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5.
Ensure Workers Have a Role in Decisions Affecting Their Work
Quality work enables workers to play an active part in shaping the conditions of their work. In principle, labor markets provide opportunities for choice and negotiation among employers and workers regarding wages, hours and opportunities for advancement. Many employers actively seek to involve their workforces in decision making about conditions of employment. Where collective bargaining exists, it provides a structured forum for dialogue and negotiation and those agreements should be respected. However, there are many situations in which lower wage workers have very limited or non-existent roles in decision making affecting the conditions of employment.
We believe that lower wage workers, along with others, should be actively consulted in the design of policies and systems that affect them, both in settings where collective bargaining exists, and where it does not. While respecting employers’ rights and obligations to manage businesses to maintain profitability and competitiveness, we see meaningful worker engagement and consultation both as a good business practice and as a way for workers to develop dialogue and advocacy skills that can improve their conditions of work and support economic mobility.
- We recommend that employers ensure that workers have a meaningful role in employers’ decisions that affect their working conditions, wages, hours, and opportunities for advancement.
Convergence Center for Policy Resolution is a national non-profit based in Washington, DC that convenes individuals and organizations with divergent views to build trust, identify solutions, and form alliances for action on issues of critical public concern. Reports and recommendations issued under our auspices reflect the views of the individuals and organizations who put the ideas forward. Convergence itself remains neutral and does not endorse or take positions on recommendations of its stakeholders.
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