GENEVA (ILO News) – Delegates to the 87 th session of the International Labour Conference, which gets underway in Geneva on Tuesday, 1 June 1999, are set to adopt a new International Convention designed to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, including child slavery and the use of children in activities that are physically and emotionally damaging to their well-being.
The Conference will also begin debate on the revision of the ILO Convention on maternity benefits and the terms and conditions that should apply to workers who are pregnant or are already mothers.
The ILO’s new Director-General, Mr. Juan Somavia will be participating in his first International Labour Conference since taking office in March of this year. The Conference delegates will examine Mr. Somavia’s strategic proposals for the 174 member-State Organization, which celebrated its 80 th anniversary this year. In addition, Mr. Somavia will submit a proposal for the ILO’s operating budget for the biennium 2000-2001 to finance ILO activities around the world.
The Conference this year will host three heads of State who will address special sittings in the Assembly Hall. Her Excellency Madam Ruth Dreifuss, President of the Swiss Confederation, will address the Conference on 8 June at 3 p.m. His Excellency Mr. Henri Konan Bédié, President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, will address the Conference on 10 June at 10 a.m.
On the 16 th of June at a time to be determined, His Excellency, William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States of America, will address the Conference.
Commenting on the high-level visits, Mr. Juan Somavia said that he was proud "that the work of the ILO receives the support and attention of such important world leaders – their interest reflects the universal appeal of the ILO’s ideal of social justice and of its efforts to promote decent work for men and women everywhere."
Mr. Somavia also looked forward to welcoming Mr. Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998, who will address the Conference on 15 June at 4.30 p.m.
The Conference gets underway at 11 a.m., Tuesday 1 June and runs until Thursday, 17 June. The opening plenary session in the Assembly Hall of the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva will elect the Conference President.
A special information session by the "Global March against Child Labour" – an international coalition of trade unions, NGOs and other civil society representatives – will be held on 1 st June at 4 p.m. in the Conference’s Plenary Hall. The participants will present on this occasion the conclusions of an international workshop on the worst forms of child labour.
ILO is About "Decent Work"
In his first report to the International Labour Conference, Mr. Juan Somavia outlines a threefold "portfolio of policies" designed to improve the lives and working conditions of men and women, generate employment for growing numbers of jobless and underemployed workers and forge a new consensus between the international community, business and labour to address the social consequences of globalization.
Citing economic development, gender equality and enterprise promotion as major policy initiatives, Mr. Somavia writes that "the primary goal of the ILO today is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity". He pledged the Organization, to pursuing four strategic objectives: "the promotion of rights at work; employment; social protection; and social dialogue".
He said that the ILO needs to be concerned with all workers, including the large majority of the workforce in developing countries whose efforts to achieve well-being are circumscribed by the poor wages, low productivity and inadequate social protection found in informal sector activities, which are gaining ground in many countries. "The participation of the informal sector in total employment has reached almost 60 per cent in Latin America. In Africa, the informal economy accounted for over 90 per cent of new urban jobs during the last decade", said Mr. Somavia.
He said that the promotion of rights at work should have no boundaries, recalling that "the ILO Constitution calls for the improvement of the conditions of labour", a requirement that should prevail whether work is organized or not and wherever it might occur, whether formally or informally, in the factory, in the community or at home.
He said that in addition to seeking improvements in the conditions of work, the ILO needs to commit itself to expanding opportunities for employment. "The ILO is, therefore, as much concerned with the unemployed, and with policies to overcome unemployment and underemployment, as it is with the promotion of rights at work", the report says. He argues that "an enabling environment for enterprise development lies at the heart of this objective".
He also insists that while economic growth is the sine qua non of employment growth, "it is only part of the story". Structural inequalities in many labour markets are perpetuated by the lack of workers’ access to basic health, education and training facilities, by widespread discrimination and by macroeconomic policies that underestimate the human costs of economic restructuring and fail to cover those costs.
The Director-General said that in years to come the major issue confronting the international community "will be the adaptation of national economies and institutions to global change, including the adaptation of global change to human needs". In view of the economic and social challenges wrought by globalization, "the ILO will be called upon to deal with recurring crises of adjustment and development over the next decade. It must now organize itself for this purpose".
He said that to be effective "the ILO needs to insist on and demonstrate the importance of employment policies and of institutions for social protection and social dialogue, in the interests not only of social equity but also of successful adjustment policies and long-term economic development".
He highlighted the need for strong institutions and systems for social protection and dialogue, which have been "too often neglected in the era of rapid growth". He said that the consequences of such neglect were "glaringly visible" in aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, in the difficulties of economic adjustment and enterprise restructuring and in the chronic underdevelopment affecting so many countries and economies.
Stressing the importance of the recently adopted ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, Mr. Somavia said that the Declaration was "adopted as a promotional instrument and must be realized in that spirit". He said that its emphasis on the principles of fundamental ILO Conventions meant that living up to the terms of the Declaration "should become a common objective of the multilateral system as a whole".
In order for it to be effective and to enjoy the widest measure of support, "there can be no question of conditionality attached to the Declaration. Otherwise, it would risk the loss of its legitimacy in defining the minimum obligations incumbent on all ILO members".
For the ILO, the new policy emphasis will involve greater focus on three specific areas: a development agenda that places greater emphasis on the needs of the working poor; takes greater account of underprivileged groups, especially women, who have transformed the labour markets of the world, and of enterprise development, which are described as "the key to growth and employment in open economies".
While insisting on the core function of elaborating and defending international labour standards and promoting human rights in the workplace, Mr. Somavia argues that "a focus on the enterprise is essential if the ILO’s work is to be informed by workplace practices and realities". In addition to the already substantial range of programmes supporting entrepreneurship and small enterprise development, the ILO needs to respond to the employment challenges and opportunities posed by large firms as well.
"Business is facing intensified social pressures for good corporate practices, which have a direct bearing on consumer demand and corporate reputations through the media". Mr. Somavia writes that the ILO, which to many in the business world "remains a remote and impenetrable organization", needs to raise its public profile "and make a strong case with the business community through better communication and improved access to its training, services and databases.
He said that "the ILO has to position itself as the international centre for expertise and data of interest to business, in such areas as standards and codes, national legislative and industrial relations systems, occupational safety and health, and the dissemination of good practice in a multicultural context".
Mr. Somavia took office as Director-General in March this year, marking the first time a representative of the Southern hemisphere has headed the organization. Mr. Somavia, the ninth Director-General of the ILO since its founding in 1919 is an attorney by profession and has had a long career in civil and international affairs, including serving as Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations in New York and as Chairman of the UN’s World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen 1995).
Child Labour
At the 87 th session of the International Labour Conference, meeting on 1-17 June 1999, government, worker and employer representatives from 174 ILO member States are expected to conclude a multi-year, global effort to build an international consensus for a new Convention and Recommendation targeting such practices as child slavery, forced labour, trafficking, debt bondage, serfdom, prostitution, pornography as well as various forms of hazardous and exploitative work.
The proposed new standards were first discussed at the 1998 Conference and apply to all children under the age of 18. According to ILO estimates, some 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 work in developing countries alone. About half, or some 120 million work full time, while the rest combine work and schooling. In some cases, as many as 68% of these children are engaged in hazardous work.
ILO surveys indicate that some 50 to 60 million children between the ages of five and 11 are working worldwide, in circumstances that could be termed hazardous.
The worst forms of child labour include:
"The capacity to eradicate the worst forms of child labour is a moral test facing all societies", Mr. Somavia said.
The commercial sexual exploitation of children is one of the most brutal forms of child exploitation, and appears to be worsening. Child victims suffer extreme physical, psycho-social and emotional abuse, are exposed to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS and others, and are often introduced to drugs. Younger and younger children are being sought for the sex trade in the belief that they are more likely to be "AIDS free", while sex tourism and pornography involving young girls and boys is flourishing, especially on the Internet.
Another area where the situation appears to be worsening is in the sale and trafficking of children across national borders by organized networks. Children are trafficked for prostitution and for hazardous jobs in construction, small shops, factories and domestic service. In many cases, children in these situations are confined to the workplace and treated like slaves.
Maternity Protection
As part of a long and ongoing process to revise and update the International Labour Code to the exigencies of the modern workplace, delegates to the 87 th session of the ILC will come to grips with the need for improved international standards in dealing with maternity protection for women workers and how best to ensure that this protection is actually provided to the greatest possible number of working women and their babies, having regard to national law and practice and socio-economic circumstances.
The process of consulting ILO constituents on proposals to revise the Maternity Protection Convention (No.103) and Recommendation (No.95) has revealed an overwhelming international consensus in favour of the initiative on the basis of its capacity to enhance employment and economic security for women and their infant children.
The ILO notes that women are a fast growing category in the global workforce. The Organization forecasts that by the year 2010, 80 per cent of all women in industrialized countries and 70 per cent globally will be working outside the home during their child-bearing years.
Moreover, the nature of women's labour force participation is changing as the economic and social role of women evolves. Whereas women usually left paid employment to look after their families, most now return to work after childbirth.
"The trend is ineluctable", according to Josefina Dy Hammar – an ILO expert – "the employment curve for women increasingly resembles that for men in countries round the world, notwithstanding women’s far larger burden of domestic responsibility".
Ms. Dy-Hammar adds that "the question of how to reconcile their irreplaceable role in child bearing with their increasingly irreplaceable role in the workplace is becoming more urgent than ever".
A 1997 ILO report on maternity protection at work said that "the notion that men are the sole providers for women and children has rapidly become a myth of the past". It cited a recent study showing that 59 per cent of European working women and 55 per cent of US working women supplied one-half or more of their families household income. "Worldwide, women provide the main source of income in approximately 30 per cent of households, while the vast majority of male-headed household have women members who contribute labour, income and other forms of support", the report says.
Even so, in spite of progress in law and practice, the gains registered thus far have not yet overcome the fundamental problem experienced by many working women at some point in their professional lives: unequal treatment in employment due to their reproductive role.
In replies to questionnaires sent out to ILO member States – 94 of 104 countries affirmed support for a revised Convention and 93 of 100 affirmed support for updating the recommendation. Some respondents qualified their support for the initiative, referring to concerns focussing on such factors as the nature and scope of the proposed instrument, its financial consequences and the potential impact of higher standards of protection on the competitiveness and employability of women workers.
The responses to the ILO survey highlight a number of important challenges for drafters of the revised Convention and Recommendation, including the impact of maternity protection on current law and practice, the financing of maternity benefits, the extent of protection against dismissal for pregnant women and young mothers and the consequences of revisions on such institutions as social security and health care systems, which are fragile in many member States.
The proposed scope of coverage also figured in the replies to the questionnaires. The vast majority of governments, as well as employer and worker organizations, supported the principle of maternity coverage for all employed women. Some favoured provisions allowing for flexibility in order to permit exclusions "in situations in which application to limited categories of workers and enterprises would raise special problems of a substantial nature". Many others argued that any exclusions should be"strictly interpreted and limited to exceptional cases".
The proposed conclusions that will furnish the basis for discussion and debate within the Conference Committee, contain proposals for the provision of maternity leave and benefits, and recommends adoption of appropriate measures "to ensure that maternity does not constitute a source of discrimination in employment".
Other Items
The Conference will elect the new members of the ILO Governing Body on 7 June. The period of office of the Governing Body is three years. Elections will be held to select the 18 Governments which have elective seats and the 14 employer and 14 worker members of the Governing Body. Ten out of the total of 56 members of the Governing Body are appointed by member States of chief industrial importance holding permanent seats. *
On Tuesday, 8 June, there will be an informal tripartite meeting at the ministerial level: Let’s make gender equality a reality. The meeting, to be held in the afternoon, will be addressed by Her Excellency Mrs. Ruth Dreifuss, President of the Swiss Confederation.
On Wednesday, 9 June an informal ministerial meeting will address the issue of ILO action with regard to financial crises.
On Thursday, 10 June, in the afternoon, there will be a Special Sitting on the situation of workers in the occupied Arab Territories.
A general discussion on the role of the ILO in technical cooperation will also take place in the Technical Cooperation Committee.
The plight of migrant workers will be taken up in the general discussion of the Committee on the Application of Standards.
Standing items
The standing items include reports of the Chairman of the Governing Body and information and reports on the application of Conventions and Recommendations.
An annual event, the International Labour Conference is expected to draw nearly 3,000 delegates, including labour ministers and leaders of worker and employer organisations from most of the ILO’s member States. Each formal delegation is composed of four delegates, two representing the government, and one each representing employers and workers, plus advisers.
The role of the Conference is to adopt international labour standards, establish the budget of the Organization and elect members of the ILO Governing Body. Since 1919, the Conference has served as a major international forum for debate on social and labour questions of worldwide importance.
*Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States