TO BE WITH YOUR FAMILY

The logic of the WTO is simple and at the same time, genius. If Azerbaijan supports world globalization and if our country has become a member of the Council of Europe and wants to join the European Union, the approach to the basic components of the country's life should be civilized and democratic. Meanwhile, one of the basic definitions of adequate living standards in a civilized country is "worthy labour" not to mention fundamental human rights prescribed only just by international law, but also the country's constitution. In order to implement this process, Azerbaijan is gradually joining various international conventions, supplementing and amending its legislation.

Luxury in labour

Who can give an accurate description of adequate labour? What do we have to do ensure it? The conventions of the International Labour Organization, of which Azerbaijan is a member, describes "adequate labour" as an opportunity to get a job that is productive, safe, stable and well-paid. But the main purpose of "adequate labour" is to ensure the family's social security, create opportunities for personal development and freely express one's interests. The promotion of adequate labour is the main task of ILO partners and the organization itself. It must be noted that adequate labour is the adequate existence of citizens in this or that country, however, unfortunately, the right to labour is not ensured according to the law everywhere in Azerbaijan. The country's government also admits this. Employers do not always employ people in compliance with all legal formalities and provide their work place with all means of safety not just from a technical, but also from a legal point of view. Unfortunately, our country has not reached the level when every worker is happy with his salary, not to mention a luxury like a work schedule for all staff on the basis of their family responsibilities.

But it seems that Azerbaijan is now seriously concerned about the problem. A round table discussion was recently held in Baku as part of the ILO project to expand youth employment. The meeting discussed difficulties of combining work with family responsibilities and the need to adopt in Azerbaijan ILO Convention No 156 on workers with family responsibilities. The senior international labour standards specialist of the ILO Subregional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Alan Pelce, specially arrived in Baku to take part in the round table. He explained to representatives of relevant government agencies what Azerbaijan needs to do to adapt its legislation to the convention. He also touched on mechanisms of its implementation in practice.

From the Azerbaijani side, these hearings were attended by the deputy head of the State Committee for Family, Women's and Children's Affairs, Aynur Sariyeva, the chairman of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Azerbaijan, Sattar Mehbaliyev, the president of the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan, Alakbar Mammadov, and others.

Mehbaliyev said that on the whole, Azerbaijan's legislative base is ready to ratify this convention, however, we will have to adopt certain amendments and corrections to the law. We have to place emphasis mainly on the practice of their implementation required by ILO Convention 156.

"We must answer several questions: how to ensure a harmonic combination of service and family responsibilities? What is the role of the state, employers and trade unions in this issue? How to use the successful experience of other countries?" he said. Mehbaliyev pointed out that Azerbaijan will consider all the recommendations from ILO representatives on this issue.

How and where it should be used…

However, the president of the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan, Alakbar Mammadov, pointed out that the ratification itself was not so important in this issue. What's more, local legislation meets all international standards, especially after our country joined the European Social Charter in 2004. This document identifies the main human rights and freedoms, including the right to adequate labour. It also has a point that focuses on the rights of workers with family responsibilities and the need for the state to ensure privileged conditions for this category of citizens.

"It is important for this document to have a real effect after its ratification. This is what we have to pay attention to in the first place," Mammadov pointed out.

Meanwhile, many are aware that ILO Convention 156 is the main element ensuring citizens' right to adequate labour and focuses on equal opportunities and equal treatment for all workers, both men and women, with family responsibilities. What will the ratification of this document give to Azerbaijan? The head of the socioeconomic rights department of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Azerbaijan, Cingiz Tagiyev, told our R+ correspondent that unlike the recommendations of ILO Convention 123 dated 1965 which protect the rights of women as workers with family responsibilities, this convention applies both to women and men.

This is reflected in its title as well. The experience of many countries, including that of Azerbaijan, shows that when a man claims his rights as a worker with family responsibilities, he faces the same kind of discrimination as a woman. In fact, there is discrimination against all workers with family duties. The principle of this convention is that there should be no discrimination. It says that the national policy of every member of this organization is that people with family responsibilities who carry out or wish to carry out paid work should be able to exercise their right without being subjected to discrimination and to combine their professional and family responsibilities.

Family responsibilities mean obligations in relation to dependent children and relatives - family members who really need to be looked after. It is interesting that household activity is also regarded as part of family responsibilities. All this is very important in Azerbaijan, and the most important thing is that the legislative base is already ready for this. Our country joined the European Social Charter, which also contains provisions reflected in Convention 156. Besides that, in this case, if we wish to integrate into the European community, we must accept the provisions and laws required by international experts. If we want to become members of the European Union, we must accept these standards and norms.

It must be noted as well that in the process of ratifying the ILO convention, Azerbaijan must introduce the relevant principles and legal practices in its national legislation and regularly submit a report on practical measures taken to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the ratified convention.

Family interests are more important

After joining this or that convention, the state should regularly submit a report on practical measures taken to ensure the implementation of the provisions of this document. Its principles can be applied in several ways. This should be dealt with by the State Committee for Family, Women's and Children's Affairs and the Prosecutor-General's Office. Apart from that, there is a very good method that is recognized all over the world. It works very well and is called social partnership - the government, the Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) of Azerbaijan and the Confederation of Trade Unions of Azerbaijan reach a general agreement. And this will happen very soon. This agreement reflects all issues related to the implementation of the principles of this international document. It says that the parties must provide each other with information about its implementation. Then the information is generalized and put up for debate by a trilateral commission.

This is what it looks like in practice - for example, to reduce work on evening shifts and days off and to inform the staff about overtime work and change of shifts in a timely manner. You can also use forms of partial employment, distribute responsibilities, rates or reduce the working day while keeping the salary at the same level, introduce flexible working hours, and accumulate a "time bank" - extra hours worked. The Internet also makes it possible to work from a distance. The main focus is on the development of services to look after children and elderly, create a chain of pre-school institutions, for example at enterprises, or improve social services. Trade unions and employers must ensure that work can be combined with family responsibilities, i.e. the work of the company should be arranged so as to meet family interests. Such measures can be introduced through collective agreements and relevant management practices at the level of enterprises. Moreover, some countries help employees who look after members of their family, ensure conditions to look after new-born babies, allow a telephone to be used for family needs, allocate considerable subsidies to look after children and so on.

"This problem is of great importance in the regions of Azerbaijan. For this reason, it is important for Azerbaijan to join this convention as soon as possible. It is necessary to take some active action and decisions both at the local and national level," Tagiyev says. Asked whether these conditions will lead to a demographic explosion, he answered that our country is believed to have no population problems. This is the wrong opinion. In the recent period, the birth-rate tends to fall in our country. This is an alarming sign that should be heeded in time. The population is shrinking because there are no conditions for working families and no social security. A woman in Azerbaijan is not interested in having children. For this reason, many countries are working on programmes to ensure social security for working families. Azerbaijan must do so as well in order to "correct" its democratic indicators.

"I find it very annoying, for example, when a young woman who has higher education and can make a good career falls out of professional life for many years. Some of them come back and others are not allowed to work because their husbands want them to be housewives. Those who decide to return to work have to go through a lengthy period of rehabilitation whereas all this could have been avoided. The state must be interested in having an active female population, but in our conditions the state is losing human resources and potential. This is a serious problem. I can even cite the following figures: In countries where there is a wide chain of pre-school and other institutions, the active part of the female population is about 20 per cent, whereas in other countries, it is only 2 per cent. Do you see the difference?"

Tagiyev also said that the policy of combining work and family is of benefit to employers as well. At first sight, this benefit is not so obvious because often you need to take certain administrative decisions and ensure some extra expenses to create favourable conditions for people with family responsibilities. Nevertheless, such expenses are not compatible with the losses that the employer will incur underestimating their positive effect in the long-term. A worker who can harmonically combine work with his family responsibilities will be working more productively and demonstrate more loyalty and readiness for cooperation.

So the choice is ours. Of course, in order to introduce European standards of work in Azerbaijan, our country has to go a difficult way - to increase the living standards, improve the market economy and healthy competition and ratify international conventions that provide a bigger variety of human rights. But the most important thing today is to adapt relevant points of local legislation to ILO Convention 156 and start their implementation - this is a real job to do…