Growing Fair Work in Retail

3. Summary of Fair Work Framework

Fair work is work that offers all individuals an effective voice, opportunity, security, fulfilment and respect. It balances the rights and responsibilities of employers and workers. It generates benefits for individuals, organisations and society.

Security

While no one has complete security and stability of employment, income and work, security is an important aspect of fair work.

Security at work can generate clear benefits for society. Individuals with stable employment and incomes, and with sufficient incomes, are less likely to require support from the welfare system and more likely to generate public revenues through taxation.

Low pay and insecurity are associated with in-work poverty, child poverty and poverty beyond working life. Insecure employment is associated with poorer health outcomes than secure employment. The burden of insecurity and risk should not rest primarily on employees and workers.

Respect

Respect is a vital component of fair work - no work is fair without it.

At its most basic, respect involves ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of others. While mutual respect involves recognising the views, autonomy, status and contribution of others.

Many discussions of respect (and the related concept of dignity at work) focus narrowly on issues relating to bullying and harassment. Respect as a dimension of fair work includes and goes beyond this to include dignified treatment, social support and the development of trusting relationships.

Work is an important part of social life. Relations learned and reinforced in the workplace can spill over into other social spheres.

More practically, respectful workplace relations may improve conflict resolution, reducing the need for public intervention to resolve and remedy disputes between employers and employees or workers.

Opportunity

It is a reasonable aspiration to want work that is fair - and for fair work to be available to everyone. Opportunity allows people to find and progress in work. Opportunity breaks down inequality while supporting employers to access the best talent. It also supports communities by ensuring that no one is locked out of employment or progression opportunities.

Meeting the legal obligations around equality set out in the Equality Act 2010 is a basic requirement for fair work. The opportunity dimension also goes further, encouraging inclusion, flexibility and a proactive commitment to equality across all levels of the organisation.

Fulfilment

People have different views of what type of work is fulfilling for them. All types of work at every level can be fulfilling where the tasks, work environment and employment conditions taken together are well aligned to the skills, talents and aspirations of the people who carry it out.

Fulfilling work is associated with higher productivity and innovation and improved business performance impacts on national economic performance. Work that is fulfilling and that builds on the knowledge, qualifications and skills of the labour force, increases the return on public investment in education and training.

Effective Voice

Effective voice can make a safe environment where dialogue and challenge are dealt with constructively and where workers views are sought out, listened to and can make a difference.

Effective voice underpins the other dimensions of fair work. Meaningful dialogue helps deliver on opportunity, security, fulfilment and respect.

Effective voice also supports wider social priorities like equality of opportunity, equal pay, learning and skills, and occupational health and safety.

It is clear from international evidence that workers want a voice, not only to resolve problems and conflicts (which is important) but also to engage and participate constructively in workplace decisions. Effective voice improves workers’ experiences of work as well as improving organisational performance.

Definitions provided by Fair Work Convention.

Further information is available at their website.