What happened was not a mere divergence of opinion nor traditional political friction, but a precise detonation of a file that has long been managed with a logic of fragmentation and pacification. The hundred questions were not raised as procedural inquiries, but came as a complete indictment against the style of labor market management, where the formal discourse was dismantled piece by piece, and returned to the balance of international standards for decent work as recognized by the International Labour Organization, not as consumed in statements. Here, the discussion moved from the surface of the declared achievements to the depth of social impact, and from the language of numbers to the language of rights.
At the core of this advocacy, the primary flaw in the employment philosophy itself is uncovered, where public policies are still captive to a quantitative approach that reduces employment to the number of signed contracts, not the quality of job opportunities or their sustainability or their ability to remove workers from vulnerability. Public resources are pumped into active labor market programs without clear indicators for retention or productivity or transition to stable employment, turning employment into a tool for recycling unemployment rather than a lever for growth. The modern global approach assumes that decent work is one that ensures job security, adequate income, and the potential for advancement, which calls for a redirection of policies from supporting formal labor demand to stimulating sectors capable of creating productive and sustainable jobs, incorporating women and youth as economic actors, not social cases.
And the flaw deepens at the wage gateway, where the minimum wage detaches from the concept of a living wage, becoming a nominal figure that does not reflect inflation or the cost of reproducing labor force. The real wage erodes and the wage gaps, particularly between genders, become entrenched in the absence of effective supervision and deterrent enforcement mechanisms. In the global labor literature, wages are seen as a human right linked to dignity, not as an accounting equation, imposing a linkage of wages to living cost indicators, enhancing risk-based inspections, and intensifying sanctions so that violating wage standards becomes an economic burden on the employer, not a profitable option.
As for social protection, it appears as the weakest link in the safety chain, with a widening scope of exceptions and vast segments of workers, especially in the informal economy, atypical work and platform-based work, remaining outside the coverage of guarantee. This reality does not align with the concept of the national social protection floor, which forms the cornerstone of economic and social stability. The treatment is not to reduce obligations but to expand inclusion through flexible tools, and ensure fund sustainability through sound governance and fair cost distribution, preventing the sole burden of risks on the worker.
At the level of legislation, it is clear that the gap is not so much in the texts as in enforcement feasibility. Despite its amendments, labor law still suffers from poor compliance, modest inspection effectiveness, and slow remediation paths, turning legal protection into a deferred promise. In comparative experiences, the strength of the law is not measured by the number of its articles, but by the worker's ability to access justice quickly and at a reasonable cost, by the independence of supervising bodies, and by moving from statistical to impact and result-based inspections.
The concept of decent work is not complete while trade union freedoms are restricted and the content of social dialogue is hollowed out. The worker who lacks a bargaining voice and an independent representative framework remains the weaker party in an uneven labor relationship. International standards regard collective bargaining and union organization as balancing tools, not threats to stability, and affirm that genuine social dialogue is a safety valve for the economy before being a gain for workers. Expanding the field to pluralistic labor representation, protecting union leaders, and recognizing organized strike as a right are conditions for transforming the labor market from a dictate arena to a partnership space.
The advocacy reaches its climax at the issue of occupational safety and health, where the discussion is no longer about working conditions, but about the right to life. The rise in occupational injuries and deaths is a serious failure indicator that is not addressed by intensifying formal inspection tours, but by building a culture of prevention, tightening legal responsibility, and protecting those who report risks and violations. Decent work starts from a safe working environment, and any policy that tolerates this file trades the worker's life for cost.
In this sense, the hundred questions do not pose a burden on the ministry, but a harsh mirror to a reality that needs a comprehensive review. It's a call to move from narrow technical management of the labor market to managing it as a social contract, from treating the worker as a number in a report to recognizing them as a rights holder. Work, according to all international standards, is not merely a means of earning, but the basis of human dignity, and any policy that does not start from this truth is doomed to fail, no matter how elaborate it appears in the discourse.
