A/HRC/37/32 of global gross domestic product each year.49 Unhealthy and/or hazardous working conditions significantly undermine people’s ability to work and to provide for themselves and their families. 51. In addition to ensuring adequate regulation, States should also guarantee appropriate inspection and monitoring systems. Article 9 of the ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) specifies that “the enforcement of laws and regulations concerning occupational safety and health and the working environment shall be secured by an adequate and appropriate system of inspection” and “the enforcement system shall provide for adequate penalties for violations of the laws and regulations.” Such systems should be adequately combined with prevention policies aimed at helping employers and workers to avoid or eliminate the risk of occupational accidents and diseases. There are also many other ILO conventions governing labour inspections, such as the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187). 52. While target 8.8 calls upon States to protect labour rights, it only urges States to “promote safe and secure working environments for all workers”. This falls short of human rights standards and the numerous ILO conventions and recommendations specifically dealing with occupational safety and health. E. Trade unions 53. While the Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular target 8.8, acknowledge the importance of protecting labour rights, there is no mention of the role of trade unions. Moreover, many States, often strongly encouraged by international financial institutions, have implemented austerity-related labour measures aimed at weakening trade unions, targeting collective bargaining systems by, inter alia, limiting extension agreements between different sectors (see A/HRC/34/57). They have undermined collective labour rights, including the right to form and join trade unions (A/HRC/34/57, para. 29). In some cases, Governments have imposed stricter regulation of the content of collective agreements, procedures for bargaining, and regulation of trade unions. 50 Multilateral financial institutions have also conditioned loans on recipient States, thereby weakening labour protections, denying workers a voice in the process and moving employment towards informality (A/71/385, para. 85). 54. Trade union protection is a key factor in ensuring access to decent work and equality. Unions can assist women workers, especially household, domestic or migrant workers, in claiming their labour rights by providing access to online information, and offer opportunities to organize online to improve laws, wages and working conditions and report abuses.51 There is an historic link between strong trade unionism and more equal societies. 52 55. Trade unions have also adapted to the changing nature of employment and helped to address issues relating to self-employed workers. With the emergence of new forms of work, it is important to have a democratic process of dialogue between workers and employers to mediate control of the gains of production.53 56. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and ensure that no one is left behind, States must guarantee conditions necessary for workers to join and form trade unions. It is essential that trade unions be able to operate freely. Building a future economy where the benefits of work and profit are shared requires legal reform in support of effective trade unions.54 49 50 51 52 53 54 12 ILO, Occupational Safety and Health, available at www.ilo.org/empent/areas/businesshelpdesk/WCMS_DOC_ENT_HLP_OSH_EN/lang--en/index.htm. Jones, Tough Jobs (see footnote 48). United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service, Recommendations on Women’s Human Rights and Gender Equality, Policy Brief #7. Lydia Hayes and Tonia Novitz, Trade Unions and Economic Inequality, Institute of Employment Rights, 2014. See also A/HRC/34/57, para. 11. See ILO, The Future of Work We Want: A global dialogue, Geneva, 2017. Hayes and Novitz, Trade Unions and Economic Inequality (see footnote 52).