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A pioneering ILO global report calls for
more widespread respect for rights at work
Intimidation, threats and even murder still await many workers who attempt to organize in a number of countries around the world. So says a new ILO report, Your Voice at Work 1, released in May. Although freedom of association and the effective right to collective bargaining have been recognized as fundamental rights and principles by the 175 member States of the International Labour Organization (ILO), "we are still a long way from universal acceptance of these fundamental principles and rights in practice", the report says, adding that, "Governments, as guardians of democracy, need to do more than pay lip service" to them.
Manifest violations of freedom of association highlighted in the Global Report, include outright prohibitions on trade unions, murder of trade unionists, physical assaults, arrests and detentions, forced exile, and violations of trade union premises and property. Employers have also had their rights to organize and bargain curtailed in some countries.
"A global economy in which people do not have the right to organize will lack social legitimacy", said Mr. Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO. "People organizing themselves to make their voices heard", he added, "exercise a fundamental human right and the most important development right."
"Commitments made by governments at the 1995 Copenhagen Social Summit and in the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work reflect political consensus on the need to respect fundamental principles and rights at work, and a growing acceptance that these are the social underpinnings of the global economy", said Mr. Somavia. "The fact that information on respect for these rights, as well as on violations, is now more freely available - making a Global Report of this kind possible - is necessary to achieve progress."
The report points out that whole categories of workers "remain either uncovered or specifically excluded from legal protection". In some countries, national legislation either fails to cover agricultural workers or denies them the right to organize; domestic workers - overwhelmingly women - are often denied the right to organize; and migrant workers are seriously restricted in forming or joining trade unions or are effectively prohibited from holding office in them.
After agriculture, the public sector includes the largest numbers of workers whose rights to organize and bargain collectively are restricted. The right to strike also remains very limited in many parts of the world.
Finally, the report points out that state-sponsored and controlled single trade union structures endure in some countries, where "the right to form and join organizations freely", be they workers' or employers' organizations, comments the ILO report, "is not compatible with single-party rule."
Follow-up to the Declaration
The Global Report - the first of its kind ever published - forms part of the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Adopted in June 1998, the Declaration commits the ILO's 175 member States to respect the principles inherent in four sets of core labour standards and promotes their universal observance. All member States have an obligation to respect the fundamental principles involved, whether or not they have ratified the relevant ILO Conventions. The follow-up mechanism provides for an annual review 2 of the situation in countries that have not ratified one or more of these "core" Conventions 3 and a Global Report drawn up under the responsibility of the Director-General.
Global Reports will cover, each year in turn, one of the four sets of "core" principles. After freedom of association and collective bargaining this year, future reports will focus on forced labour (2001), child labour (2002) and discrimination in employment (2003). The process will then start over again.
"The key enabling right"
Your Voice at Work stresses "the right to organize is the key enabling right and the gateway to the exercise of a range of other rights at work". Positive developments facilitated by the ILO have been achieved through consultation with, and cooperation between, governments, employers and workers. Examples include Chile, Indonesia, Mozambique, Poland and South Africa. They underline the extent to which "the consolidation of democracy and expanded freedom of association go hand in hand".
Calling for action on the part of workers, employers and governments to turn promises to respect these rights into reality, the ILO report concludes by outlining three interrelated priorities:
Impact of globalization
Over the past 30 years, vastly increased financial flows, the integration of markets and the liberalization of trade, have served to intensify competition between and within countries. "Long-established practices and deeply felt values are being tested against the criteria of survival in a fiercely competitive global market," notes the report, warning that "it is feared that these developments will place downward pressure on freedom of association and collective bargaining rights".
By affording capital with multiple exit options in today's globalized economy, the internationalization of production has, in some instances, seriously reduced the content and impact of collective bargaining. And while some have argued that such bargaining in these circumstances should be conducted at the international level, "there have been no significant advances in this direction", notes the report.
Recent developments have given rise to what the report calls a widening "representation gap" in the world of work. The growing segmentation of labour markets, the restructuring of production as a result, among other factors, of technological innovations and wide-scale privatizations have considerably reduced the size of the average production unit. More flexible work methods, the increasing recourse to subcontracting arrangements and part-time work make it more difficult to organize workers in the defence of their own interests.
The growth of the informal economy - more than 80 per cent of all new jobs in Latin America and 93 per cent in Africa during the 1990s - has likewise increased the proportion of workers without any form of collective representation.
Workers' and employers' organizations need to narrow the representation gap, by moving into the informal economy and the new economy where the jobs are going", said Somavia. "That means modernizing their methods of work, to better meet the changing needs of their constituents, new and old. The ILO's task is to help."
These changes, the report points out, have had "an inherent gender dimension". Women form "the majority of workers in subcontracted, temporary or casual work, part-time work and informal occupations". As a result, "more women than men are in unorganized and unprotected jobs which lack security of tenure", perpetuating poverty in families.
The ability of women to exercise freely their rights to join trade unions and have their interests represented on a par with those of their male colleagues is vital to the achievement of both gender equality and trade union strength", says the report, underlining that "not only should women take their place at the negotiation table but gender issues will have to be made more explicit during the collective bargaining process to ensure that any agreement reflects the priorities and aspirations of both women and men".
The report was debated by delegates to the ILC on 6 June. In responding to the debate, the Director-General commented, "The Global Report drew both praise and criticism... [Its] analysis was seen by some speakers as unidimensional and partial since it singled out sectors and countries. On this point, it is difficult to see how the Office can do credible reporting unless countries are identified and facts are stated."
1 Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work: Your voice at work, International Labour Office, Geneva, 2000, ISBN 92-2-111504-6. Price: 20 Swiss francs. Web site: www.ilo.org/voice@work.
2 The first annual review was released on 8 March 2000. See press release ILO/00/4, of the same date.
3 Freedom of association and collective bargaining (No. 87 and 98); Forced labour (Nos. 29 and 105); Non-discrimination (Nos. 100 and 111); and Child labour (Nos. 138 and 182).
Special ILO representative for cooperation with
Colombia to be appointed by Director-General
GENEVA - The ILO Governing Body has asked Director-General Juan Somavia to appoint a Special Representative for cooperation with Colombia to assist in and verify the actions taken by the Government, and employers' and workers' organizations to implement ILO Recommendations, following widespread acts of violence against trade unionists over the past decade.
The move was taken following consideration of the report of a direct contacts mission carried out in Colombia from 7 to 16 February 2000.
The Special Representative will report regularly through the Director-General to the Governing Body, "on the general situation in the country as it affects trade union rights and the security of trade unionists", and on progress achieved in the implementation of a series of recommendations made by the ILO's supervisory bodies.
In its report, the mission concluded that, "the number of assassinations, abductions, death threats and other violent assaults on trade union leaders and unionized workers in Colombia is without historical precedent". According to the Colombian Government, during the period 1991-1999 there were 593 assassinations of trade union leaders and unionized workers while the National Trade Union School holds that 1,336 union members were assassinated.
As regards the perpetrators of violence against trade union leaders, "the vast majority of such acts are committed by the paramilitaries, to a much lesser extent by the guerilla groups and, in some cases, by the members of the security forces", says the report. The number of proceedings against the perpetrators and instigators of the assassinations which "result in sentences are very few and only exceptionally is it possible to clarify the facts, identify those responsible and apply the appropriate legal sanctions".
The mission also established that the Government had earmarked "considerable human and financial resources for a programme for the protection of human rights' defenders which has extended to a certain number of trade union leaders". This programme includes security systems and bodyguard services for threatened trade union leaders and services to safeguard trade union premises. In 1998-99 there was a considerable reduction in the number of trade union leaders and unionized workers assassinated in comparison with 1996-97, but assassinations nevertheless continue to be a "regular feature", says the mission report.
The mission finally drew the attention to the importance of the "Plan Colombia", the peace process initiated by the Government with the insurgent forces, "supported without reservation by the country's employers' and workers' organizations and by the whole of society, which has reasonable chances of success and which deserves the full support of the international community and of the ILO".
In other matters, the Committee on Freedom of Association considered a complaint against the Government of China presented by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) concerning allegations of physical assaults and detention of labour activists; imprisonment for attempts to establish independent trade union organizations or to carry out activities for the defence of workers' interests.*
The Committee recalled that "several provisions of the [Chinese] Trade Union Act are contrary to the fundamental principles concerning the right of workers without distinction whatsoever to form and join organizations of their own choosing without previous authorization and the right of trade unions to establish their constitutions, organize their activities and formulate their programmes".
The Committee urged the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure the immediate release of a number of trade unionists. It also reminded the Government that, "workers should enjoy the right to peaceful demonstration to defend their occupational interests and that the authorities should resort to the use of force only in situations where law and order is seriously threatened".
The Committee requested the Government to examine the possibility of a direct contacts mission by the ILO.
* 322nd Report of the Committee on Freedom of Association: Colombia (GB.278/3/2) and Report of the Officers of the Governing Body (GB.278/4), 278th Session. International Labour Office, Geneva, June 2000.