Call for Community to Lead Employment Debate
Su’a William SIO
Employment Spokesperson
13 May 2012
MEDIA STATEMENT
Call for Community to Lead Employment Debate
Ensuring a work-family balance
– the theme of tomorrow’s UN International Day of
Families - requires a community-wide focus on
‘everyone’s right to work, to free choice of employment,
to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection
against unemployment’, Labour’s spokesperson on
Employment, Pacific Island Affairs and Inter-Faith Dialogue
Su’a William Sio, says.
Speaking at church
services this weekend Su’a William Sio called on church
and community leaders to become involved with the debate on
‘work and family balance’ and to use the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights as the foundation to build
on.
“It is the community’s responsibility to
take ownership of this debate and ensure it is focused on
good and productive social and economic outcomes for
families, communities and our country,” Su’a William Sio
said.
“At the moment the discussion on employment
and family balance is being driven by the Government’s
political and ideological expediency which is narrowly
focused, and extremely negative towards those sectors in our
community most in need.
“There are sectors in our
community who are struggling to balance the need to find
jobs that pay well to support their families, and having
enough time to care and protect young or sick members of
their families.
“There are people working long
hours but who still can’t get ahead because of low wages.
Many of them believe the Government isn’t hearing their
voices nor listening to their needs.
Quoting
Article 23, Su’a William Sio said it was becoming
increasingly important to uphold the rights that ‘everyone
who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration
ensuring for themselves and his/her family an existence
worthy of human dignity’.
“A key component is
the availability – or not - of jobs with incomes that
allow workers to look after their families.
“While employment and income support should be
at the center of this debate, we also need to be talking
about other aspects of people’s lives - their personal
circumstances, their quality of life, housing and healthcare
needs, the roles of motherhood in caring and protecting our
children and income levels needed for this, the growing
inequality in communities, and the levels of poverty
experienced by many families,” Su’a William Sio said.
· Article
22
Everyone, as a member of society, has the
right to social security and is entitled to realization,
through national effort and international co-operation and
in accordance with the organization and resources of each
State, of the economic, social and cultural rights
indispensable for his dignity and the free development of
his personality.
·
Article 23
(1) Everyone has the
right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and
favourable conditions of work and to protection against
unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any
discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal
work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just
and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his
family an existence worthy of human dignity, and
supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social
protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and
to join trade unions for the protection of his
interests.
· Article
24
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure,
including reasonable limitation of working hours and
periodic holidays with pay.
·
Article 25
(1) Everyone has the right to
a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being
of himself and of his family, including food, clothing,
housing and medical care and necessary social services, and
the right to security in the event of unemployment,
sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2)
Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and
assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock,
shall enjoy the same social
protection.
· Article
26
(1) Everyone has the right to education.
Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and
fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be
compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be
made generally available and higher education shall be
equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2)
Education shall be directed to the full development of the
human personality and to the strengthening of respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations,
racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities
of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3)
Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education
that shall be given to their
children.
ENDS