Workers' Group Members on Employment

Mr. S. Ito, Worker Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Employment and Social Policy of the ILO Governing Body:

The Director-General has chosen the realization of "decent work" as a primary objective from the start of his office. He has been taking concrete measures for its realization. I esteem highly these efforts of the Director-General; I support also his statement that freedom of association is the strongest means by which to highlight the value of the ILO. 

The ILO was established in 1919, after the First World War, to improve the living conditions and social status of workers. Based on a belief that the eradication of poverty should lead to the stability of the world and thus prevent world wars, the ILO has worked very hard for the improvement of the social status of workers by adopting international standards for the protection of workers, and for the reduction of working hours.

Less than 20 years after the creation of the ILO, the Second World War broke out. During this war, many governments were aware that the lack of a democratic system for the improvement of working conditions was a cause of this war. This is why the ILO Conference of Philadelphia in 1944, just before the end of the war, declared that the existence of a democratic system in every country should be the most effective means to achieve world stability and peace, and agreed that the trade union should be an essential element for the development of a democratic society. The Conference stated also, that there should be a clear commitment to guarantee freedom of association for workers. This commitment is the Declaration of Philadelphia, a Declaration for democracy in the world.

In response to the Declaration of Philadelphia, Conventions Nos. 87 and 98 were adopted in 1948 and 1949 respectively; the other core Conventions concerning the elimination of discrimination, forced labour and the elimination of the worst forms of child labour were adopted after the Second World War.

Some 50 years have passed since adoption of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87). Although the world has not seen war break out again, we have seen the continuation of local conflicts that are caused by starvation and poverty.

After the Declaration of Philadelphia, and after the adoption of seven core Conventions, the ratification of these core Conventions has not made much progress; nor have these Conventions been fully respected, even by the ratifying countries. In order to break through this difficulty, the ILO Conference, in 1998, adopted the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up. The new Declaration has incorporated a mechanism to promote the application of these Conventions - the mechanism that was absent in the Declaration of Philadelphia. 

In the last 80 years, the ILO has been working, not only to establish standards for better working conditions, but also to apply them. In this respect, I think the recent important achievement has been the adoption of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), concerning immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. By demanding immediate and concrete action to abolish the worst forms of child labour, this Convention may have opened new possibilities for ILO Conventions. I think that what is expected of the ILO today is concrete and effective action, such as that seen with respect to Convention No. 182.

This session of the Conference has examined the Global Report, which covered the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98); it was presented under the follow-up to the new ILO Declaration. The discussion of the Global Report will be analyzed at the ILO Governing Body in November this year, and concrete measures will be proposed to promote the application of these two Conventions. It may reveal the need to establish a new supplementary instrument that would guarantee the effective application of these two Conventions, such as that for Convention No. 182.

As said by the Director-General, the ILO was created for workers with a view to ending starvation and poverty. In order to achieve these objectives, the full application of the core Conventions is a vital need. I would end my speech by emphasizing again that the freedom of association should be fully respected in every country.

The 88th session of the International Labour Conference, 2000

Mr. M. Blondel, Worker Vice-Chairperson of the Programme, Financial and Administrative Committee of the Governing Body of the ILO, referring to the replies given by the Deputy Director-General to the questions raised by the Workers on standards, took the floor once again to specify that it was not enough merely to refer to the numbers of the Conventions to meet their concerns which were of a much wider nature. They felt that attention should be drawn to the fact that standards constituted the "backbone" (a term used by a number of Government representatives) of the Organization's work. For instance, when reference was made to boosting the development of SMEs in paragraph 75, it was to be understood that this should be undertaken within the framework of existing texts and that SMEs should also commit themselves to applying the standards. Striving for efficiency should not lead to laxity, because that would result in a situation of total deregulation -- to which the Workers' group was opposed. On the same lines, when reference was made to decent work, this implied that when enterprises created jobs, these should be decent jobs and not conditions of slavery. It was for this reason that the Workers' representative wondered why there was no reference to Convention No. 122 and other Conventions concerning employment in the chapter devoted to this issue. During the preliminary unofficial discussions, the issue had been raised of whether to include fundamental principles and rights at work in the envelope of technical programmes. It was the Workers' group that had suggested to restore the Declaration within the framework of standards, because the Workers did not want fundamental principles and rights to overshadow the rest of the ILO's standard-setting action. It was in this spirit that the Workers had insisted on the concept of the type of employment. In this respect, the speaker was pleased that Mr. Marshall had taken up this concept which had also been agreed upon by consensus at the Conference. Returning to the term of "slavery" that he had used earlier in his statement, the speaker pointed out that this was a matter of terminology. Making very young children work was also a form of slavery. Finally, referring to Mr. Tapiola's statement, he made the following observations. The Workers were not satisfied to learn that the Steering Committee of IPEC would meet after the Governing Body. They felt that there should be a mechanism able to report to the Governing Body. Furthermore, the Workers' group would like to have more details on the organization of IPEC, especially on the use of the donors' money. If it were not possible to provide the details requested at the meetings of this Committee, this should be done at the meetings of another committee. The details they wanted concerned revenue, the donors' money and the operating of IPEC. The Workers did not want to have to wait until after the Governing Body was over to be informed on these matters.

276th session of the Governing Body of the ILO, November 1999

Mr. Wojcik, member of the Governing Body of the ILO: It is certain that one of the key goals of the Organization, repeatedly confirmed in a number of the ILO's Declarations and documents, is the promotion of employment and the fight against poverty. Labour markets in different countries are very difficult to compare, and even sometimes absolutely incomparable, due to the different political and economic systems. Thus, the set of Key Indicators of Labour Markets (KILM) has been established and it seems to me to be one of the most important achievements in this particular area. I believe that further intensive work should be developed in this desirable direction. One can make globalization processes go faster or slower, but the action in the chosen direction should be founded on well-justified arguments. Easy access to the systematically updated KILM data should encourage member States to provide reliable input for these databases and to improve labour market standards. A regular and reliable set of labour market indicators is of exceptional importance for planning and decision-taking on all economic and social issues.

Poland, like all the other Central Eastern European countries is, still struggling to eradicate unemployment, which is not only a burden on the State but also creates social frustration, causes deprivation - especially of the youth - and, lastly, threatens social peace. It is my deep conviction that the high level of unemployment throughout the whole of the past decade is not solely a result of the transformation from the communist to the market system. It was also caused by naive beliefs that a liberal approach to the economy could overcome all the ailments of the former system and can provide the driving force for economic and social development.

Today, after ten years of transformation, we can say with absolute certainty that this liberal approach has been shown to be absolutely worthless. The State cannot leave its own citizens on their own. The transformation of an economy from the communist to the market system cannot take place in the same way as mankind has gone from the feudal to the early capitalistic system.

The role of the ILO is not exclusively to create standards of work, but also to promote them amongst the constituents, and to help member States to avoid crucial mistakes on their way to economic and social development. I hope that the ILO will actively fulfill its mandate, particularly in the transition countries.

The 88th session of the International Labour Conference, 2000

Mr. K. Ahmed, Worker Vice-Chairperson of Board of the International Institute for Labour Studies, member of the Governing Body of the ILO: The Director-General in his Report to the Conference stresses the need to provide "decent work" for each male and female on page 13 and defines it as productive work "in the sense that all should have full access to income-earning opportunities. It marks the high road to economic and social development, a road to which employment, income and social protection can be achieved without comprising workers' rights and social standards". Nobody can disagree with this noble goal, since employment provides an individual with self-respect, self-fulfilment, self-reliance and an opportunity to contribute to the well-being of family, society and mankind as a whole with God- endowed capabilities. Work has been described as the noblest act by all reformers and the Prophet. Those who shirk work are a heavy burden upon the family, society and mankind as a whole. But it is the duty of the State to provide productive, remunerative and freely chosen employment.

Is it not true that the Organization is committed to the establishment of international peace based upon social justice, the improvement of living and working conditions of working men and women, the respect of freedom of association since its founding in 1919 as well as declaring its reiteration of its commitment in the Declaration of Philadelphia that "labour is not a commodity" and "poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere"?

At present 900 million workers are either unemployed or underemployed. "As many as 250 million children worldwide are thought to be working, deprived of adequate education, good health and basic freedoms", according to page 15 of the Report. Some 250 million workers suffer accidents in the course of their work, and over 300,000 are killed. The rate of accidents and occupational diseases is ten times higher in developing countries. Two-thirds of the world's population below the poverty line are living in South Asia; 90 million migrant workers live outside their own country in search of better quality for life for themselves and their children.

According to the United Nations World Economic and Social Survey 1998, the total debt owed by developing countries for 1998 was US$269 billion, which is far higher than the inflow of labour sources to these countries. Such an aggravating situation in developing countries poses a challenge not only to policy-making, but also to the provision of decent work.

Therefore it calls for the establishment of an equitable international economic framework requiring the transfer of net resources to developing countries, based upon the establishment of just economic and financial systems, the granting of debt relief, the transfer of technology to meet the basic needs of the people and fulfilment of the commitment of the Social Declaration to transfer 0.75 per cent of their GDP to the developed world for the social development.

Otherwise the abject poverty, aggravating unemployment and social and economic suffering of the teeming masses will continue to rise. I stress this since this Organization has a mandate to remind all member States that the ILO has solemn obligations to further among nations world programmes, which will achieve full employment and raise living standards.

The Chairperson of the Governing Body in his report has also highlighted the social impact of globalization and the loss of the jobs on the workers. In such situations we believe the ILO should play a more active role with the collaboration of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to give a human face to privatization and structural adjustment since, in many countries, the rights of the workers are being flagrantly violated in the process of deregulation and privatization.

The ILO should be given more representation in the IMF Interim Committee and the World Bank/IMF Development Committee, in order to work out agreed priorities for joint action. We fully support this and also the promotion of ILO representation on fundamental and principal rights at work.

In such a world of turmoil we therefore urge that the ILO should not only extend and enlarge its technical assistance programme to the member States, but also to the social partners, in order to build their capacity to promote decent employment through the eradication of the scourge of child labour, the promotion of gender equality, improvement of working and living conditions of workers, the alleviation of the poverty of rural workers, in particular women, training and retraining, migration, workers' education, industrial relations, productivity, and the development of policies for the efficient use of manpower, the protection and promotion of fundamental rights of workers by strengthening the workers' organizations to meet the present and future challenge of the global economy, and organizing and helping the unorganized, including the informal and rural sector in order to have an effective voice in national social dialogue with the strength and knowledge.

The ILO, as the only international tripartite organization, has a major challenge ahead to integrate the social dimension in all its work in the new millennium and to bring to the United Nations system the social conscience of the world.

On this occasion we appreciate the work being carried out by the ILO in various departments, in the areas of workers' activities, employment and training, migration, industrial relations, gender equality, the improvement of conditions for workers, the Turin Centre, the International Labour Institute, international labour standards, disabled workers, cooperatives and the World Employment Report.

We therefore stress the need for the allocation of more resources to strengthen and help the workers' organizations in the fields of education and training, and for more ILO collaboration with them. We also appreciate the work of the Asia and Pacific Regional Office headed by Ms. Horiuchi, and the Islamabad area office.

Finally, we strongly demand that the instruction imposed by the Government of Pakistan on WAPDA and KESC workers to suspend their trade union rights should be withdrawn in conformity with the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), ratified by the Government of Pakistan.

We hope that the other member States which have not ratified the core international labour Conventions will come forward to ratify these, when we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Convention No. 98.

We wish the Conference every success in bringing a positive, better tomorrow for working classes worldwide, in raising their dignity and in improving their quality of life.

The 87th session of the International Labour Conference, 1999

Mr. C. Agyei, Worker Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Technical Cooperation of the Governing Body of the ILO: In my view, creating quality and sustainable jobs is one positive initiative that States can take towards alleviating poverty. But almost five years after the World Social Summit in Copenhagen, States have nothing much to show by way of honouring this important commitment they made at that Summit. As we prepare to enter a new century, it is disheartening to note that there is a disturbing trend towards the informalization of jobs, thus exposing workers to job insecurity and worsening poverty. There is, therefore, an urgent need for the ILO to sharpen its capacity to mobilize resources which will enable it to provide the required technical assistance to member States in their job creation endeavours. ILO technical assistance would also be needed to boost trade union efforts at organizing informal sector workers. Furthermore, trade union organization of information sector workers would position such workers to bid for social protection as well as become part of the process of social dialogue.

On social development, I fully support the view that human beings should be seen as both means and ends for development. In other words, human beings are not only required to be deployed for development, they should also be made to enjoy the fruits of development. Therefore, social protection and dialogue should be essential elements in development. In this regard, member States' macroeconomic policy direction should target the elimination of joblessness which can lead to poverty alleviation.

At this juncture, it is pertinent for me to stress that whatever initiatives we might take at country level to improve our situation, they will fail to make the desired positive impact if debt crises in developing countries persist.

The ILO should therefore redouble its efforts to provide support to developing countries to engage in dialogue with international financial institutions for the development of debt relief arrangements.

For as long as a sizeable percentage of our export earnings remain committed to debt servicing, there is hardly any chance for the citizens of poor indebted countries to achieve economic development from which they can directly benefit.

It requires the collective effort of the social partners to strategize and develop policy institutions in our respective countries, to which these difficult economic and social issues can be addressed.

I am confident that the relevant proposals contained in the Director-General's Report can give the necessary impetus to our social and economic endeavours and I recommend support for these recommendations.

The 87th session of the International Labour Conference, 1999

Ms. P. O'Donovan, Worker Vice-Chairperson of the Resolutions Committee of 86th session of the International Labour Conference; member of the Governing Body of the ILO:

 The Workers' group fully supports the adoption of the report of the Resolutions Committee and the text of the resolution concerning youth employment.

As has been pointed out by our Chairperson, Mr. Castillo Cardona, the resolution concerning youth employment is the only one adopted by the Committee. The Workers' group deeply regrets that there was not a majority on the Resolutions Committee in favour of giving top priority to a resolution marking the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87). The Workers' group in the Committee had hoped that such a resolution would receive widespread support, as it would have presented an important opportunity to all the constituents of the ILO to reaffirm and renew their commitment to the most fundamental of all workers' rights -- the right to freedom of association. We hope that the fact that this did not happen will not be interpreted in any way as a lessening of support for this core Convention.

Even though the resolution concerning youth employment is the only one produced by the Committee, I believe that it is a significant contribution to the work of this Conference. The Workers' group in the Resolutions Committee recognized from the beginning the importance of this topic and worked constructively to build on the text of the Employers' resolution. Through the valuable process of tripartite discussion and negotiation, which this forum uniquely provides, the text of the resolution as adopted by the Committee is, I believe, a balanced text which takes fully into account the different perspectives of the tripartite constituents on this important topic. The Resolutions Committee had the benefit of an excellent presentation from Mr. Sengenberger, the Director of the ILO's Employment and Training Department, who informed the Committee of the important work of the ILO on youth employment and in particular on the Action Programme on Youth Unemployment. The findings of the policy studies and research undertaken by the Office provided some valuable insights and I believe ensured a very productive discussion in our Committee.

The resolution before you recognizes that youth employment is but one dimension of the global unemployment problem, which is experienced in different ways in all regions of the world. The resolution provides clear policy guidance to the tripartite constituents of the ILO on the topic of youth employment. The Workers' group wished to emphasize that education and training are integral to any effective strategy to tackle youth unemployment and that basic education and training must be freely accessible to all young people. We successfully introduced amendments to the text to cover these points.

The Workers' group in the Committee also sought to introduce into the resolution recognition of the diversity of the needs of young people and the need to focus in particular on disadvantaged youth. The experience in many of our countries is that the most successful training and employment programmes are those which are designed for and targeted at specific groups of young people, such as early school leavers, young women, youth from ethnic communities and youth from migrant families. I am very pleased that this concept is now contained in the resolution.

Operative paragraph 1 of the resolution contains a long list of issues on which governments, the ILO and its constituents are asked to act, both at national and at international level. It calls on all governments to implement a balanced economic growth strategy which will boost job creation. It further calls for more development assistance and technical cooperation for the poorer countries and recognizes the particular difficulties created for developing countries by structural adjustment programmes and the burden of international debt. Importantly, the resolution recognizes that supply-side measures are not sufficient on their own to solve the problem of youth unemployment.

The Workers' group was particularly concerned that some of the language in the original text of the resolution could be interpreted as implying the need to reduce the legislative and administrative protections in place for young workers. We are very pleased that the Committee accepted amendments from the Workers' group which stress the need for each country to develop a legislative and administrative framework to provide employment protection for young people; to reaffirm the relevance of ILO standards for the successful promotion of youth employments and to restate the importance of the right to freedom of association and protection against discrimination, particularly for young people.

The resolution underlines the importance of the ILO's activities on youth employment and conveys broad support for a further strengthening of its role. It calls for the creation of a database and the collection and dissemination of information on best practices in the area of youth employment initiatives. In operative paragraph 2 it urges the ILO to elaborate an international strategy for youth employment and to cooperate with other international organizations to ensure its effective implementation.

This resolution recognizes that young people, in both industrialized and developing countries, must be valued for their capacity to enrich the social, cultural, civic and economic life of all our countries. We all share the responsibility to ensure that this important resource is facilitated and encouraged to realize its full potential. If we fail to do that, we will all be the losers. Pushing back the tide of youth unemployment is one of the most effective ways of opening up opportunities for young people to play a positive and valuable role in society generally and in economic life in particular.

The 87th session of the International Labour Conference, 1999

Mr. Z. Rampak, Worker Vice-Chairperson of the Board of the International Training Centre of the ILO, member of the Governing Body of the ILO pointed to the hardship faced by workers because of the financial and economic crisis in Asia, which had already led to the loss of 30 million jobs, and emphasized that the workers did not share the IMF's opinion that the worst of the crisis was over. He urged the social partners and the ILO to take a proactive role to ameliorate the crisis. Action at the national level was needed to implement Commitment 3 of the Copenhagen Declaration adopted by the World Summit for Social Development, and ILO Convention No. 122, relating to the goal of full, productive and freely chosen employment. Country-specific distinctions needed to be made between unemployment and underemployment, taking account of prevailing standards of living and national aspirations of the individual countries. In the face of the "globalized economy", characterized by increasing disparities in incomes and living standards between the developed and developing countries, in which multinational enterprises played an influential role, ILO member States urgently needed to achieve a more workable balance between sustainability and growth. There was a need not just for more jobs, but for better jobs, paying adequate wages. In the wake of loss of employment and income, governments needed to control the cost of essential goods and services such as food, housing, transport, education and health care, to control profiteering and to eliminate monopolies.

While acknowledging the contribution of multinational enterprises in generating employment, he pointed out that more needed to be done to improve their compliance with core labour standards. Small and medium enterprises were also important in generating employment, and governments should create funds to promote their growth. In the context of creating quality employment, he advocated the creation of a fund to assist in training and retraining. The financial crisis had underlined the importance of social dialogue, and particularly consultation with workers, on issues such as enterprise restructuring through retraining as an alternative to the last resort of retrenchment. The tripartite National Economic Action Council of Malaysia offered a good example of such consultation.

The Workers' spokesperson supported the initiative of the Malaysian Government to safeguard jobs by controlling capital flows, and to reduce interest rates without risking currency depreciation. However, control over capital flows could provide only temporary relief and a new global financial architecture was needed to curtail the negative impact of currency speculators. The IMF's policies, on the other hand, by raising interest rates, reducing credit and eliminating jobs, neither created employment nor eradicated poverty. Moreover, the cost of IMF loans was very high and he urged other credit institutions such as the World Bank and the ADB to make more development funds available at an affordable cost. Overseas Development Assistance should be made available to countries that were in need of such support. He also called for transparency and accountability to the social partners in decision-making on development loans. 

ILO Asian Regional Consultation, Bangkok, 1999