• Hon Benjamim Poponawa, MP, Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations
• Ms Deborah Stokes, High Commissioner - Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea
• Departmental Secretaries and other senior official of the Government of Papua New Guinea
• Senior officials of representative organizations of employers and workers
• Other representative of UN agencies
• Ladies and gentlemen
• Members of the Media, and
• Friends and colleagues

Introduction and welcome

1. Welcome to this event at which the ILO handovers over to the government of PNG and the representative organizations of employers and workers, our technical inputs into the review of the Employment Act 1978, and the extensive work that has been undertaken to develop a new and appropriate Employment Relations Bill.

2. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the United Nations agency devoted to promoting rights at work, encouraging decent employment opportunities for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity, and enhancing social protection. It is unique in that it brings together representatives of governments, employers and workers to jointly shape policies and programmes and strengthen their dialogue.

3. Our work in the Pacific covers a wide range of areas including: labour migration; the elimination of child labour; promotion of gender equality; labour law reform; protecting seafarers; labour market statistics; occupational safety and health; Social Protection; youth employment; and entrepreneurship development. You will note that today we for the first time we are making available to you a new ILO report titled “Decent Work and Social Justice in Pacific Small Island Developing States Challenges, Opportunities and Policy Responses”. This report was prepared as a resource in the build up to the third Small Island Developing States Conference to be hosted by Samoa in September 2014.

Our Labour Law Reform in PNG and why it is important

1. This work on the review of the Employment Act 1978, started in late 2011. It is one of the agreed priorities in Papua New Guinea’s Decent Work Country Programme and was included in the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for PNG. At this point, I wish to acknowledge the presence of my UN colleagues here today.

2. Initially this work was part of Labour Governance and Migration Project funded by the Australian Government under a Partnership Agreement with the ILO. Under that agreement, PNG was among a number of Pacific Island Countries that prioritised labour law reform and institutional capacity building, as part of their work programme with the ILO. These other countries included Kiribati, Tuvalu, Samoa, Vanuatu, Palau and Tonga.

3. Our agreement with the Australia government ended in December 2012. After which the ILO was able to sustain this work, alas at a reduced level of intensity, with other sources of funding.

4. At this point, I wish to acknowledge the presence of Ms Deborah Stokes, High Commissioner - Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, and the support of the Australia governments, which greatly enhance this work - all of which was independently evaluated and positively received. I remain hopeful that we can renew our partnership with the Australia government to further continue and expand this important work.

5. Please let me stress why labour law reform and the building of national capacities to implement these laws is important. I need to do this because too often this type of work is not seen as the work of development agencies. Some people go even further and say that labour regulation undermines economic efficiency and that it is an impediment to growth and prosperity.

6. In fact, research shows that the truth is the opposite. Modern and responsive labour legislation has significant social and economic benefits for employers and workers. Such legislation that if well administered, supports a fair, predictable and stable labour market, reduces industrial unrest and enables businesses to grow with confidence and create new and better jobs.

7. Finally, in this era of increasing labour mobility - compliance with international labour standards is becoming more important. Countries in this region should expect that their domestic labour standards will come under more and more scrutiny by trading partners in the future.

8. Across the Pacific Islands, we know that there are serious weaknesses in labour legislation, regulations and its compliance. Where it does exist, it is too often old and outdated – sometimes even based on colonial laws. It typically does not adequately cover all women and men in the labour market. Too often, it is not suited to local circumstance and national institutional capacities. Finally, these national labour laws do not fully cove the provisions in the Fundamental Labour Conventions, that all member States of the ILO are obliged to promote, respect and apply.

9. This sounds like a bleak situation -but it is not! Today across the Pacific Islands many countries have are prioritizing this type of work in their Decent Work Country programmes. The ILO is committed to support these countries in their quest for fair, efficient labour market.

The work that has been done

10. This report and its many annexes that we are handing over today, brings together all the work undertaken over nearly three years. It includes, a summary report, and annexes covering legal analysis, notes numerous of tripartite meetings and decision that were made at these meetings, and of course a new draft Employment Relations Bill. Our report also details the extensive consultation process involving many government agencies and representatives of workers and employers organizations.

11. This work was professional and technically supported by ILO staff members Ms Anne Boyd and Ms Caroline Scott, both of whom cannot be here today. I want to formally acknowledge their commitment and expertise, and of course all the other people involved in this work.

12. However, the new Employment Relations Bills is not finished and there are some important reasons that I need to explain.

13. Firstly, there are a few important outstanding policy decision that must be made. These for include for example:

• Who should be covered by the new legislation– should the Bill cover both public and private sector workers? It was the initial brief that the draft Bill should cover all workers - which is the modern trend. However as the work developed different views emerged. Do you want one piece of legalisation that covers all workers or separate legalisation and institutions for public and private sector workers?
• Another example concerns some of the provisions in the old legalisation and to what extent these should be imported into the new legalisation – here I refer to matters such as the provision of housing.

14. International organizations such as the ILO can only make recommendations based on international standards, but it is your government’s sovereign right and responsibility to make these sometimes difficult decisions. In our report, these outstanding policy issues are identified and policy notes prepared. We trust that these will be helpful in making these decisions.

15. Secondly, the national tripartite institutional framework for managing these types of process is not effectively functioning. Here I refer to the National Tripartite Consultative Committee, which has not met for some years.

16. Thirdly and finally, our technical work cannot take place in isolation from other on-going law reform efforts in PNG. Specifically, I refer to

• very important work that has been done by the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations in partnership with the Fiji Government to develop a new Occupational Safety and Health Bill; and
•  the institutional framework underlying the Industrial Relations Bill which is the Employment Act’s “companion legislation” and which has been under development and in draft form for at least 20 years. I think you will all agree that this is unacceptable and the workers and employers in PNG deserve better.

17. I am also deeply conscious of the sentiments of people here today who want new and modern labour legislations and have waited many years for the Industrial Relations Bill to be developed. We do not want a repeat of that experience.

ILO recommendations
 

18. Finally, I want to speak briefly about the recommendations in our report.

19. When we started our work on the Employment Relations Bill, the brief was to separate this from the Industrial Relations Bill which we were assured would be shortly passed into law – which has not happened. Thus, our primary recommendation is that the Industrial Relations Bill and the Employment Relations Bill become a single reform Bill.

There are three reasons:

• The first reason is “technical coherency”. The Industrial Relations Bill and Employment Relations are intrinsically linked. It simply makes good sense for a single framework to be in place. This is consistent with a modern approach to developing labour legislation around the world. This links to the second reason.
• The second reason relates to the needs of the public. Legislation must be user friendly and understandable to the public. Ensuring the public is able to read and understand the law is fundamental to compliance and minimises costly litigation. A single Bill is an important means of achieving this.
• Thirdly, it is clear that the Industrial Relations Bill itself is becoming outdated simply because of the length of time it has taken to develop it - and there are still some important issues in the Industrial Relations Bill that need to be resolved. It also needs to be in harmony with the OSH Bill. At the time the Industrial Relations was written, the OSH Bill had not even been conceived. Now, the Industrial Relations Bill needs to be revisited so it can take account of the interface between the two frameworks.

20. It is important for me to say that combining these Bills does not waste the past work. Rather the past decision and legal drafting can be imported into a more consolidated and even simpler piece of legislation.

Where to from here?

 

21. So what next? Do we simply stop here and this report becomes one of the many dusty reports on our bookshelves or do we move forward.

22. I am hoping that under the Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations leadership, that the Constitution and Law Reform Commission and other government departments here today will carefully review this report.

23. If a high-level government decision is made to proceed, then with clear definition of scope and purpose, then the ILO will further support this work. However, I need to stress that:

• Leadership and commitment is essential to the future of the labour law process. Leadership does not rest solely with the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations, but also other government Departments have an important responsibility to engage and contribute their expertise to this process. Leadership by the social partners is also essential – to ensure policy making takes account of employers and workers perspectives on labour law reform.
• Decisions on outstanding policy issues need to be made.
• Finally, I want to highlight the importance of a public consultation process beyond engagement with social partners. Public consultation is important to securing sustainable, durable and fully tested legislation that is going to stand the test of time.

24. In closing, there is no doubt that everyone wants a better functioning labour law and institutional framework. However, in fairness, a much greater commitment and sustained effort is needed. However, I am confident that between the many years of experience of the people in this room and with the right resources, a new labour law framework that provides a sound framework for both employers and workers can become a reality in PNG.

25. Thank you for your attention and I look forward to receiving the response to our report after its due consideration.