Young workers represent significant sub-group of youth which is not in the focus of neither youth organizations nor trade unions, who both have other priorities in their work. Therefore, on their way for the protection of their labour rights, young workers are frequently lacking any type of support – nowadays, many employers do not fulfill their legal obligation of introducing the new worker with his/her rights in work environment (properly or at all), so most of them do not know whom and how to address and what protection mechanisms are at their disposal; there are no enough non-formal educations dealing with this category of population; older workers do not want to interfere in order to preserve their own positions, while at home, family dialogue usually ends with the words “you are lucky even to have that job, and be silent since nothing terrible is happening”. In time, such a condition is accepted as reality, without any awareness of what it does for the overall life of a young person. Deep frustration is reflected both on their work productivity and on their private life, while fear and lack of knowledge and information are preventing them from any type of meaningful reaction and another vicious circle in the life of young person is created.Therefore, our response to the question why would be – to stop this vicious circle and initiate the creation of new climate in which young workers would become aware of their rights, at the same time being empowered enough to protect them properly (which is in line with the European Social Charter). In order to achieve this, we need to help them recognize all these negative appearance, understand their social rights, stand up for them, learning whom to address when these rights are endangered – at the same time becoming socially responsible and active citizens.In order to introduce this topic into sectors of importance and general public, focusing on both educational and promotional component, we envisaged the set of activities in overall duration of 12 months: - youth survey “Are you familiar with your labour rights”, to be implemented among young workers with direct support from the trade unions involved;- Awareness raising campaign related to labour rights of young workers, as presentation of research results and introduction to activities to follow; - 6-day training for 30 educators on project topics of importance, as main capacity building activity that should make the basis for further educational work in this field;- Workshops and interactive local activities in order to provide cascade transfer of knowledge and information to other young workers;- Consultative meeting with project participants, aimed at discussion and exchange of experience from national activities, as well as at preparation of final conlusions and recommendations;- Final conference - international 2-day event aimed at gathering of stakeholders of importance for the topic in order to present them main project outcomes.
Project “Rights at Work, Work on Rights” has been implemented from December 1, 2018 till November 30, 2019 in partnership of Development Center for Youth, Trade Union of Administration of the Republic of Serbia, Trade Union of Administration of Republika Srpska, Trade Union of Administration and Judiciary of Montenegro, Trade Union of UPOZ of North Macedonia, Center for Advanced Studies of SEE – University of Rijeka, as well as the associations Trade Union Education Center from Banja Luka, the Coalition of Youth Organizations SEGA from Prilep, Budva Foundation and YouthWatch from Bratislava (i.e. 6 countries – Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovakia). It combined youth, trade union and educational sector demonstrating that only multi-sectoral synergetic approach could lead to genuine changes and progress in regard to project topic.Aim of the project was to make a comprehensive analysis on youth awareness of their rights in work environment (labor rights), and then to launch a series of educational activities among young workers through peer education, as well as a wider campaign aimed at informing young people how to protect their rights and promote them among peers. We have started from the premise that work satisfaction consists an important part of overall life satisfaction of young individual, at the same time believing that a satisfied young worker is the most productive one, and with intention to contribute jointly to establishment of a work environment tailored to young person’s needs. In regard to that, consortium goal was to contribute to empowerment of young people to protect and promote their labor rights as significant segment in the overall corpus of human rights.Since precise data in relation to the level of youth information on their labor rights in countries involved have been missing, and we wanted to have genuine evidence-based activity corresponding to current situation among youth, overall process started with research activities.Once we obtained relevant data, we were able to finalize/fine-tune the agenda of the educational process to follow, putting the focus on issues underlined as most important ones by young people themselves during the research. We decided for introduction of non-formal education into world of young trade union activists and therefore, educational process has been based on training for future peer educators, providing them on one side proper knowledge and information in relation to the topic, and on another side – skills and practical tools relevant for their future acting in the role of peer educators. Further transfer of knowledge and information has been provided two-fold:1. through local educational activities – workshops implemented by peer educators in their work environments and trade union units (having acc.600 young people as their direct beneficiaries) and2. through extensive media campaign reaching not only different categories of youth, but also wider audience regardless their age/social status (having acc. 3,5 million of people as indirect beneficiaries).We had two important benchmarks within the process - consultative meeting of peer educators aimed at their exchange of experience from field actions and final conference aimed at presentation of results achieved and bringing closer different stakeholders interested for topic. Both events resulted in set of conclusions and recommendations.Activities resulted in: national report and regional overview with precise data prepared; 24 young trade union activists (and 12 representatives from partner organizations) equipped with knowledge and skills to act as peer educators; 40 local workshops held with more than 600 young people informed on project topics; more than 500 announcements in media of different format reaching acc. 3,5 million of people in countries involved; video material (central spot and 10 tutorials with FAQ), as well as animation and brochure.