labour is not a commodity
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"Labour is not a commodity" is the principle expressed in the preamble to the
International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...
's founding documents. It expresses the view that people should not be treated like inanimate commodities,
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
, another mere factor of production, or resources. Instead, people who work for a living should be treated as human beings and accorded
dignity Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inaliena ...
and respect. Paul O'Higgins attributes the phrase to John Kells Ingram, who used it in 1880 during a meeting in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
of the British Trades Union Congress.O'Higgins, P.
'Labour is not a Commodity' — an Irish Contribution to International Labour Law'
(1997) 26(3) Industrial Law Journal 225-234


Law

* Clayton Act 1914, which gave trade unions in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
the freedom from paying penalties from courts for organising and taking collective action * Versailles Treaty, establishing the International Labour Organization, Article 427 *
Declaration of Philadelphia The Declaration of Philadelphia (10 May 1944) restated the traditional objectives of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and then branched out in two new directions: the centrality of human rights to social policy, and the need for intern ...
1944, reestablishing the ILO under the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
and reaffirming the first principle that labour is not a commodity


See also

* Commodification of labour *
Fictitious commodities The concept of fictitious commodities (or false commodities) originated in Karl Polanyi's 1944 book '' The Great Transformation'' and refers to anything treated as market commodity that is not created for the market, specifically land, labor, and m ...
* Labor theory of value *
Criticism of capitalism Criticism of capitalism ranges from expressing disagreement with the principles of capitalism in its entirety to expressing disagreement with particular outcomes of capitalism. Criticism of capitalism comes from various political and philoso ...


References


External links

* International Labour Organization
Declaration of Philadelphia
(1944) Human resource management Labour movement Labour law {{labor-stub