The ILO and workers (available in Acrobat PDF format only)

  Promoting workers' rights and interests
  Workers at the ILO: equal and active partners
  Workers activities
  The Active Partnership Policy

  Summary of the 2000-2001 programme

 Support for the Workers' group and relations
Institution-building and general workers' education  
 Trade unions and globalization 
 To Strengthen Workers' Participation in the UN System and impact on the Bretton Woods institutions 
 Promotion of standards and follow up to the Declaration 
 Workers in the informal sector 

THE ILO Bureau for Workers' activities (ACTRAV)

Promoting workers' rights and interests

The preamble to the Constitution and the Declaration of Philadelphia lays down the basic mandate of the International Labour Organization: universal and lasting peace can only be established if it is based on social justice and the improvement of conditions of labour which are essential to the attainment of social justice. Thus the promotion of the rights, interests and conditions of workers is at the heart of the ILO's mandate.

To achieve its goals, the ILO was founded as a tripartite organization, meaning that it brings together representatives of governments, employers and workers - on an equal footing - in order to discuss the major issues related to the world of work and to promote the common welfare.

Since the founding of ILO in 1919, the trade union world has recognized the importance of this collaboration, which is made necessary by the immense range and complexity of problems of the world of work. Trade unions also rely on the ILO as a support for their domestic action and as the key point of contact at the international level.

Four major international trade union organizations have been granted consultative status with the ILO and participate actively in its work. These are: the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the Organization of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU).

Workers at the ILO: equal and active partners

The International Labour Conference, held annually in June, functions as a veritable International Parliament of Labour. Each national delegation includes one worker delegate, one employer delegate and two government representatives. The former are nominated by the government in agreement with the industrial organizations which are most representative of the workers or employers, respectively, in each country.

The workers' delegates nominate one of their own group as Vice-President of the Conference. The Conference has several major tasks: working out and adopting of international labour standards; approving the work programme and the budget for the International Labour Office (the ILO's secretariat); providing a forum for the discussion of important social and labour questions; providing guidelines for the Organization's policy and future activities.

In the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization, 14 workers members sit alongside the 14 employer members and the 28 government members. The workers' Governing Body members are elected for a three-year term at the International Labour Conference, as are the employer members. The Workers' group of the Governing Body elects a Chairman of the group and a Secretary. The Governing Body meets three times a year. It directs the activities of the ILO secretariat: the International Labour Office. Among the Governing Body responsibilities are discussion, adoption and submission to the Conference for approval of the biennial Programme and Budget; setting the agenda for the Conference and for other meetings; taking note of the decisions of meetings and deciding what action should be taken.

The tripartite structure is also found at regional ILO conferences in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe where member States meet to discuss specific problems of their regions. Workers' representatives sit on all the major standing and ad hoc Sectoral Committees of the ILO where questions of special concern to workers in major industries (iron and steel, petroleum, inland transport, etc.) are dealt with. Workers are represented in working groups and committees which handle specific problems in various sectors. Workers are also active in expert meetings.

Workers activities

The ILO Bureau for Workers' activities (ACTRAV) coordinates all office activities concerning workers' organizations at Headquarters and in the field. ACTRAV operates with the following main objectives:

• To support the establishment of free, independent and democratic workers' organizations;
• to encourage the organization of workers and strengthen their capacity to participate in decision-making processes in order to defend and promote their interest;
• to ensure that ILO projects and programmes address the needs of workers and their organizations and to promote the active involvement of trade union in the activities of the ILO.

Staffed mainly by officials drawn from the ranks of trade unions, the Bureau for Workers' activities maintains, strengthens and develops relations between the ILO and the workers and their organizations at the international, sectoral, regional and national levels. In particular, it keeps the Office informed of developments in the trade union world and ensures its support to workers and their organizations in pursuing the aims and activities of the ILO. It provides assistance to workers' delegates to the Conference, the Governing Body, regional conferences, meetings of consultative committees and sectoral industrial committees. It provides the Secretariat to the Workers group at ILO meetings, seminars and conferences, and assures liaison between the workers' organizations and the ILO's technical services.

An important component of the work of the Bureau for Workers' activities consists of the organization of seminars, workers' education and other training activities, particularly on ILO standards, economics, collective bargaining, gender issues, occupational safety and health, the environment and, training methods. These activities are supported by action-oriented research, the dissemination of information and the development of guides and manuals. Advisory services and training programmes are specially designed for workers' organizations in the rural sector and specific activities are carried out to encourage the participation in union activities of such groups as women, young people and migrant workers.

The Active Partnership Policy

The aims of the Active Partnership Policy are to bring the ILO closer to its tripartite constituency in member States and to enhance the coherence and quality of the technical services provided to them within the mandate of the Organization and in pursuit of their common objectives. A key element of this policy has been the establishing of multidisciplinary teams at the regional level in order to enable the ILO to respond rapidly to requests for assistance, technical or otherwise, from its constituents.

In the framework of the new policy of active partnership, special assistance is being provided to trade unions in order to help modernize and streamline their methods of action and to strengthen their tripartite responsibilities in industrial relations and collective bargaining. The provision of advice and assistance concerning the implementation of international labour standards, and particularly the fundamental ILO Conventions relating to basic human rights, is a high priority. A number of Senior Specialists for workers' activities have been posted in the multidisciplinary teams. They have special responsibility to encourage the involvement of workers and their organizations in the activities of the ILO, putting particular emphasis on socio-economic issues such as structural adjustment, privatization, tripartism, collective bargaining, unemployment, human resource development, migration, environment and occupational health and safety and gender questions. In additions, they help to ensure that related ILO projects and programmes address the needs of workers and their organizations in a timely and relevant way.

Summary of the 2000-2001 Workers' Activities Programme

Support for the Workers' group and relations. Assistance will continue to be provided to the Workers' group at the Governing Body and the Conference and to Workers' delegations to other ILO meetings. Trade unions throughout the world will be kept informed of ILO activities, programmes and policies through a regular supply of communications and publications. This work will be supported by representation of the ILO at trade union meetings and conferences. In addition, the Director-General and programme managers will be kept informed of trade union policies and priorities. As a result of these activities, the concerns and priorities of the trade union movement will be reflected more fully in ILO policies and programmes.

Institution-building and general workers' education. Technical assistance will be supplied for the establishment and strengthening of workers' education infrastructures, which will be set up in an increasing number of trade unions and will extend their coverage, for example to the organization of campaigns to increase membership. The support provided will include training for trade union instructors and the publication of Labour education. Another priority will be to assist trade unions overcome their communication deficit in relation to national and transnational enterprises through the adoption of new communication technologies and the improvement of their access to information, including ILO databases. Regional and international networks of trade union research staff with expertise in the identification and interpretation of information and distance learning techniques will continue to be developed. Emphasis will be placed on maximizing the involvement of women workers and mainstreaming gender and equality concerns.

Trade unions and globalization. The support provided to national and international trade union organizations in this area will be designed to help them influence the process of globalization. Research will be carried out on policy options and institutional arrangements that can be proposed by trade unions to improve the governance of globalization and ensure that its economic benefits are more broadly distributed. Training will be provided on economic policy and industrial relations practices adapted to the new situation. Meetings will be organized bringing together trade unions, policy-makers and representatives of international organizations, including the Bretton Woods institutions.

International Symposium to Strengthen Workers' Participation in the UN System and impact on the Bretton Woods institutions. The purpose of this Symposium would be to discuss the evolution in the relationship between trade unions and relevant sections of the UN system; to discuss the implications of proposals to introduce greater social partner involvement in organizations like WTO; to devise strategies that maximize the benefits for workers from the more receptive attitude to dialogue with trade unions at the highest levels in the IMF and World Bank; to influence IMF/World Bank policy positions on core labour standards and social issues and to translate them into concrete programmes and action involving both the Bretton Woods institutions and the trade union movement; and, to consider ways of sensitizing other international financial institutions and other relevant agencies in the UN system to the importance of core labour standards, trade union rights and the economic policies being advocated by the international trade union movement.

Promotion of standards and follow up to the Declaration. Based on the training and information activities undertaken, more trade unions will develop structures and courses to train their staff and members on international labour standards and will play a more active role in promoting the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and is urging their governments to ratify and apply ILO Conventions. Through the technical assistance supplied, action to combat child labour will be designed and implemented, campaigns will be launched among trade union members, and direct assistance will be provided to advance the abolition of child labour, including the removal of working children from work and their rehabilitation.

Workers in the informal sector. Technical assistance will focus on developing a coherent and systematic approach to incorporating the interests of informal sector workers in trade union action. Based on this support, trade unions will provide services for informal sector workers in such areas as education, vocational training, legal assistance, self-help schemes and social protection. Information campaigns will also be launched for trade union members on the need to protect the rights and improve the conditions of workers in the informal sector.