Qu'est-ce qu'un «travail décent»? Propositions pour élargir Ia campagne de I'OIT pour le travail décent à partir de Ia psychodynamique

This paper critically examines the notion of "decent work" at the heart of the "Decent Work" campaign of the International Labour Office. The paper argues that the concept of "work" underlying the Ilo's campaign is too constricted. What is missing in the Ilo's approach is the view of work, not just as an economic occupation and a social relation, but also as an activity, one that impacts significantly on individual well-being inasmuch as it mobilises the body, mind and soul of workers. The political philosophy literature on "meaningful work" provides a useful first approach to extend the Ilo's notion "decent work", as it demonstrates convincingly the necessity to refer to the content of work in the very definition of justice. However, this literature can also be usefully complemented by the psychodynamic approach to work. We delineate three areas in which a richer account of the content of work could helpfully complement the Ilo campaign for Decent Work: the level of individual capacities; the level of the working collective; and the level of the political culture of work.