Balance and Perspective: Interview with Luc Cortebeeck, President of the Workers’ Group

The 102nd Session of the International Labour Conference has just finished. In general terms, what have the workers achieved at this Session?

I think we did get results. But let me first of all emphasise a couple of aspects. Firstly Myanmar, where the situation has unfolded favourably thanks to the joint intervention by the workers and the International Labour Organization. In accordance with article 33 of the ILO Constitution, the restrictions imposed on Myanmar have just been lifted. What we achieved is that the situation in Myanmar as regards matters relating to forced labour, the work of the trade unions, and trade union dialogue, will be assessed every year, at the March session of the Governing Body. We’ll also look at the effects of new investments in the country, and we’ll see what the results are in terms of human rights as well as workers’ rights. So I think the steps that have just been taken are significant for Myanmar, which has been monitored by ILO for twenty years. Secondly, there’s VCT@WORK, a new campaign on HIV/AIDS, which has the aim of voluntary HIV testing for 5 million workers by 2015. This is vital for workers’ health, for their futures, for the future of their children. The campaign is the fruit of a collaboration between ILO and UNAIDS - ILO’s involvement is needed to combat discrimination against HIV-positive workers.

To go back to the various themes of the Conference, so far as employment and social protection in the new demographic context is concerned, studies show that in 2050 there will be four working people for every one pensioner. In 2000, there were nine people working for every one retiree. The problem that this presents is immediately apparent: who is going to work for the pensioners of the future? In some regions of the world there is currently a very young population that one day will retire, if life expectancy goes up. In the course of this Conference, some avenues for reflection were put out there for the long term on the employment of young people and older workers. The conclusions of the committee that worked on this issue are worth quoting: “the challenges posed by this demographic transition are not insurmountable. Demographic change should be addressed from an integrated and longer-term perspective. Possible policy directions need to take into account the complementarities between employment and social protection policies for all age groups spanned over the life cycle. They should build upon inter-generational solidarity and cooperation amongst countries. Consideration of policy options to deal with structural trends such as ageing should not be guided by the short-term and cyclical perspective imposed by the crisis.”It is encouraging to see that social security is seen as an economic necessity as well as a social one. The Committee asks the ILO Governing Body to consider the possibility of developing an instrument on the care economy.

There was also the theme of social dialogue, and given what many countries are experiencing in terms of austerity measures, the workers reaffirmed, as they had already done at the ILO Regional Conference in Oslo, that collective bargaining is a very important area for ILO and that it is up to ILO to promote social dialogue. Social dialogue must be strengthened within countries. It’s also important that labour tribunals are independent. And we’re also asking for a standard on the independence of labour tribunals, since this is indispensable in order for there to be collective bargaining. And indeed to maintain the results of collective bargaining, there need to be tribunals that are independent. After the tragedy in Bangladesh, we also need to think about the need for a standard to protect workers in companies of any size. For us, the protection of workers is priority.
The third major theme is sustainable development. The economy, development and the environment are key elements but above all it is important to respect the balance between them. To move towards a greener economy there will have to be a transition, which could have consequences in particular on businesses, on society, but above all on the workers. We regret that at this Conference we were not able to set in motion the process leading to a convention on the issue.

So I think that on the three big themes of the Conference, we have achieved results. As workers we always naturally want a little more, but on the other hand I think that the results are good and open the door to work, either to develop new instruments or to update existing ones.

One of the big issues debated at this Session of the Conference was the application of the International Labour Standards. What can we take away from the work of the Committee on the Application of Standards on the 26 cases examined at this session?

This year the Committee worked on a list of 26 cases. There was the veto, a block by employers at that point. This year we have done everything we needed to do to prepare for this conference and avoid the problem we had last year, and in the end there was a list of 26 cases that were kept. But other problems cropped up, notably a veto by the employers as regards Colombia, and their comments against the experts’ mandate, which is a vital element of the work of the Committee on the Application of Standards. Because without experts that are recognized as objective and impartial, the work of the Committee on the Application of Standards cannot be carried out. The right to strike is still a problem, and the solution the Committee found was to include in its report a phrase that said: “The Committee did not address the right to strike as the Employers do not agree that there is a right to strike recognized in Convention No. 87”. Nonetheless, we can say that the work of the Committee on the Application of Standards has been a success this year. As a result, the Conference is a success, because we avoided the blocking of this opportunity to discuss the application of standards, which would have been a disaster for ILO and for the Conference. As for the work of the Committee, I also think that the cases considered are very interesting, and there was a good geographical distribution and a balance between the types of conventions addressed. The situation in Europe and in certain countries led to some good discussions, notably Greece and Spain. Cases on Bangladesh and Guatemala were also considered. And I think that the conclusions are really of high quality, not seeking to blame but to offer constructive solutions, which also means that the work is starting in these countries, with and for our trade union colleagues, in the countries examined – with ILO’s help. I will soon be one of the members of a High-level ILO mission to Guatemala, and we all know what problems exist in that country, especially for the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining, and the safety of trade unionists.

In the future I think a lot of questions are going to come up about the application of standards. We have to protect the mission, the goal of the work and the mandate of the experts, as well as the role of the application of standards. We also need to prepare sound arguments to counter the attacks by the employers against the right to strike. We have to find a consensus with the employers and gather our efforts to prepare the groundwork so that we can have a solution before the next session of the International Labour Conference in June 2014.

The Director General Guy Ryder presented his report entitled Towards the ILO centenary: Realities, renewal and tripartite. to the Conference. What is the position of the workers on the vision set out by the Director-General?

We think the Director-General has opened some windows onto the future, to prepare for the centenary of this organization. I think it is vital to reflect on what the Organisation does, without touching its values. It is its values that we want to protect. But on the other hand we have to work on it now. For example, today, we still concentrate on the member countries of the Organisation, which is important; but there are also multinationals where decisions are taken about the working conditions of many of the workers in the world. We therefore need to work not only with member countries but also with the multinationals. For our part, as trade unions, we have the vital and specific role of finding solutions for work and employment, but we also have to cooperate with others because work isn’t everything. For example, in the debates on AIDS, we have to open up a dialogue with other organizations in the field of health, and with other NGOs. The same goes for climate, there’s the potential for links with certain NGOs specializing in that area, etc.

In conclusion, it will be for the Governing Body next October to take up once more all the elements that have come out of the work of the 102nd Session of the International Labour Conference, and to set in motion the mechanisms to put these into effect.