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Making the right ethical decisions plays an important role in modern business life. Khatri (2023) highlights,” ethical decisions have significant and wide-reaching impacts, protecting both the decision-makers and others involved, while unethical decisions can harm both parties”. It exactly describes how ethical decisions are essential in business.

This paper discusses the importance of labor rights and creating a safe working environment as critical factors for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 8: protecting labor rights, improving occupational safety, and promoting economic development. This ethical problem is analyzed on the basis of the “Utilitarianism

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“Protect Labour Rights and Promote Safe Working Environment” 

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“Protect Labour Rights and Promote Safe Working Environment” 

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The article “Protect Labour Rights and Promote Safe Working Environment” by Uygun and Gujrati (2022), published in the Journal of Pedagogical Inventions and Practices, offers an in-depth discussion on the protection of labor rights, particularly in relation to creating safe working environments for all workers, including those in precarious employment. This aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8, specifically target 8.8, which focuses on protecting labor rights and promoting a safe and secure working environment for all workers, especially migrant workers and those in precarious employment.

The authors argue that while economic development is crucial, it must not come at the expense of workers’ safety and well-being, particularly in industries where hazardous working conditions are common. The focus on profit maximization often leads to a reduction in safety standards, which undermines the principles of SDG 8.8. This resonates with the need for international and national frameworks that prioritize safe and ethical working conditions (International Labour Organization, 2019).

Uygun and Gujrati highlight the importance of creating safe and secure work environments as a way of protecting workers’ rights and dignity. They argue that unsafe working conditions not only threaten the health and safety of workers but also exacerbate vulnerabilities, particularly for migrant workers and those in informal sectors. For example, in industries such as construction, agriculture, and manufacturing, where labor protections are often weak, workers are exposed to dangerous conditions with little legal recourse. These unsafe conditions disproportionately affect low-wage and migrant workers, making it essential to strengthen regulatory protections (United Nations, 2020).

To address these issues, the authors call for stronger regulatory frameworks, effective law enforcement, and international cooperation to ensure that SDG 8.8 is fully implemented. They advocate for a global commitment to creating safe workplaces, which would not only protect workers’ rights but also contribute to sustainable economic growth. This is in line with the International Labour Organization’s (2021) guidelines, which emphasize the need for collective action to improve workplace safety and protect labor rights.

In conclusion, the article by Uygun and Gujrati underscores the critical importance of balancing economic growth with labor rights protection, particularly in relation to SDG 8.8. Their analysis shows that prioritizing worker safety and protecting labor rights is essential for creating a fair and sustainable economy.

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Utilitarianism, as discussed by Shaw, Barry, and Sansbury (2020), is the ethical theory that actions should aim to maximize happiness or well-being and minimize suffering for the greatest number of people. In the context of Uygun and Gujrati’s (2022) article, this principle is directly relevant to the issue of protecting labor rights and promoting safe working environments. The authors argue that by improving workplace safety and defending workers’ rights, the overall well-being of society is enhanced, reducing the number of accidents, improving worker satisfaction, and ultimately benefiting the economy. A utilitarian would support these actions because they lead to the greatest happiness for the majority, particularly the workers who are often subjected to unsafe and exploitative conditions.

Furthermore, the article ties into SDG 8.7, which seeks to eliminate forced labor and human trafficking. Utilitarianism would support these goals because eradicating such practices reduces harm and suffering for vulnerable populations. Uygun and Gujrati (2022) highlight the detrimental effects of unsafe working conditions and labor exploitation, which decrease overall societal well-being. From a utilitarian perspective, labor protections maximize societal happiness by ensuring that workers are treated fairly and work in safe environments, which leads to greater overall social and economic benefits. Thus, the enforcement of labor rights aligns with the utilitarian goal of promoting the greatest good for the greatest number.

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Deontological ethics, rooted in the work of Immanuel Kant and explored in Shaw et al. (2020), emphasizes the inherent duty to uphold moral principles, regardless of the consequences. This theory is particularly applicable to Uygun and Gujrati’s (2022) argument that protecting labor rights is not only a practical necessity but also a moral obligation. Workers, as individuals with inherent dignity, have the right to work in environments that are safe and free from exploitation. According to deontological ethics, it is the duty of businesses and governments to uphold these rights, irrespective of the economic costs or benefits that may arise from doing so.

In relation to SDG 8.7, which aims to eliminate child labor and forced labor, deontological ethics reinforces the article’s call for ethical labor practices. Uygun and Gujrati (2022) argue that protecting labor rights and ensuring safe working conditions is a moral duty that must be prioritized. This aligns with deontological ethics, which insists that certain actions—such as providing safe working conditions—are morally required, even if they do not immediately lead to economic gains. The article’s emphasis on strengthening regulatory frameworks and ensuring international cooperation further underscores the idea that protecting labor rights is an ethical responsibility that cannot be compromised.

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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), introduced in 2015, represent a comprehensive global initiative to combat poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. Among these goals, SDG 8 specifically focuses on promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all (United Nations, 2023).

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United Nations. (2023). Sustainable Development Goals. https://sdgs.un.org/goals

SDG 8 is focused on fostering inclusive and sustainable economic growth, ensuring full and productive employment, and promoting decent work for all by 2030. It aims to create better job opportunities while reducing inequalities in the labor market, ensuring equal pay for equal work, and protecting labor rights, particularly for vulnerable groups like women, young people, and migrant workers. Additionally, SDG 8 encourages innovation and sustainable economic practices that do not harm the environment. The goal recognizes that decent work and economic growth are vital for improving living standards, eradicating poverty, and achieving broader social and economic development. It promotes not just economic growth, but ethical labor practices and inclusive opportunities for everyone.

The ethical issues highlighted in “Protect Labour Rights and Promote Safe Working Environment” are closely tied to the practical implementation of SDG 8, which aims to protect labor rights and promote safe working environments. The article emphasizes the need for strict enforcement of labor protections, particularly for vulnerable groups such as migrant workers, who often face unsafe working conditions and lack proper legal recourse. These issues can make the implementation of SDG 8.8 more challenging, as it requires robust legal frameworks and cooperation between governments and private sectors to ensure compliance with safety standards.

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One significant concern is that many industries, in the pursuit of profit, may prioritize cost-cutting measures over worker safety, undermining the goals of SDG 8.8. The article advocates for stronger regulatory oversight to prevent such exploitation and ensure that economic growth does not come at the expense of workers’ rights. For SDG 8.8 to be effectively implemented, businesses must adopt ethical labor practices, and governments need to enforce labor laws that protect the well-being and safety of all workers. Addressing these ethical challenges is crucial for achieving the broader goals of decent work and sustainable economic development.

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United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs - SDG 8 Overview

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United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs - SDG 8 Overview

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This resource provides a comprehensive look at the progress made and the challenges faced in implementing SDG 8, particularly target 8.8. It discusses global data on labor rights, workplace fatalities, and injuries, highlighting the urgent need for improved protections. The ethical issue of balancing economic growth with safeguarding workers’ rights is a key focus, as this site presents insights into how various countries are addressing—or failing to address—labor violations. It serves as a foundational resource for understanding the global landscape of labor rights protection.

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Progress towards achieving SDG8 has been challenging and the world is far from reaching most of the targets. The lingering effects of COVID-19, cost-of-living crises, trade tensions, uncertain monetary policy paths, rising debts in developing countries, and the war in Ukraine can each significantly set back global economic growth. Combined, these crises are placing the global economy under a serious threat. Global real GDP per capita is forecast to slow down in 2023, putting at risk not just employment and income but also advances in equitable pay for women and decent work for young people. Achieving SDG8 will require a wholesale reform of our morally bankrupt financial system in order to tackle rising debts, economic uncertainties and trade tensions, while promoting equitable pay and decent work for young people.

* Target 8.1: Following a sharp decline of 4.1% in 2020, global real GDP per capita increased by 5.0% in 2021. However, growth in global real GDP per capita is forecast to slow down to 2.1% in 2022 and further to 1.0% in 2023, before recovering somewhat to a growth rate of 1.8% in 2024. The growth in real GDP of LDCs slowed down from 5% in 2019 to just 0.2% in 2020 before recovering to 2.6% in 2021. It is expected that the growth in real GDP of LDCs would strengthen to 4.3% in 2022 and to 4.4% and 5.4% in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
* Target 8.2: After a sharp decline in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, labour productivity rebounded in 2021 by 2.4%. Productivity growth slowed in 2022, increasing by only 0.5%. However, even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, productivity growth had been slowing around the world. The latest estimates extend the downward growth trend, from an average annual rate of 1.8% between 2000-14 to 1.4% between 2015-22.
* Target 8.3: Globally, 58.0% of those employed were in informal employment in 2022, amounting to around 2 billion workers in precarious jobs, most lacking any form of social protection. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, the incidence of informal employment had been slowly declining and stood at 57.8% in 2019. The pandemic resulted in a disproportionate job loss for informal workers, particularly for women, in 2020. The subsequent recovery from COVID-19 has been driven by informal employment, which has caused a slight increase in the incidence of informality.
* Target 8.5: Equal treatment in employment, including fair and equitable earnings, is fundamental for achieving decent work for all. The median gender pay gap across 102 countries is approximately 14%. However, this calculation is only based on average hourly earnings, thus not controlling for characteristics such as the sector or occupation, educational level or amount of work experience.
* Target 8.5: The global unemployment rate declined significantly in 2022, falling to 5.8% from a peak of 6.9% in 2020 as economies began recovering from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite an uncertain global economic outlook, unemployment is projected to increase only moderately, as a large part of the shock is being absorbed by falling real wages in an environment of accelerating inflation. Global unemployment is projected to edge up slightly in 2023, by around 3 million, to reach 208 million, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 5.8%.
* Target 8.6: Globally, nearly one in four (23.5%) young people were not in education, employment, or training (NEET) in 2022. Although this is a slight decrease since 2020, when the NEET rate was at an all-time high, it remains above the 2015 baseline of 22.2% and a long way from the 2030 target.
* Target 8.7: The latest estimates indicate that the number of children in child labour rose to 160 million worldwide at the beginning of 2020 - an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years. This translates to almost 1 in 10 of all children in child labour worldwide.
* Target 8.9: The share of tourism in global GDP nearly halved in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 data shows a very modest 6% upturn, indicating that tourism's economic contribution is on the path to recovery.
* Target 8.10: Accelerated adoption of digital solutions is transforming access to finance. Globally, in 2021, 76% of adults had an account at a bank or regulated institution such as a credit union, microfinance institution, or a mobile money service provider, an increase from 62% in 2014.

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Goal 8 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs

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Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

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ICCROM – SDG 8.8: Protect Labour Rights and Promote Safe Working Environments

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ICCROM – SDG 8.8: Protect Labour Rights and Promote Safe Working Environments

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This article discusses how SDG 8.8 is being implemented through educational and partnership initiatives aimed at ensuring fair treatment and safe working environments, particularly for migrant workers and women. It stresses the importance of policies that reduce the use of short-term or exploitative contracts and implement fair pay structures.

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SDG 8.8: Protect Labour Rights and Promote Safe Working Environments | ICCROM | Our Collections Matter

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Labour Rights Index – Protect Labour Rights

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Labour Rights Index – Protect Labour Rights

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The Labour Rights Index focuses on evaluating the compliance of various countries with fundamental labour rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining. This index offers a comprehensive look at how different countries measure up in protecting workers’ rights, particularly under SDG 8.8, which is key to ensuring fair working conditions globally.

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It was way back in 2009, when a Pakistani scholar from Cornell University reached me online. He identified himself as Iftikhar Ahmad, student of comparative labour law, and wanted to know why Pakistan was not among the 50-odd countries we were working in at the time. Well, simply because we have not yet found a suitable counterpart in the country, my standard answer must have been. 'Could he not qualify?', Iftikhar wrote back. He liked what we were doing, he said, and he also wanted to dedicate his working life to the interests of the common working man, woman and family. He was studying at Cornell and would return home to Islamabad, where he would restart working as a career civil servant for the Pakistani Government. So, indeed, why not, I mused. Let's give it a try. And that is how we embarked on an adventurous and truly rewarding partnership that, 10 years later, has culminated into the first comprehensive Labour Rights Index with global outreach, covering 115 countries in 2020 - and counting.

Over the past decade, Iftikhar and I have had at least a thousand online conversations and - when travelling was still easy - at least a dozen meetings in Islamabad, Amsterdam, Geneva and some other places where and when our work brought us together. Iftikhar, a methodical and systematic thinker with a strong bent for research, had recognized that we, at WageIndicator, collected data on wages and labour rights in a highly structured way. Our common systems approach provided the framework and directed our mutual brain picking. This happy meeting of inquisitive minds is the second crucial strand in our enduring cooperation - next to our shared drive that the work we do should benefit the working man and woman of meagre means, who make up the public at large in any country.

It so happened that the Decent Work Check, a nascent tool, that we at WageIndicator had been experimenting with (online and in print) in rural Africa and Central America, became the hub of our intense and intensifying exchanges. After much initial tampering, sculpting and a lot of scrutinizing, it today stands as the legal backbone of our pioneering Labour Rights Index 2020 and would continue to do so for its future editions. Moreover, our mature Decent Work Check proves to be of great value for national WageIndicator websites in 115 countries, and also in WageIndicator projects at the factory and plantation level in Indonesia, Ethiopia and Uganda, empowering (female) garment workers and flower growers.

I look forward to our continued cooperation with Iftikhar and his team at the Centre for Labour Research, along the lines that have brought us - and many others - so much: professionally, intellectually and as friends.

Paulien Osse, Director WageIndicator Foundation (November 2020)

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Labour Rights Index 2022 - The aim is to make all this abstract legal information accessible to workers and small employers in order to improve their working lives. It covers 135 countries.

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The protection of labor rights and the promotion of safe working environments, as discussed in “Protect Labour Rights and Promote Safe Working Environment” by Uygun and Gujrati (2022), highlights the critical ethical balance between economic development and the safeguarding of human dignity. The ethical issues surrounding unsafe working conditions and labor rights violations, particularly for vulnerable workers like migrants, resonate globally and align closely with SDG 8.8. The discourse on ethical theories such as utilitarianism and deontological ethics reveals the importance of upholding labor protections not just for economic growth but also for the well-being and safety of workers.

Globally, the practical implementation of SDG 8.8 is a pressing challenge. As seen in both the article and the resources explored, there is a consistent call for stronger regulatory frameworks and international cooperation to enforce labor protections. In countries like Australia, these issues are particularly relevant in sectors such as agriculture and construction, where migrant and informal workers often face exploitation. By ensuring that economic growth does not come at the expense of workers’ rights, we can foster a more just, equitable, and sustainable global economy. This issue is not only critical for individual communities but also for the broader global workforce, whose safety and dignity must be prioritized to achieve long-term, sustainable development.

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Khatri, N., & Ng, H. A. (2023). A model for ethical decision making in business: Reasoning, intuition, and rational moral principles. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3572-6

International Labour Organization. (2019). Forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking. International Labour Organization. https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang–en/index.htm

International Labour Organization. (2021). Ending forced labour by 2030: A review of policies and programs in 12 countries. International Labour Organization. https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/WCMS_771469/lang–en/index.htm

United Nations. (2020). Global report on forced labor. United Nations. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg8/

Uygun, H., & Gujrati, R. (2022). Protect labour rights and promote safe working environment. Journal of Pedagogical Inventions and Practices, 8(1), 9-15. https://zienjournals.com/index.php/jpip/article/view/1525

Shaw, W. H., Barry, V., & Sansbury, P. (2020). Moral issues in business. Cengage Learning.

ICCROM. (n.d.). SDG 8.8: Protect labour rights and promote safe working environments. ICCROM | Our Collections Matter. https://ocm.iccrom.org

Labour Rights Index. (n.d.). Labour Rights Index. https://labourrightsindex.org/

United Nations. (n.d.). Sustainable Development Goals. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/