98th ILO annual Conference elects officers

GENEVA (ILO News) – The 98th Session of the International Labour Conference, which will run here till 19 June, opened today, electing as its President Mr. Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Minister of Labour and Employment and Expatriates of Bangladesh.

Referring to the global economic and social crisis and the values that the ILO represents, the Minister said that “the situation needs a truly collective resolve, and a collective plan of action. At the heart of this must lie a concerted design to promote jobs and decent work. Otherwise, a global social recession will be difficult to avoid”.

The Conference elected as Vice-Presidents Mr. Samir Hassan Allam (Employers) and Mr. Jerald A. Zellhoefer (Workers). Mr. Allam is the Chair of the Labour Affairs Committee, Federation of Egyptian Industries, and Mr. Zellhoefer is the European Representative of AFL-CIO, United States.

Following a proposal of the President of the Conference, it decided to establish a Committee of the Whole on Crisis Response to discuss exit strategies to the global economic and social crisis.

The Conference will draw some 4,000 delegates and advisers, including government representatives and leaders of workers’ and employers’ organizations from the ILO’s 183 member States. Each member State has the right to send four delegates to the Conference: two from government and one each representing workers and employers, each of whom may speak and vote independently.