International: Globalisation and migration on ILO Conference agenda

Meeting in June 2004, the annual International Labour Conference adopted an action plan on migrant workers, debated the recent report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation and approved a new instrument on human resources development.

The 92nd annual International Labour Conference took place in Geneva on 1-17 June 2004, attended by over 3,000 delegates, including labour ministers and leaders of trade unions and employers' organisations from most of the 177 member states of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Delegates held a major debate on globalisation, adopted a plan on migrant workers and a Recommendation on human resources development. The conference also, as every year, discussed key topical employment-related matters and monitored the application of international labour standards. The conference president was Milton Ray Guevara, the secretary of state for labour of the Dominican Republic.

Human resources development

No new ILO Conventions (instruments that are binding on those countries that have ratified them) were adopted at the 2004 Conference. However, a Recommendation (a non-binding instrument setting out guidelines that may provide an orientation for national policies and action) on human resources development was approved, replacing a 1975 Recommendation (No. 150) on the same subject.

The new Recommendation recognises human resources development as a "key component of the response needed to facilitate lifelong learning and employability", and calls for the involvement of social partners and a renewed commitment of governments, the private sector and individuals to education, training and lifelong learning. It also calls for international mechanisms to mitigate the adverse impact on developing countries of the loss of skilled people - a "brain drain" that is causing concern in many developing countries. The Recommendation calls for new, innovative approaches to release additional resources for education, training and lifelong learning to assist poor, indebted countries.

The ILO director-general, Juan Somavia, described the new Recommendation as "critical to the ILO goal of creating greater opportunities for women and men to obtain decent work and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity".

Fishing industry

A first discussion was held on new instruments to revise five Conventions and two Recommendations, dating from between 1920 and 1966, on health, safety and working conditions in the fishing industry. It is planned that the new instruments will be adopted at the 2005 conference.

The proposed new standards aim to reflect changes that have taken place in the fishing sector in recent decades. Production and consumption continue to grow, as does employment, primarily because of growing demand for fish and other seafood in wealthier countries. According to the ILO, some 35 million people are now engaged in the industry worldwide, with the vast majority in developing countries (83% of the total are in Asia). Fishing and related occupations are among the most dangerous of all work, with fatality rates often many times higher than the national average.

The proposed new labour standards would extend the coverage of ILO standards to over 90% of fishing industry workers - including the self-employed and those paid on the basis of a share of the catch - while the existing Conventions cover only about 10%. The new standards aim to have the flexibility to ensure wide-scale ratification and implementation. They include new provisions on health and safety in order to reduce the high rate of accidents and fatalities highlighted in ILO reports, and on compliance and enforcement.

Social dimension of globalisation

In 2002, the ILO set up a World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation. The Commission presented its final report (available at www.ilo.org/public/english/wcsdg/index.htm) in February 2004, calling for priority to be given to a fair and inclusive globalisation, and for an urgent rethink of current policies and institutions of global governance (EIRR 363). The report, and the ILO's proposals for its follow-up, were discussed at a special session of the 2004 conference and in subsequent plenary discussions. According to the ILO, delegates generally expressed the view that the Commission report provided a firm foundation for new and more coherent policies aimed at making globalisation fair, and called the report "balanced", "thoughtful", "valuable", "rich", "providing an in-depth analysis" and "innovative".

Based on the Commission's report, Mr Somavia proposed four challenges for the ILO, aimed at creating a fair globalisation and making a contribution to meeting the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by half. These challenges are:

Mr Somavia concluded the debate by welcoming the "broad support" for the ILO's follow-up to the Commission report. He said the ILO needed to be "judiciously ambitious" in meeting the challenges posed by the Commission, and that the conference had produced a blueprint for future ILO actions on globalisation, including the establishment of "priorities, strategising about where we fit into the emerging global governance structures, refreshing our international standards and tackling the central issue of our generation: how to shape a fair globalisation". The director-general acknowledged that many speakers had said that globalisation needed a strong social dimension and that the ILO's role in making it fair should be based on universal values and be beneficial for every country, without exception. Mr Somavia said many speakers agreed that the Commission's report, and the ILO's actions, would lay the groundwork for "creating a fair globalisation".

Migrants

According to ILO research, nearly half of all migrants and refugees worldwide - some 86 million adults - are economically active, employed or otherwise engaged in remunerative activity. The number of migrants crossing borders in search of work and security is expected to increase rapidly in the coming decades. The ILO notes that if all international migrants were to form a single political entity, they would represent the world's fifth most populous country. According to Manolo Abella, the chief of the ILO's International Migration Programme: "In practically every region, the rising mobility of people in search of decent work and human security has been commanding the attention of policy-makers. Migration is driven by differences and imbalances among countries, and these differences have grown and not shrunk with globalisation."

In this context, the 2004 conference adopted a plan of action that calls for the development of a non-binding multilateral framework for a "rights-based" approach to labour migration, and the establishment of an ILO dialogue on migration, in partnership with international and multilateral organisations. This framework will involve international guidelines on:

Application of standards

The ILO Committee on the Application of Standards considered 24 specific cases related to possible breaches of international labour standards, covering freedom of association, forced labour, discrimination, child labour, employment policy, labour inspection, wages, and maternity protection and workers with family responsibilities.

For the fourth time, the Committee held a special sitting on the use of forced labour (in contravention of ILO Convention No. 29) in Myanmar - an issue that has been of particular concern to the ILO in recent years (see EIRR 344 and International: ILO meets for 91^st Conference). The Committee noted with deep concern that the three main Recommendations of a 1998 ILO commission of enquiry had yet to be implemented and that, in spite of the Myanmar government's assurances of its good intentions, forced labour continues in many parts of the country. The Committee expressed grave concern that three people had been convicted of high treason on grounds of contacts with the ILO and called for their release. At the same time, the Committee welcomed the government's cooperation with the ILO liaison officer in the country, although he practical results remained limited. The Committee demanded legal guarantees that citizens wishing to approach the ILO to complain of forced labour could do so without any hindrance or fear of prosecution.

Other issues

At a special sitting, delegates held an in-depth discussion on freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, based on a new ILO "global report", Organising for social justice (available at www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc92/pdf/rep-i-b.pdf), drawn up as part of the follow-up to the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (EIRR 294). This report finds that, despite continued threats to workers and employers, the global picture of respect for fundamental rights at work is, on balance, improving. Concrete proposals for an action plan to promote freedom of association were made, and are to be put to the ILO Governing Body in November 2004.

The conference marked the third World Day against Child Labour on 11 June, with a panel discussion on child domestic labour. According to a new ILO report, child domestic labour is a widespread and growing global phenomenon that involves 10 million or more children (mostly girls) in hidden forms of exploitation, often involving abuse, health risks and violence.

The conference decided to withdraw 16 ILO Recommendations adopted between 1919 and 1953. ILO Recommendations (and Conventions) are considered obsolete if it appears that they have lost their purpose or no longer make a useful contribution to attaining the objectives of the organisation. The 16 Recommendations cover matters such as weekly rest in commerce, power-driven machinery, maternity protection in agriculture, the minimum age of employment in coal mines, contracts of employment for indigenous workers and protection against accidents for dockers.

The conference also adopted a resolution on gender equality, pay equity and maternity protection. It calls on governments and the social partners - in their respective fields of competence - to eliminate all forms of gender discrimination in the labour market, promote equality between male and female workers and provide female workers with access to maternity protection. Governments are requested to ratify relevant ILO Conventions, introduce or strengthen all necessary legislative changes, develop gender-sensitive national policies promoting employment and entrepreneurship and to launch measures enabling better reconciliation of work and family life. Employers' and workers' organisations are called upon to promote the negotiation and adoption of employment equity plans and evaluate gender equality policy. The resolution invites the ILO to continue to strengthen efforts to achieve gender equality and intensify the campaign for the universal ratification and implementation of the basic ILO Conventions in this area.

Finally, as usual, delegates debated the situation of workers in the occupied Arab territories (in Palestine).

In his closing speech, Mr Somavia referred to the 92nd International Labour Conference as a "defining moment" in the debate on globalisation, sending out a message that "there are ways of making globalisation work better for more people, and that it is not a hopeless cause; that we do not need to continue to have purely ideological debates on globalisation; that there is an institution that is thinking for the world" For the director-general, the work of the Conference showed "how global tripartism is able to find agreement on complex issues that call out for international cooperation".