Subregional Labour Law Training

Background

The adoption of labour laws and regulations is an important means of implementing International Labour Organization (ILO) standards, promoting the ILO Declaration and the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and putting the concept of Decent Work into practice. To ensure national labour laws and regulations are consistent with ratified ILO conventions and aligned to fundamental principles and rights at work, labour laws need to be reviewed and modernised. Ideally, they should also be revised in light of comparative and contemporary regulation practice, in order to ensure that labour law is as well adapted as possible to the actual labour market.

Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu are undergoing national labour law reforms and development. Through the support of the Promoting the implementation of ILO Standards in Pacific Island Countries (PILS Project) funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, the ILO Country office for Pacific Island Countries is facilitating a subregional training workshop on labour law to support these countries’ goals.

Objectives

The objective of this workshop is to strengthen the technical capacity of participants in the fundamentals of labour law and improve skills on labour law review and interpretation.

At the end of the training workshop participants will have the knowledge and skills to:
1. Demonstrate a broader understanding of fundamental principles underpinning labour law and its interrelationship with international labour standards;
2. Demonstrate broad understanding of the processes involved in the review, and interpretation of labour law using theoretical, contextual, and practical perspectives; and
3. Critically evaluate existing national legislation in light of international labour standards in order to inform labour law reform.