History of Labour Rights

Abstract

This article is a condensed version of the text of the inaugural address which was delivered at the Central University, Hyderabad, on 28.02.12. The article traces the history of labour rights starting with birth of First International (1864–71), birth of International labour day (1.05.1886) and proceeding to birth of Third International, birth of ILO and Philadelphia Declaration of 1944. The article gives a telling account of the sweeping changes which are taking place in the wake of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation characterised by unprecedented increase in global and individual prosperity combined with intolerable inequalities in wages and income, bringing in their trail unimaginable misery and suffering for the common men. The article also presents the concept of development in terms of freedom of human spirit and proceeds to analyse how globalisation has impacted and adversely affected the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining culminating in increased incidence of bonded labour and child labour. It brings out the relationship between migration and bondage, employment and discrimination in terms of caste, class, gender, faith and belief, social origin, political ideology and national extraction. It deals with the strength and weaknesses of trade union movement and concludes how globalisation and labour rights can and should coexist.