"Trade union rights are human rights".
A monthly newsletter produced by the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities
N° 2/2001
May 23, 2001
Contents
Key issues for workers at International Labour Conference
ACTRAV team for the Conference
ILO Director General supports union call for UN Day
HIV/AIDS is a workplace issue: New ILO Code of Practice
ILO Director-General visits China
ILO supports Yugoslavia's social reconstruction efforts
ACTRAV webpages hit the mark
Forum on Freedom of Association in CIS countries
WCL high-level group discusses ILO Declaration
Distance training tested in Latin America
In Brief
ACTRAV Publications
Calendar
Key issues for workers at International Labour Conference
New standards to protect the health and safety of workers in agriculture,
a first discussion on a new international labour standard on the promotion
of cooperatives, a review of the workers’ rights situation in the world
and a general discussion on social security, these are among the key items
on the agenda of this year’s International Labour Conference which will
open in Geneva on June 5th, 2001. The situation in Burma - for which
the ILO has taken the unprecedented step to call on states, employers’
and workers’ organizations and other international organizations to review
their relations with that country on the ground of systematic use of forced
labour - will be discussed at a special sitting of the Conference’s Committee
on the Application of Standards. Discussions will also take place
on the situation in Colombia on the basis of the report by the ILO Director-General
Special Representative for cooperation with Colombia, and earlier calls
by trade unions for the setting-up of a Commission of Inquiry into the
continuing killings of unionists in that country. The Director-General
report to the Conference is entitled: "Reducing
the decent work deficit: A global challenge" (See summary)
Agriculture: Agriculture is one of the three most hazardous industries
(together with mining and construction). According to ILO estimates,
of 335,000 fatal workplace accidents worldwide, some 170,000 are among
agricultural workers. Millions more of the world’s 1.3 billion agricultural
workers suffer serious injury or illness in workplace accidents involving
machinery or are poisoned by pesticides and other agro-chemicals.
In the absence of any international labour standard dealing with the problems
of safety and health in agriculture, the Conference may adopt a convention
or a recommendation (see Report).
The workers’ group is strongly in favour of a Convention on health and
safety in this sector. “We hope this Convention will give workers in agriculture
new rights, rights which make us equal to workers in industrial sectors.
These rights must include the right to trade union safety representatives
and also the right to refuse dangerous work without being penalized”, a
representative from the International Union of Food and Agriculture Workers
(IUF) told participants at the ACTRAV-sponsored Commemoration for Dead
and Injured Workers on April 27th (see page 3).
Cooperatives: A first discussion will take place on a new international
labour standard on the promotion of cooperatives which will replace ILO
recommendation 127 on the “Role of Cooperatives in the Economic and Social
Development of Developing Countries”, adopted in 1966. Draft
conclusions prepared by the ILO as a basis for discussion suggest that
the new instrument would ask members to adopt measures to promote cooperatives
in all countries to create employment, develop their business potential,
increase savings and investment and improve social well-being. Members
should consider the promotion of cooperatives as one of the objectives
of national and social development and treat cooperatives on terms not
less favourable than those accorded to other forms of enterprise and social
organization. Workers’ representatives will be particularly attentive to
the inclusion of references to fundamental workers’ rights, to the concept
of “decent” employment and to the social, as well as economic role of cooperatives.
At a meeting organized by ACTRAV on April 4th, the International Cooperative
Alliance (ICA) and the Secretary of the Workers’ Group, Mr. Dan Cunniah,
agreed to maintain contacts between the ICA and the workers’ group during
the Conference. The ICA will also organize a briefing session for delegates
in the first days of the Conference.
Social Security: A report entitled “Social
security - issues, challenges and prospects” will serve as a basis
for a general discussion at the Conference. The report argues that social
security is a key element of decent work and addresses the problem of the
lack of any social protection for the majority of workers in many countries.
“There is no secret that for millions of workers in the developing countries,
deprived of any sort of social protection, the security “enjoyed” by workers
in the “North” is regarded with hope. Yet, this “security” is the
result of long lasting struggle and social dialogue in which trade unions
played a significant role, and this “security” remains fragile as reforms
at times become a recipe for dismantlement or disguised attacks to fundamental
rights”, reminds Manuel Simón Velasco, Director of ACTRAV, in an
Editorial of ACTRAV’s quarterly, Labour Education, to be published
on the eve of the Conference. The publication includes contributions from
the ILO and trade union experts on social security. “Although privatization
is sometimes presented as a panacea, there is no evidence that privatized
social security schemes would fare better than pay-as-you-go systems. In
fact, most of the contributors to this issue are questioning the reliability
of private schemes (without minimizing the problems facing the long-term
future of public systems). Most warn of the real dangers of making
social protection subject to the vagaries of the financial markets” says
Manuel Simón.
Global report on forced labour: The Conference delegates will
also discuss a global report, drawn up under the responsibility of the
Director-General, on the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory
labour. The report is part of the follow-up to the Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work adopted in 1998. The report is based
on information regarding observance of ILO Conventions 29 and 105.
While reference is made to the use of forced labour by Burma’s military,
it also points to the persistence of slavery in a handful of African countries,
coercive recruitment in parts of Latin American and the Caribbean, particularly
affecting indigenous populations, and to the prevalence of bonded labour
in South Asia. The report also raises the issue of trafficking in persons
which it labels as a “burgeoning phenomenon”. Prison labour is also
addressed in the report which suggests that while prison labour imposed
by the state is diminishing (except for countries like China specifically
referred to in the report), prison labour performed for private enterprises
is “rapidly expanding” in the face of the trend towards privatization.
A report to be published by the ICFTU on the eve of the Conference reminds
that prison labour is one of the 5 exemptions listed in the prohibition
of forced labour Convention No. 29. However, those exemptions are
subject to conditions, the ICFTU adds. While criticizing China and Russia
for extensive use of prison labour and poor conditions for working prisoners,
the report also expresses concern over prison privatization in the United
Stated, the United Kingdom and Australia where violations of the Convention
have been reported.
Application of Conventions and Recommendations: The Conference’s
Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations will call
directly upon governments to respond to a wide range of human rights and
other labour issues examined in the Report
of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations.
The workers’ group will seek responses and commitments from governments
in countries where abuses on rights are reported. A special sitting
on Burma will be held on the follow-up to last year’s Conference Resolution
which calls for all ILO constituents as well as international organizations
to review their relations with Rangoon. The Conference will also
examine the situation in Colombia on the basis of the report from the Special
Representative of the Director-General for Cooperation with Colombia.
A workers’ group demand for a Commission of Inquiry is still pending. Decision
will depend on developments in the country, in particular whether any improvement
in the situation has been registered since March of this year when Mr.
Albuquerque last reported to the Governing Body and when Colombian trade
unions announced their proposals for the setting-up in Colombia of a “Commission
of the Truth” to deal with violence in the country and address the key
problem of impunity.
ACTRAV team for the Conference
Committee on the Application
of Standards
Monique Cloutier (799 7696 - cloutier@ilo.org)
Safety and Health
Elizabeth Goodson (799 6187 - goodson@ilo.org)
in Agriculture
Ahmed Khalef (799 7087 - khalef@ilo.org)
Promotion of
Robert Kyloh (799 6402 - kyloh@ilo.org)
Cooperatives
Faith O’Neill (799 6150 - oneill@ilo.org)
Social Security
Frank Hoffer (799 8937 - hoffer@ilo.org)
Sergey Popello (799 8086 - popello@ilo.org)
Selection Committee
Manuel Simón Velasco (799 7688 - simonv@ilo.org)
Coen Damen (799 7710 - damen@ilo.org)
Credentials Committee
Coen Damen (799 7710 - damen@ilo.org)
Follow-up to the Declaration
Michael Sebastian (799 7018 - sebastian@ilo.org)
ILO Director-General supports union
call for UN Day
for Dead and Injured Workers
“You can count on my support to have this Commemoration day, April 28th,
proclaimed as a UN International Day for Dead and Injured Workers. This
will enable the international community to join trade unions all over the
world in paying tribute to the memory of those workers who lost their lives,
were injured or fell ill while working to create wealth”. This is
what ILO Director-General Juan Somavia told participants at the Commemoration
Day in Geneva. The Commemoration was organized by ACTRAV but for the first
time involved the whole of the ILO including government and employers'
representatives.
“I think that by taking the initiative to involve the whole of the ILO
in this event, ACTRAV has contributed to efforts made by the ICFTU, the
ITSs and national trade union centres to secure international recognition
for this Day and to mobilize public opinion on the need to improve health
and safety at work, to promote prevention and sustainable workplaces”,
said ACTRAV Director, Manuel Simón Velasco. The Commemoration
was attended by French Ambassador Philippe Petit, Mr. Dan Cunniah, Secretary
of Workers’ Group, Mr. Jean François Retournard, Director, Bureau
for Employers’Activities, Ms. Adwoa Sakyi from the General Agricultural
Workers’ Union (Ghana) representing the IUF, Ms. Fiona Murie, Director
for Health , Safety and the Environment at the IFBWW and Mr. Jukka Takala,
Director of the ILO’s Safework Department. At ACTRAV’s initiative, a yellow
and black ribbon was launched to symbolize the struggle for better health
and safety at the workplace. The Day of Commemoration has been observed
by trade unions worldwide since 1996 at the call of the ICFTU.
(See
interview on BBC)
HIV/AIDS is a workplace issue: New ILO
Code of Practice
Workers’ representatives participating in a tripartite meeting of experts
on HIV/AIDS and the workplace insisted on fighting discrimination and stigmatization
affecting HIV positive people at the workplace (including the prohibition
of pre-employment testing), the need to protect workers at risk and the
role of the workplace for prevention campaigns. The meeting which
took place on May 14-22nd discussed a draft
Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work. The objective of
this Code will be to promote decent work in the face of HIV/AIDS by preventing
and managing HIV/AIDS, mitigating its impact on the world of work and creating
a working environment where discrimination based on HIV/AIDS status is
eliminated. The aim of the code is “to protect the rights of all working
people against discrimination based on real or perceived HIV status,
safeguard jobs, increase productivity and profits for enterprises and promote
economic development” said ILO Executive Director, Mr. Assane Diop who,
together with the Ivory Coast Minister for the fight against HIV/AID, Ms.
Assana Outtara Sangaré, opened the meeting.
Participants were provided with information on ACTRAV activities on
this issue. Within the framework of an action plan to fight against HIV/AIDS,
ACTRAV engaged in collaboration
with national, regional and international trade union organizations,
a whole series of training, information and prevention activities.
A full report on ACTRAV activities will be prepared for the International
lLbour Conference. Pilot projects in three countries (Barbados, for
the Caribbean region, Botswana, for the African region, and the Philippines,
for Asia) are under way.
ILO Director-General visits China
Discussions between senior Chinese leaders and Juan Somavia, who was
on his first official visit to Beijing as ILO Director-General, resulted
in the signing, on May 17th, of a memorandum of understanding between the
Government of China and the ILO. According to Mr Somavia, the aim
of this agreement is to strengthen national policies in China for employment,
social dialogue and social protection, in line with internationally-recognized
principles and rights at work.
While welcoming China’s support for the ILO Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work, the ILO Director-General referred to the
need to take account of the organization’s supervisory bodies' concern
over workers’ rights not to be penalized for carrying legitimate trade
union activities, in the dialogue and cooperation “to promote our mutually
agreed objective of realizing the Declaration in China”. Mr Somavia handed
over to representatives of the Chinese Government a list of detained workers
whom the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association has asked to be released.
He also made reference to the fact that China has ratified neither Convention
87 on Freedom of Association nor forced labour conventions, all of which
form part of the Declaration. In this respect, he spoke of the concerns
expressed by expert-advisers charged with examining the annual reports
in the follow-up to the Declaration, namely information alleging the use
of forced labour in China. “We have defined common objectives. We have
recognized differences of perception. We have agreed that our collaboration
will progress through a constructive dialogue, inspired by a spirit of
mutual respect and understanding. It is my hope that this will generate
a participatory process of growing international harmonization and cooperation”,
Mr Somavia told a press conference in Beijing.
In the same spirit, a strengthening of democratic and representative
trade union movement and the promotion of the Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights and its follow-up also figure among the priorities
set by ACTRAV in a memorandum of understanding with the All-China Federation
of Trade Unions (ACFTU) signed earlier this month in Beijing at the end
of a two-day high level symposium on International Labour Standards.
This will be implemented through cooperation in the fields of training
for trainers, development of training material, awareness and education
for union leadership and assistance in developing and setting up structures
to facilitate social dialogue at the entreprise level, including collective
bargaining, as well as education, awareness and implementation of international
labour standards.
ILO supports Yugoslavia's social reconstruction
efforts
Efforts by Yugoslavia to reintegrate Europe in the social and economic
fields, in particular moves to improve labour legislation and apply ILO
standards, have received full support from the Geneva-based organization.
An ILO high-level mission visited the country on May 14-16 and discussed
issues related to social dialogue with the Government in the presence of
representatives from the social partners, including all major trade union
groups. The mission included a well-attended tripartite seminar. And an
ILO labour law specialist had talks with senior government officials concerning
the new labour code and ILO standards. Patricia O'Donavan, of the InFocus
Social Dialogue Programme and Elizabeth Goodson, from ACTRAV, took part
in the mission along with other ILO representatives in Geneva and Budapest.
Another ILO mission, this time on employment, followed immediately.
ACTRAV webpages hit the mark
With more than 65,000 hits per month, more than 2000 a day, the ACTRAV
webpages are among the most visited on the ILO website. The figures
show a 350% increase compared to September 2000 before the new site was
launched. Pages on codes of conduct for multinational companies and
on the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and
its follow-up are among the most visited. The ACTRAV website provides
an easy cross-cutting access to major information resources of ILO Departments
and Programmes and highlights strategic positions of the international
trade union movement.
Forum on Freedom of Association in
CIS countries
A major International Forum on Freedom of Association will take place
in Moscow on May 26-27th dealing with the situation of freedom of association
in the CIS countries. The meeting is co-sponsored by the ILO, the ICFTU
and the ITSs, with affiliates in the region, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center
and the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation. It will be attended by 250 people
from CIS countries. The Forum is expected to officially launch the ICFTU
EU-funded project “Trade Union Rights Monitoring Network and Cooperation
Building Between CEEC and NIS Trade Unions". The ILO delegation will be
led by Executive Director Kari Tapiola. ACTRAV will be represented at the
Forum by Mr. Frank Hoffer.
WCL high-level group discusses ILO Declaration
The role of trade union organizations in the follow-up to the ILO
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and their contribution
to the annual global reports, were key aspects of discussion in Geneva
during a visit to the ILO by a group of 25 senior trade union leaders from
affiliates of the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) in different parts
of the world. Discussions held with ACTRAV representatives and other
ILO officials will serve as a basis for the drafting of a WCL action plan
on international labour standards to be submitted to the organization’s
next congress in Bucarest (Romania), this October. This was the first
global seminar with the WCL as part of efforts to promote the ILO Declaration.
Distance training tested in Latin
America
For more than two months union experts from Argentina, Brazil, Chile
and Uruguay worked from their respective countries and PCs as part
of a distance training pilot project on “working cycle and health”. The
programme was organized by ACTRAV, the international training centre (Cinterfor)
and the multidisciplinary team in Santiago. A virtual “meeting room”
was installed for participants on the ACTRAV website where they could exchange
ideas and express their views of material made available to them. This
work enabled participants to identify needs for adaptation of existing
educational material available on CD-Roms. At an evaluation meeting on
May 7-9th in Montevideo, practical guidelines emerged as to ways of making
full use of new technologies in extending access to health and safety trade
union training and integrate those themes in the day-to-day work of trade
union organizations.
In Brief
Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) and the ILO: A seminar,
jointly organized by ACTRAV and the Social Finance programme of the ILO,
took place on May 4. It was entitled Investment, Employment and Decent
Work : Socially Responsible Investment and the ILO. Speakers examined present
trends in socially responsible investment, discussed pension funds and
looked at SRI from a trade union perspective. In the US socially
responsible investment by major financial institutions totals US$ 3.1 trillion,
roughly 13 % of total invested assets under management. SRI has grown tremendously
over the past few years and at twice the rate of total market capitalization.
Organizers of the seminar said that SRI could have far-reaching implications
for the work of the ILO. It holds the promise of influencing the application
of fundamental labour rights globally and complementing other ILO promotional
tools.
Nordic Folk High School 2001: About 40 trade unionists from the
Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) will be
following this year’s International Labour Conference. They are part of
the “Nordic Folk High School” which, with the exception of the years during
World War II, has attended every International Labour Conference since
1931. One of the reasons the Nordic trade unions traditionally have shown
interest and support for the work of the ILO is the fact that many of the
worker delegates have previously been participating in the Nordic School
and thus are well acquainted with the Organization.
Calendar
• May 31-June 1
Committee on Freedom of Association
• June 5-21
89th International Labour Conference
• June 22
281st Session of the Governing Body
ACTRAV Publications
• Decent Work and Vocational Training (“Trabajo decente y formación
profesional”), published in Montevideo by Cinterfor, examines the concept
of decent work from the perspective of an integrated approach of which
vocational training is a segment. This 17 page document exists only
in Spanish and English.
• Trade union organizations and the informal sector (“Las organizaciones
sindicales y el sector informal: reflexiones para la formación y
la acción”): analysis for training and action, written by Montserrat
Hurtado. This publication has been produced by ACTRAV and the ILO Office
for Latin America and the Caribbean as part of the project to strengthen
the trade union contribution to tripartite social dialogue and the economic
and social development in the region.
• Labour Education 120: Theme: Social Dialogue
• Labour Education 121: Theme: Social Security
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