A project specially dedicated to empowering and enlightening adolescent female workers

and job seekers

http://dfl.wageindicator.org

Aims and Objectives

DECISIONS FOR LIFE aims at:

Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women.

and more specifically on:

Promoting formal employment and equal opportunities at the labour market.

The 8 large occupational groups are

This project targets adolescent (defined as women aged 15-29)

female workers and job seekers in 8 large occupational groups in

the service sector.

housekeepers in hotels

travel agency intermediaries in

tourism

secretariessales persons

and cashiers in retail

call centre operators

front office workers /

receptionistsin hotels

bookkeepers IT programmers

These service sectors:

• employ the bulk of working women in the age group of 15-29.

• are growing in (almost) all the developing countries.

Why does this project target adolescent women in these service sectors ?

The project’s main objective

  

To raise awareness amongst

these young adolescent

female workers concerning

work-family balance

family building

career possibilities

future employment opportunities

Why raise these awareness ?

The vast majority of the women in this group will set up a family within the foreseeable future.

They will then face hard decisions about continuing employment and finding solutions for maternity leave and childcare.

When setting up a family, the chances that women will quit their jobs due to termination of contract or forced dismissal are higher than in other age groups.

The lifetime decisions of adolescent women determine not only their individual future, but also that of society, as their choices are key to the demographic and workforce development of the nation.

DECISIONS FOR LIFE

aims to support thesewomen in making informed

decisions as the expectations from this target group are multi-fold!

Economic Professional SocialPersonal

(Household, Familylife)

Here we sight some examples of the earnings of this target group and shall choose South Africa to demonstrate with.

Profession Salary per Month Salary per Year

Call centre operators R 3514 to R 39122 R 42198 to R 469829

Secretaries R 4422 to R 16390 R 53110 to R 196835

Bookkeepers R 7219 to R 23259 R 86693 to R 279323

IT programmers R 7978 to R 55517 R 95810 to R 666719

Office Receptionists R 5087 to R 11097 R 61091 to R 133269

The Salary Check assumes work as 40hr per week.

However big or small the amount may seem, yet it makes a significant contribution for one’s family !

This project focuses on 14 developing countries

14 developing countries

The southern African countries

Angola

Botswana

Malawi

Mozambique

South Africa

Zambia

Zimbabwe

The CIS countries

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Kazakhstan

Ukraine

The Asian countries

India

Indonesia

The South American country

Brazil

It is estimated that in these selected 14 developing countries, some 10 to 12 million female adolescents aged 15-29 are working in the service sectors concentrated in the urban areas where Internet access can be easily had

and so we have more chances to reach-out to them in massive numbers.

Why only in these 14 developing countries

??

? ?

?? ?

How do we plan to do all this ?

The popular ‘OFFLINE approach’

An ‘ONLINE approach’

DECISIONS FOR LIFE deploys a ‘dual approach’ to

reach out for as many adolescent women as possible in the 8 large

occupational groups in the service sector.

&

This means…

FIRST,

trade unions who have huge experiences in campaigning are to campaign through the

channels at their disposal; aiming to reach 10,000 women in face-to-face meetings and training

sessions, and through dissemination of offline promotion materials.

This means…

SECOND,

the Internet is an efficient medium to target these occupational groups, aiming to reach 1,000,000

women online with attractive web tools and content.

Online tools

Decent Work Check www.decentworkcheck.org

A tool with a check-list to see whether your job, salary and social security are in accordance with National laws and International conventions.

Partner Check

A game inviting young women, to imagine and consider several real life situations.

Economic, professional, personal life scenarios that could take place in their life according to the life-partners they would choose.

Salary Check

A tool that enables you to get an idea of the salary colleagues earn for a similar job or position.

The resulting salary indication values are real statistics after having conducted a stretch of salary surveys.

Women’s rights at the work-place

These can be found in the DFL website and the Wageindicator websites, like Mywage.org or Meusalario.org, enlightening women on topics such as:

maternity leave rights day-care help for the working mother laws and tips against sexual harassment etc…

Best-place-to-work tool

Will be online in the near future …..

Many of these tools, checkers and other online materials made available on the website, are also in downloadable

form for offline use to target women who do not have access to the Internet.

Inventories underlying these tools and checks will also be undertaken.

A screen-shot of the home page

The International 'team partners' behind this Project Management

which specializes in

worldwide inventories

underlying the decent work

agenda, wages and companies’

industrial relations systems

University of Amsterdam

AIASwhich already

has websites on work and wages in 45 countries

WageIndicator Foundation in Amsterdam

the umbrella organization of unions in the

services industries worldwide

Global Union UNI in Geneva

in the14 countries

Affiliates

Project Management

ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) in Brussels

Together,these partners

compose a supervisory

management board that convenes on a regular basis during

the project.

The Wageindicator website’s presence in the 14 countries:

Angola www.Meusalario.org/AngolaBotswana www.Mywage.org/BotswanaMalawi www.Mywage.org/MalawiMozambique www.Meusalario.org/MozambiqueSouth Africa www.Mywage.co.zaZambia www.Mywage.org/ZambiaZimbabwe www.Mywage.org/Zimbabwe

India www.Paycheck.inIndonesia www.Gajimu.com

Azerbaijan www.Mojazarplata.org/AzerbaijanBelarus www.Mojazarplata.org/BelarusKazakhstan www.Mojazarplata.org/KazakhstanUkraine www.Mojazarplata.org/Ukraine

Brazil www.Meusalario.org.br

Trade Unions in Southern Africa:

South Africa: Confederation of South African Workers' Unions (CONSAWU)www.consawu.co.za

Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)www.cosatu.org.za

Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA)www.fedusa.org.za

National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU)www.nactu.org.za

Regional Project Partners – AFRICALRS - Labour research Service – Capetown (LRA) www.lrs.org.za

Trade Unions in Southern Africa:

Angola: União Nacional dos Trabalhadores de Angola (UNTA-CS)www.unta-cs.com

Botswana: Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) Malawi: Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU)

Mozambique: Organizaçâo dos Trabalhadores de Moçambique (OTM) www.otm.org.mz

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)www.zctu.co.zw

Zambia: Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)Email: zctu@microlink.zm

 

CIS Countries:

Azerbaijan: Azerbaycan Hemkarlar Ittifaqlari Konfederasiyasi (AHIK) www.ahik.org Email: ahik@azerin.com

Belarus:Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP)www.bkdp.org

Kazakhstan: Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan(FTUK) www.fprk.kz

Ukraine:All-Ukrainian Union of Workers' Solidarity (VOST)email: vostky2@i.com.ua

Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine (KVPU)www.kvpu.org.ua

Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU)www.fpsu.org.ua/

Asian Countries:

India: Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS)www.members.rediff.com/hms

Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC)www.intuc.net

Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)www.sewa.org

Institute of marketing and management (IMM)www.immindia.com

INITES Professional

Indonesia: Konfederasi Serikat Buruh Sejahtera Indonesia (KSBSI)www.ksbsi.or.id/news.php

South-American Country:

Brazil: Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT)www.cut.org.br

Força Sindical (FS)www.fsindical.org.br

União Geral dos Trabalhadores (UGT)www.ugt.org.br

Departamento Intersindical de Estatística e EstudosSocioeconomicos (DIEESE)www.dieese.org.br

Who finances the DECISIONS FOR LIFE project and what is the

project duration ?

DECISIONS FOR LIFE is awarded a MDG3 grant from:

‘The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’, in support of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals no 3 (MDG3): ‘Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women’.

The focus is particularly on MDG3.5:

‘Promoting formal employment and equal opportunities at the labour market’.

This is one of the four MDG3 priority areas identified in the Dutch Ministry’s MDG3 Fund.

DECISIONS FOR LIFE runs fromOctober 2008 until June 2011

How can you help to make DECISIONS FOR LIFE

successful in your country?

To spread the message of this project, our primary aim is:

The organising of young women workers wherever they might be. Our Affiliates and Federations are

the tools to do this, but not an end in itself.

Where do you begin ?

Trade Union Campaigns

Meetings

&

Where else can you begin this project

awareness?

Market places

Industries, factories Government and private company offices

Call centres

The hospitality sector (hotels, guest houses, restaurants, pubs, bars, etc…)

UniversitiesShopping malls

Hospitals

Clubs, dancing’s

http://dfl.wageindicator.org

TOGETHER …