Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe working conditions. One of the most central of these "rights" is the right to unionize. Unions take advantage of collective bargaining and industrial action to increase their members' wages and otherwise change their working situation. The labor movement initially focused on this "right to unionize", but attention has shifted elsewhere. The labour movement (or labor movement) is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and political governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labor relations. ... Child labor (or child labour) is the employment of children under an age determined by law or custom. ... The 8-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement (a. ... In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is a measure of the work done by human beings and is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. ... Labor history (or labour history) is a broad field of study concerned with the development of the labor movement and the working class. ... Labour law (American English: labor) or employment law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which addresses the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. ... Labor rights are laws created in order to always have fairness and keep peace between employees and employers. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... A Trade Union (Labour union) ... is a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment. ... A general strike is a strike action by an entire labour force in a city, region or country. ... The following is a list of deliberate absence from work related to specific working conditions (strikes) or due to general unhappiness with the political order (general strikes). ... Syndicalism refers to a set of ideas, movements, and tendencies which share the avowed aim of transforming capitalist society through action by the working class on the industrial front. ... Social Movement Unionism is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism. ... This is a list of trade unions and union federations by country. ... Timeline of organized labor history 1790s - 1800s - 1810s - 1820s - 1830s - 1840s - 1850s - 1860s - 1870s - 1880s - 1890s - 1900s - 1910s - 1920s - 1930s - 1940s - 1950s - 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1797 (United States) Profit sharing originated at Albert Gallatins glass works in New Geneva, Pennsylvania. ... In modern English and European systems of jurisprudence and law, a right is the legal or moral entitlement to do or refrain from doing something or to obtain or refrain from obtaining an action, thing or recognition in civil society. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... A Boeing employee speaks at an industrial relations rally The field of labor relations looks at the relationship between management and workers, particularly groups of workers represented by a labor union. ... In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... It has been suggested that Work permit be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that Worker safety and health be merged into this article or section. ... A Trade Union (Labour union) ... is a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment. ... A collective agreement is a labor contract between an employer and one or more unions. ... Strike action (or simply strike) describes collective action undertaken by groups of workers in the form of a refusal to perform work. ... A wage is the amount of money paid for some specified quantity of labour. ... The labor movement (or labour movement) is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and political governments. ...

Critics of the labor rights movement claim that regulation promoted by labor rights activists may limit opportunities for work. In the United States, critics objected unions establishing closed shops, situations where employers could only hire union members. The Taft-Hartley Act banned the closed shop but allowed the less restrictive union shop. Taft-Hartley also allowed states to pass right-to-work laws, which require an open shop where a worker's employment is not affected by his union membership. Proponents of "right to work" legislation claim that workers have the right to work whether or not they join a union. Labor counters that the open shop leads to a free rider problem. A closed shop is a business or industrial establishment whose employees are required to be union members or to agree to join the union within a specified time after being hired. ... The Labor-Management Relations Act, commonly known as the Taft-Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that greatly restricts the activities and power of labor unions. ... A union shop is a place of employment where the employer may hire either labor union members or nonmembers but where nonmembers must become union members within a specified period of time or lose their jobs. ... Right-to-work laws are statutes enforced in several U.S. States, allowed under provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, which prohibit trade unions from making membership a condition of employment, either before or after hire. ... In terms of United States labor relations, an open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join a labor union as a condition of hiring or continued employment. ... In economics and political science, free riders are actors who consume more than their fair share of a resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. ...

Background

Throughout history workers, claiming some sort of right, have attempted to pursue their interests. In Roman times, Spartacus led a slave revolt. During the Middle Ages, the Peasants' Revolt in England expressed demand for better wages and working conditions. One of the leaders of the revolt, John Ball famously argued that people were born equal saying, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" Laborers often appealed to traditional rights. For instance, English peasants fought against the enclosure movement, which took traditionally communal lands and made them private. Spartacus by Denis Foyatier, 1830 Spartacus (ca. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... The end of the revolt: Wat Tyler killed by Walworth while Richard II watches, and a second image of Richard addressing the crowd The Peasants Revolt, Tyler’s Rebellion, or the Great Rising of 1381 was one of a number of popular revolts in late medieval Europe and is a... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... John Ball (priest) (d. ... For other uses of the term see Enclosure (disambiguation) Enclosure (also inclosure) is the process of conversion of common land to private ownership. ...

In England 1833, a law was passed that any child under the age of 9 cannot work, children age 9-13 can only work 8 hours a day, and children aged 14-18 can only work 12 hours a day.

Labor rights are a relatively new addition to the modern corpus of human rights. The modern concept of labor rights dates to the 19th century after the creation of labor unions following the industrialization processes. Karl Marx stands out as one of the earliest and most prominent advocates for workers rights. His philosophy and economic theory focused on labor issues and advocates his economic system of communism, a society which would be ruled by the workers. Many of the social movements for the rights of the workers were associated with groups influenced by Marx such as the socialists and communists. More moderate democratic socialists and social democrats supported worker's interests as well. More recent workers rights advocacy has focused on the particular role, exploitation, and needs of women workers, and of increasingly mobile global flows of casual, service, or guest workers. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... American Civil Rights Movement is one of the most famous social movements of the 20th century. ... Socialism is any economic system in which the means of production are owned and controlled collectively or a political philosophy advocating such a system. ... This article is about communism as a form of society, as an ideology advocating that form of society, and as a popular movement. ... Democratic socialism is a political movement propagating the ideals of socialism within the framework of a parliamentary democracy. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ...

The International Labour Organization was formed in 1919 as part of the League of Nations to protect worker's rights. The ILO later became incorporated into the United Nations. The UN itself backed workers rights by incorporating several into two articles of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. These read: The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations to deal with labour issues. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... The League of Nations was an international organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. ... The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ... The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (also UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/217, December 10, 1948), outlining basic human rights. ...

A right is the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled or a thing to which one has a just claim. ... A civet, or sea fox, photographed in the Zigong Peoples Zoo, Sichuan, 2001. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Fundamentalism · Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Mens rights Childrens rights · Youth rights... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... The term collective rights refers to the rights of peoples to be protected from attacks on their group identity and group interests. ... Group rights are rights that all members of a group have by virtue of being in that group. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... The term inalienable rights (or unalienable rights) refers to a set of human rights that are in some sense fundamental, are not awarded by human power, and cannot be surrendered. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... In modern English and European systems of jurisprudence and law, a right is the legal or moral entitlement to do or refrain from doing something or to obtain or refrain from obtaining an action, thing or recognition in civil society. ... Mens rights is a stream in the mens movement. ... Natural rights is a philosophical hition of universal rights that are seen as inherent in the nature of people and not contingent on human actions or beliefs. ... Within the philosophy of human rights, some philosophers and political scientists see a distinction between positive and negative rights. ... Social rights refer to what are usually positive rights, which ensure to all people a fair standard of treatment. ... The division of human rights into three generations was initially proposed in 1979 by the Czech jurist Karel Vasak at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. ... The term women’s rights typically refers to freedoms inherently possessed by women and girls of all ages, which may be institutionalized or ignored and/or illegitimately suppressed by law or custom in a particular society. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Mens rights Childrens rights · Youth...

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable 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 favorable 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

1. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

The ILO and several other groups have sought international labor standards to create legal rights for workers across the world. Recent movements have also been made to encourage countries to promote labor rights at the international level through fair trade. International labour standards are conventions, treaties and recommendations designed to regulate against unjust and inhumane labour practices. ... In modern English and European systems of jurisprudence and law, a right is the legal or moral entitlement to do or refrain from doing something or to obtain or refrain from obtaining an action, thing or recognition in civil society. ... Certified Fair trade quinoa producers in Ecuador. ...

Labor rights issues

Aside from the right to organize, labor movements have campaigned on various other issues that may be said to relate to labor rights.

Many labor movement campaigns have to do with limiting hours in the work place. 19th century labor movements campaigned for an Eight-hour day. Worker advocacy groups have also sought to limit work hours, making a working week of 40 hours or less standard in many countries. A 35-hour workweek was established in France in 2000, although this standard has been considerably weakened since then. Workers may agree with employers to work for longer, but the extra hours are payable overtime. In the European Union the working week is limited to a maximum of 48 hours including overtime (see also Working Time Directive). The 8-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement (a. ... The 35-hour workweek is a measure adopted first in France, in February 2000, under Prime Minister Lionel Jospins administration. ... Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours; these may be determined in several ways, by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society), by practices of a given trade or profession, by legislation, or by agreement between employers and workers or their representatives. ... The European Working Time Directive is a collection of regulations concerning hours of work, designed to protect the health and safety of workers. ...

Labor rights advocates have also worked to combat child labor. They see child labor as exploitive, cruel, and often economically damaging. Child labor opponents often argue that working children are deprived of an education. Child labor (or child labour) is the employment of children under an age determined by law or custom. ...

Labor rights advocates have worked to improve workplace conditions which meet established standards. During the Progressive Era the United States began workplace reforms, which received publicity boosts from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and events such as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Labor advocates and other groups often criticize production facilities with poor working conditions as sweatshops and occupational health hazards, and campaign for better labor practices and recognition of workers rights throughout the world. In the United States, the Progressive Era was a period of reform which lasted from the 1890s through the 1930s. ... Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. ... The Jungle (1906) is the title of the book of socialist American author Upton Sinclair. ... The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York, causing the death of 146 garment workers who either died in the fire or jumped to their deaths. ... A sweatshop is a factory, where people work for a very small wage, producing products such as clothes, toys, shoes, and other consumer goods. ... ...

The labor movement pushes for guaranteed minimum wage laws, and there are continuing negotiations about increases to the minimum wage. However, opponents see minimum wage laws as limiting employment opportunities for unskilled and entry level workers. The minimum wage is the minimum rate a worker can legally be paid (usually per hour) as opposed to wages that are determined by the forces of supply and demand in a free market. ...

Illegal immigrants cannot complain to the authorities about underpayment and mistreatment as they would be deported; and their willingness to work for low rates may depress rates of pay for others. Similarly, legal migrant workers are sometimes abused. For instance, migrants have faced a number of alleged abuses in the United Arab Emirates (including Dubai). Human Rights Watch lists several problems including "nonpayment of wages, extended working hours without overtime compensation, unsafe working environments resulting in death and injury, squalid living conditions in labor camps, and withholding of passports and travel documents by employers."[1] Despite laws against the practice, employers confiscate migrant workers' passports. Without their passports, workers cannot switch jobs or return home.[2] These workers have little recourse for labor abuses., but conditions have been approving.[3] Labor and social welfare minister Ali bin Abdullah al-Kaabi has undertaken a number of reforms to help improve labor practices in his country.[4] Coordinates: Emirate Dubai Government  - Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Area [1]  - Metro 4,114 km² (1,588. ... Human Rights Watch Banner Human Rights Watch is a United States-based international non-government organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. ...

The right to equal treatment, regardless of gender, origin and appearance, religion, sexual orientation, is also seen by many as a worker's right. Discrimination in the work place is illegal in many countries, but some see the wage gap between genders and other groups as a persistent problem. Gender often refers to the distinctions between males and females in common usage. ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ... Sexual orientation describes the direction of an individuals sexuality, often in relation to their own sex or gender. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Mens rights Childrens rights · Youth... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into economic inequality. ...

External links

• Asia Monitor Resource Center
• International Labor Rights Fund
• Human Rights Watch
• Thai Labour Campaign

See also

Organized Labour Portal

• Labor and employment law
• Occupational health