Report of the Group of Workers' Representatives at the
35th Meeting of the Technical Committee of Cinterfor/ILO
Brasilia, 30 August to 1 September 2001

The Group of Workers’ Representatives:

1.  Applauds the achievement of the ILO in consecrating a concept of decent work that synthesises the main aspirations and concerns that have been expressed by our sector over time in all forums in which we have been able to do so.

2.  We agree that decent work is the government’s responsibility, although we reiterate that in a democratic society the civil society’s participation in the preparation, execution and control of public policies must be assured, through social dialogue that turns the concept into deeds.

3.  We acknowledge once again that education is an essential component in the development of human beings. Therefore, international agencies such as Cinterfor/ILO must encourage governments to strengthen or set up a process ensuring democratic access to education.

4.  Our conception of education and integral vocational training is based on the historical and constitutional values of the labour movement: social justice, equality, solidarity, respect for diversity, freedom of opinion, expression and organisation, and recognition of knowledge as collective production, inter alia.

5.  As has been pointed out in earlier meetings, most of the problems linked to vocational training are still unresolved:

a.vocational training as a right of workers is not recognised in several of our countries;
b.there are still obstacles to exercising this right where it is recognised, due to lack of domestic policies on vocational training;
c.there are not enough institutional mechanisms to ensure participation of workers in designing these policies;
d.existing vocational training programmes are the result of scattered initiatives that, besides not taking into account our aspirations and needs, do not attenuate the serious problem of unemployment;
e.there is little progress in the articulation of vocational training with other levels of the educational system;
f.although there are some cases of vocational training bargaining in collective agreements, no auspicious levels have been reached in this regard;
g.there is still a supply of vocational training courses that have no real link to the working world.

6.  We believe that much of this situation would be overcome if governments and employers were to support our historical claim to participation in the preparation and enforcement of public policies.

7.  Our countries continue to be entrenched in applying economic policies that increasingly prevent us from reaching the ideal of decent work.

8.  Integration processes, more advanced or less so, do not escape those same policies. This aggravates the general situation because business issues have been given priority over the quality of life of our peoples and lead to greater unemployment and, therefore, more poverty and social exclusion.

9.  The ILO, through Cinterfor/ILO, has provided technical and financial resources to the countries of the continent so that the various players could strengthen or initiate vocational training actions to support the development of labour and technological organisation models. In the last few years, this development has been becoming more dynamic and acquiring greater depth, thus demanding not only greater resources but also a response in real time.

10.  Within this framework we must highlight the intellectual, technical and financial efforts of Cinterfor/ILO in the search for solutions to this problem. We firmly believe that the situation described would be more unjust if we could not count on this contribution. However, we are also convinced that if government and business representatives here present should decide to increase their commitment to the values and principles that sustain the dignity of labour, the facts would change.

11.  In the light of these reflections and its statements on previous occasions, the workers’ group thus proposes:

a.  Promoting actions that allow knowledge on educational policies in general and vocational training in particular to be broadened and consolidated and be provided to workers’ representations in order that they may intervene in bargaining in all forums and at every level necessary. To do so we propose that, in concert with Cinterfor/ILO and other agencies, we prepare a biennial plan that complies with the following agenda:

participation of workers in the management of vocational training resources, programmes and bodies;

vocational training in bargaining;

vocational training in integration processes;

articulation of vocational training with education.

b.  Promoting actions and initiatives among different players in order to seek social dialogue, in accordance with the 88th Meeting of the International Labour Conference of the year 2000.

c.  Fulfilling integrally the guidelines proposed and approved by the Technical Meeting of the Workers’ Group in the year 2000, in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

12.  Lastly, we suggest to the ILO Council of Administration that it establish criteria to assure that workers continue to be represented in this type of specialised technical meetings, encouraging the expansion of new delegations.

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