Assessment Services

Better Work enterprise assessments create a framework for assessing compliance with core international labour standards and national labour law. The assessment also allows enterprises to track the impact of improvement activities on quality and productivity on an optional basis. Each country-based assessment tool is structured to identify compliance needs.

Compliance Needs: Content

When assessing compliance needs, Better Work looks at the performance of an enterprise and assesses the behaviour of the employer. The programme does not assess national law or practice in relation to ILO conventions, which is done by the ILO supervisory bodies. In some countries where Better Work operates, national law is not in compliance with core international labour standards. In those particular countries, participating enterprises aspire to achieve compliance with the principles set out in the core international labour standards.

The compliance needs section of the Better Work enterprise assessment is adapted for each Better Work country programme. There are two components to this section that collectively cover the following indicators.

1. Core international labour standards, which are drawn from the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and which remain constant across the country programmes. The four core labour standards refer to:
1. child labour
2. discrimination
3. forced labour
4. freedom of association and collective bargaining
   
2. Working conditions that are referenced to each country’s respective national labour law. These areas refer to:
1. compensation
2. contract and workplace relations
3. occupational safety and health
4. working time.

Compliance Needs: Structure

The structure of the enterprise assessment compliance needs section has three levels which are:

Level 1: Clusters (four on core international labour standards and four on working conditions)

Level 2: Compliance Points (each cluster has a set of compliance points)

Level 3: Questions (each compliance point has a set of associated questions).

The first two levels—clusters and compliance points—are set globally. The third level consists of questions that vary according to national law. This classification structure allows for a consistent approach globally while allowing for differences in national labour law.

Adaptation

In order to properly address compliance needs, the question level must be adapted to the local context. Better Work country programmes undertake the adaptation through both a technical review and in consultation with government, employers and workers, and their organizations.  Through this process, questions are refined in accordance with national labour law. The number of compliance points remains the same although the number of questions in each cluster may differ per country.