bringing greater fairness in the Dominican society. At the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the initiative has inspired the development of the standard-setting system concerning social protection floors (with the adoption in 2012 of Recommendation 202) and the transition from the informal to the formal economy (with the adoption in 2015 of Recommendation 204). AMUSSOL and CASC have played a major role in the negotiations that led to the adoption of both standards.

And what about the future? Ideally, the Dominican Government should eventually settle this question of access to social security for all, pushed in the back a.o. by CASC and AMUSSOL, which are asking for the compliance with international labour standards such as ILO Recommendations 202 and 204. AMUSSOL could thus keep on serving as a transmission belt between the organisations of workers in the informal economy and the official social security system. It would allow to keep an effective control, the ownership by all beneficiaries and, consequently, a broad support for the system.

We hope you enjoy reading it here when we put the spotlight on an initiative that has already allowed around 60,000 people to gain access to social protection.