Declaration of Working Freedoms
Category: Civil Rights
Strength: Strong
The World Assembly,
Recognizing the importance of ensuring the protection of workers’ rights;
Commending prior World Assembly legislation, which covers a multitude of said rights;
Noting the lack of international legislation explicitly protecting essential workplace freedoms such as the right to parental care, the right to be free of gender-related discrimination and harassment, the right to breastfeed, and the right to not fear retaliation for seeking the legal enforcement of these rights;
Seeking to remedy this deficiency, hereby:
- Defines for the purposes of this legislation:
- A “worker” as any legally recognized person currently hired for a wage, salary, fee or payment to perform work or services for an employer, including those who set their own working hours;
- An “employee” as any worker bound by a contract to perform work or services for an employer, whose employment contract mandates the work or services be performed specifically by that worker, involves an obligation for the worker to perform work and the employer to provide it, and implies the employer having some degree of control over the manner in which the work is performed;
- Clarifies that:
- A worker is not considered an employee if said worker may, without penalty by their employer, refuse any given offer of work by the employer;
- An employment contract may be explicitly agreed upon in writing or orally, or may be implicit in the nature of the relationship between the worker and employer;
- Clauses 3(c) and 5(b) shall only be applicable to workers or employees who are of a lactating species;
- Asserts that all workers in member-nations shall enjoy protection from discrimination, suspension, dismissal, payment reduction, denial of work, hiring discrimination, and pay discrimination, on the grounds of or as a result of:
- Gender identity, sexual identity, or gender;
- Childbirth or claiming paternal (including adoption) leave;
- Breastfeeding, plausibly needing to breastfeed, being of breastfeeding age, or potentially needing to breastfeed as a result of childbirth or adoption;
- Clarifies that the above conditions may be considered when hiring, suspending, denying work to, or dismissing a worker, so long as said conditions severely and undeniably impede the worker's ability to perform the work they are being or have been hired to perform, and are not the sole reason for hiring, suspending, denying work to, or dismissing said worker;
- Asserts that all workers in member-nations shall enjoy protection from:
- Being subject to unwanted hostile, intimidating, or offensive behavior during employment or as a condition of gaining or maintaining employment;
- Retaliation by their employer for participating in a trial, tribunal, or other legal action with the goal of enforcing their legally-given rights;
- Asserts that every employee in member-nations shall enjoy:
- The right to claim at least eight weeks of leave, during the time of their choosing, upon childbirth or the adoption of a child who requires special caregiver attention, for the duration of which the employee must receive their full expected monetary compensation for work, in addition to any other benefits granted by their employer for work and monetary compensation for lost working opportunities, consistent with the monetary compensation normally earned in the course of said opportunities;
- A private, hygienic, ventilated, and safe area in the workplace to be used for the purposes of breastfeeding, and a reasonable period of the working day set aside for breastfeeding, if the employee requires such, and if providing such does not place an unreasonable burden on the employer;
- Mandates that employees be granted by their employer a minimum of two months' notice prior to dismissal, and that employees provide a minimum of two months' notice prior to exiting their current employment, so long as such notice can be reasonably expected;
- Encourages member-nations to continue expanding the scope of workers’ rights and increase the fairness and transparency of employers' practices with regards to workers.
