Welcome to our popular feature section, NGO of the Month! The world strives to be a better place with the continious effort of individuals and organizations working on varied issues of concern. We are determined to feature the organizations putting their continuous effort for the betterment of the world. This is a recognition to you people who are committed to invest time, knowledge and effort for the prosperity of community and people; we hope this will inspire the world to join your mission of a better world.
This month Projects Officer of WageIndicator Foundation, Karen Kammeraat joins us to discuss about the impact her organization is making in the life of targeted population. WageIndicator Foundation helps working population by providing the information on wages those people get who do the same work as they do; this has helped them to claim their own wages for the hard work they do everyday to earn a decent living.
What inspired the establishment of your NGO?
It all started with a website about wages that Paulien made for FNV, a Dutch Confederation of Trade Unions. This site generated many many questions about wages, from all layers of society and it appeared that there was no place that could give information about wages to all. The initiatives that existed only focused on wage scales and salaries for the higher educated. This inspired Paulien to create the first WageIndicator site, called Loonwijzer in Dutch, where everyone, from cleaning people to CEOs could find information about minimum wages and actual wages. From the beginning there has been special attention for working women and the gender pay gap.
Paulien Osse/ WageIndicator debate- Labour Law Nicaragua project Tusalario.org
What is special about your organization?
WageIndicator is the only organisation/website in the world that provides such a complete and actual overview of the world of wages and labour laws in so many countries. After the site in the Netherlands many European countries followed and soon the international departments of the Dutch trade union confederations asked WageIndicator to also create sites for countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Now there are sites in 80 countries! In some of the African countries, WageIndicator was the first to map the minimum and actual wages. Furthermore, what makes WageIndicator special is that it continues to innovate. After the database on minimum wages and actual wages, labour laws were added. Extensive descriptions can be found on the site, but also the user friendly and popular Decent Work Check that provides a quick overview of the 49 main topics in labour law. Then the CBA database was developed, that makes it possible to compare CBAs and it is of great assistance when negotiating new or improved CBAs. Last year WageIndicator started to calculate Living Wages, by developing a method that can be used world wide. WageIndicator also developed offline tools that assists our partners to get more out of the sites and reach an even bigger audience. Another unique feature of WageIndicator is that the team of about 100 specialists is located all over the world, from Italy to Tanzania and from Mexico to Pakistan.
Pauline Osse/ Latin American Teams in debate about building new web pages in office Elsalvador
How does your NGO change lives?
Our NGO changes lives, because it all starts with having knowledge and awareness about your rights. Knowing the wage and the labour laws that are applicable to you empowers to to take informed decisions about your working life. And WageIndicator does not stop with providing information. It also provides tools such as complaint forms and a legal helpdesk to assist people in taking the next step and actually demand their rights. On top of that we always cooperate with the trade unions in the countries. Our sites enhances their work and builds their capacity, and once workers have more knowledge and awareness about their rights they can partner up with the trade unions to demand their rights.
Why is your organization important to the community you work in?
The community can be defined by the end users, i.e. the workers, but also the employers who are equally happy with the complete overview of all wages and laws. But it also includes trade unions and their confederations, employers’ organisations, academics and researchers and media. They all value the information that we provide, as we are the only one provide such complete and actual information on wages and labour laws.
What is your NGOs vision for the world?
Our vision for the world is that everyone has a decent and happy working life!
Paulien Osse/ Debate in the Netherlands with the multi disciplinary global WageIndicator team about design of the Collective Agreement Database
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