The International Labour Organization and its
Standards
This booklet looks at the
different forms of ILO instruments and how they are formulated and adopted. In the case of
Conventions, which are international treaties, it also looks at how they are ratified and
supervised. Most importantly, it looks at the rights of workers and their trade unions to
participate in all these different stages at both national and international level. It
answers such basic questions as: “Our members are suffering from such and such a
problem; how can I bring this to the attention of the ILO? How can my union, or my
country’s worker delegates to the ILO, be involved in formulating a Convention? What
happens after a Convention is adopted? Ratified? How can I help ensure that the provisions
of a Convention are implemented?”
Remember, the value of the
Conventions and Recommendations described in these booklets depends very much on the
action taken to make them effective at national level. This booklet is therefore an
important introduction to the rest of the booklets in this series. However, while it
outlines the different possibilities available, it is up to you to decide on the best
means of achieving this, depending on local conditions, the way trade unions are organized
nationally, your international affiliations, and the willingness for real communication
between unions, government and employers.
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Environmental Indicators of Development
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This
booklet looks at some ILO standards which relate to environmental issues. It shows that,
although environmental issues are many and varied, the ILO’s major efforts in this
field are aimed at pushing for the widest possible ratification of Conventions on the
working environment, since well-managed health and safety programmes at the workplace can
make an important contribution to the protection of the environment. Trade unions have
also often made use of this working environment/general environment link to promote their
actions on environmental issues.
This booklet therefore looks
mainly — but not entirely — at some Conventions relating to occupational health
and safety. It divides such Conventions into those concerned with the general working
environment, those concerned with specific risks, such as chemicals, and those relating to
different sectors of industry or activity. It also looks at the Convention on Tribal and
Indigenous Peoples which recognises the special importance of lands, traditional
activities and the total environment to these peoples. |
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Political indicators of sustainable development
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This
booklet looks at some of the most important ILO instruments — those that deal with
human and trade union rights. It points out that these rights — to live, speak
and move freely, for example — are perhaps the most basic measurement of a
country’s commitment to environmentally sustainable development, for human rights,
development and the environment are closely interwoven.
It is no coincidence that some
of the world’s worst environmental problems have been identified in countries with
the worst record for observing human and trade union rights. Any country that knowingly
exploits and pollutes environmental resources for short-term gains will not think twice
about ignoring the rights of its citizens or repressing concerned workers and trade
unions.
Democracy, then, is the thread
which runs through this booklet. For us as trade unionists this means looking at those
Conventions that pursue the right to organize and promote our interests in freedom and
peace; the right to operate and negotiate on our members’ behalf; and the abolition
of forced labour. |
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Economic development and security
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This
booklet is about poverty and its resulting pressure on resources and ecosystems. It takes
up the point that the environmental pressures of poverty usually show up on a local scale
so it is the poor population which most directly suffers the consequences of degradation.
. . which encourages even more exploitation of resources. . . to the point where
environmental quality and poverty become ever more locked together in an increasingly
vicious circle.
This booklet, then, looks at
those ILO Conventions and Recommendations that promise to break this circle by helping to
put an end to poverty, through policies to enable individuals to maintain freely-chosen,
good quality employment with appropriate reward. A safe job with good working conditions
that allows a worker and his or her family to live in dignity as self-reliant individuals
should be a condition and a result of environmentally sustainable development.
Part of the drive to end
poverty will also concern social protection for those who cannot find work or who cannot
work because of sickness, disablity, old-age, maternity, etc. The booklet therefore also
considers those ILO standards that deal with the promotion of social security for workers
and their families. |
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Social development
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This
booklet looks at some ILO standards that may help you and your union promote its policies
on socially responsible development. If the primary goals of environmentally sustainable
development are freedom from poverty and secure livelihoods, as explained in the previous
booklet, then socially responsible development has to do with meeting the needs of an
increasing population, particularly in the areas of food, shelter, access to good water,
health and welfare, sanitation, energy in the form of fuel, education and transport, etc.
Failure to meet at least minimum standards in any of these areas is one of the major
causes of environmental degradation.
The ILO instruments chosen for
study in this booklet are those that will help you improve the living standards of your
members and thus help prevent further environmental degradation. |
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Equality of opportunity and treatment
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This
booklet looks at those ILO standards that deal with the employment rights and
opportunities for different sectors of the working community, for environmentally
sustainable development can only come about when every individual can have an active role
to play.
The booklet identifies several
groups which may have special needs in this area, including women workers, indigenous and
tribal peoples, children and younger workers, workers with disabilities, older workers,
ethnic minorities and migrant workers.
Through their management and
use of natural resources, and through their traditional wisdom and experience, all of
these groups have an important role to play in promoting environmentally sustainable
development. At the same time, they are often those most vulnerable to environmental
hazards and exploitation. Therefore, putting an end to discrimination, promoting tolerance
and mutual respect for the value of diversity, and recognising and enhancing the
participation role of these groups are the themes that run through the Conventions and
Recommendations found in this booklet. |
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Education and training
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This
booklet looks at some ILO standards that concern the promotion of broad systems of
education, vocational training and guidance and technical education.
It starts off from the premise
that education is a human right and an essential tool for achieving the goals of
environmentally sustainable development. It identifies several levels of education: basic
education for all; vocational training; development of skills; trade union education and
leadership training; and provision of information. A lack of access to any of these means
that many people are not aware of the close links between human and work activities and
the environment. More importantly for us as trade unionists, continuing trade union
education means that we are armed with the knowledge and skills to allow us to participate
fully both in defining environmentally sustainable policies and in bipartite and
tripartite decision-making bodies at all levels.
This need to promote
people’s capacities is reflected in many ILO Conventions and Recommendations. This
booklet, however, looks mainly at those which are devoted entirely to the promotion of
vocational training and guidance and technical education. |
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International development
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There
is no ILO Convention or Recommendation calling for international development and
cooperation in general, but this booklet looks at some Conventions that emphasise the need
for strengthened international coordination of policies and measures for cooperation
between States on different subjects. It also examines the “Tripartite Declaration of
Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy”, designed to
encourage the positive contribution that transnational corporations can make to economic
and social progress.
Most importantly, it discusses
the unique role that the ILO can play in monitoring the social effects of international
trade and the implementation of “social clauses” which seek to prevent trade in
goods that have been produced by workers in countries which refuse to apply such ILO
Conventions as those relating to basic worker rights.
It also looks at the importance
of Conventions that promote tripartite consultation and the role of unions in formulating,
adopting and enforcing international standards. |
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