International: ILO meets for 91st Conference
Meeting in June 2003, the annual International Labour Conference adopted a new Convention on seafarers' identity documents and prepared new standards on human resources development and "disguised" employment relationships. It also launched a global strategy on occupational health and safety and debated issues such as poverty and equality.
The 91st International Labour Conference was held in Geneva on 3-19 June 2003, attended by around 3,000 delegates, including labour ministers and leaders of trade union and employers' organisations from most of the 176 member states of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). As well as important debates on poverty and work and equality, the Conference adopted a new Convention on seafarers' identity documents and agreed a global strategy on occupational health and safety. The Conference also carried out its normal work of discussing important employment-related matters and monitoring the application of international labour standards. The Conference president was Michael Christopher Wamalwa, vice-president and labour minister of Kenya.
Seafarers' identity documents
The Conference adopted - with 392 votes in favour, none against and 20 abstentions - a new Convention on seafarers' identity documents, replacing Convention No.108 on the same issue, adopted in 1958. It establishes a more rigorous identity regime for seafarers, with the aim of developing effective security in the context of terrorism and ensuring that the world's seafarers have the "freedom of movement necessary for their wellbeing and for their professional activities" and, in general, of facilitating international commerce. Given the heightened concerns about security since the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001, the new identity document seeks to make a substantial contribution to international security by helping to ensure that the identity of seafarers in ports, airports and aboard ships can be positively established through the most modern means available.
The Convention sets out basic rules, while its annexes contain more detailed provisions, such as the precise form of the identity document, and can be adapted easily in future to keep pace with technological developments. A key feature of the new identity document will be a "biometric template" based on a fingerprint. A resolution accompanying the Convention requests the ILO director-general to take urgent measures for the development of "a global interoperable standard for the biometric, particularly in cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organisation". It also provides for the facilitation of shore leave and the transit and transfer of seafarers, including an exemption from visa requirements for seafarers taking shore leave.
To avoid the risk of an identity document being issued to the wrong person, the Convention requires ratifying member states to maintain a proper database available for international consultation by authorised officials and to have and observe adequate procedures for the issuing of documents. These procedures, which cover not only the security aspects but also necessary safeguards for individual rights, including data protection, will be subject to transparent procedures for international monitoring.
The ILO director-general, Juan Somavia (re-elected for a second five-year term), described the new Convention as a "pioneering work in a sensitive area" which guarantees "a balance between the rights of the world's 1.2 million seafarers, as well as trade interests and security concerns".
Health and safety
As part of the ILO's continuing campaign in this area, the Conference reached agreement on a first global strategy on occupational health and safety, which calls for "coherent and focused" worldwide action to cut the number of deaths, injuries and diseases among workers. The ILO estimates that two million people die every year from work-related causes, 354,000 of them being fatal accidents. Furthermore, there are 270 million occupational accidents and 160 million occupational diseases every year. The total cost is estimated at US$1,250,000 million.
The global strategy is to be implemented through an action plan based on a strategy with two basic pillars:
Disguised employment relationships
The Conference Committee on the Employment Relationship agreed a set of conclusions, asking the ILO to prepare a new Recommendation on the employment relationship. The conclusions promote flexibility "to take account of different economic, social, legal and industrial relations traditions" and underline the "dynamic" character of the employment relationship, which must adapt constantly to new challenges on the labour market. The proposed Recommendation would focus on "disguised" employment relationships - workers who are in fact employees but whose status is disguised or hidden - and on mechanisms to ensure that people with an employment relationship have access to the protection they are due at national level. There was also consensus that a future Recommendation "should not interfere with genuine commercial and independent contracting arrangements". The Committee requested the ILO Governing Body to place this issue on the agenda of a future session of the International Labour Conference.
Human resources
The Conference held a first discussion on a new international labour standard on human resources development, which would replace Recommendation No.150 on the issue, adopted in 1975. In its conclusions on the contents of a future Recommendation, the Conference Committee on Human Resources Development described human resources development as a key component of the response needed to facilitate lifelong learning and employability, and called for the involvement of social partners and a renewed commitment by governments, the private sector and individuals to education, training and lifelong learning.
Application of standards
The ILO Committee on the Application of Standards considered 25 specific cases and drew the attention of the Conference to the situation in two countries in terms of the observation of labour standards. The Committee "cited"(a procedure reserved for consistent and serious violations of labour rights) both Belarus and Myanmar for failure to observe the 1948 Convention on freedom of association and protection of the right to organise (No.87) and "continued failure over several years" to implement the Convention. Regarding Belarus, the Committee urged the government "to take all the necessary measures in the near future" to bring an end to "its interference in the internal affairs of trade unions".
The Committee urged the government of Colombia to take immediately the necessary measures so that workers' and employers' organisations could fully exercise their rights under Convention No.87, by restoring respect for fundamental human rights, in particular the right to life and security. The Committee also expressed special concern over the situation in Cameroon, Libya, Mauritania and Zimbabwe. The Committee urged the government of Libya "to adopt specific and concrete measures" to achieve full conformity of its legislation with the 1962 Convention on equality of treatment (social security) (No.118). On application by Mauritania of the 1930 forced labour Convention (No.29), the Committee expressed "deep concern at the persistence of situations which constituted grave violations of the prohibition of forced labour". The Committee urged the Cameroon government "to ensure that workers in both the private and the public sectors could establish and freely administer their organisations without the intervention of the public authorities. The Committee noted "persistent violations" of the 1949 Convention on the right to organise and to collective bargaining (No.98) in Zimbabwe and requested its government to accept an ILO mission to examine the situation and inform the Committee about legislative developments and the outstanding issues.
Furthermore, the Committee highlighted persistent situations of deferred payment of wages, abusive practices of payment of wages in kind or the gradual erosion of the privileged protection of workers' wage claims in bankruptcy procedures in several countries. Finally, as part of the ILO's long-running efforts to end the use of forced labour in Myanmar, the Committee held a special sitting on the issue.
Work and poverty
A major debate was held over a new ILO report entitled Working out of poverty (available at www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc91/pdf/rep-i-a.pdf). The ILO states that poverty affects half the world's population, with nearly three billion people living on less than US$2 a day and some one billion (23% of the population of the developing world) on US$1 or less. Worldwide, official unemployment is at its highest level ever, the income gap between the wealthiest and poorest continues to grow and women are more likely than men to be trapped in poverty. Poverty affects every country, with over 10% of the population below the poverty line (ie earning less that 50% of median income) in even the 20 most industrialised nations.
The report provides a "roadmap" for future ILO efforts to create a strategy for alleviating poverty by promoting "decent work" for the working poor as well as creating new opportunities for people excluded from work. "Work is the best route out of poverty," states the report, which includes an appeal to governments, workers and employers to join forces in seeking a tripartite joint effort to help "free people and societies from the global poverty trap". To help eradicate poverty, the ILO stresses four "tools": creating jobs; guaranteeing rights at work; providing basic social protection; and promoting dialogue and conflict resolution.
Participants in the debate pledged to pursue the "war on poverty" at international and national levels and proposed measures such as: establishing funds for skills development, promoting "decent work" in the context of a global drive for poverty reduction; launching national and local discussions ensuring that "pro-poor, pro-jobs" policies are pursued; improving the research, advocacy and service tools available to fight poverty; and mainstreaming the ideas of "working out of poverty" into the daily work of the ILO. The ILO director-general responded that he took "great heart from this recognition that decent work is both an end in itself and also a means to achieve important goals, especially poverty eradication. This makes the work of the ILO extremely relevant to the political challenges faced by very many countries today."
Other issues
At a special sitting, delegates held an in-depth discussion on ways to overcome discrimination at work, based on a new ILO "global report", Time for equality at work (available at www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/decl/publ/reports/report4.htm), drawn up as part of the follow-up to the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The discussion highlighted the importance of the legal underpinnings for fighting discrimination, as well as the importance of equality in the workplace to communities, business and other sectors. Participants also noted that, despite decades of efforts, women and members of all races and ethnic minorities are still far from enjoying equality of opportunity and treatment. The discussion also affirmed that discrimination is a major cause of poverty and that new forms of discrimination based on age, sexual orientation, HIV/AIDS status and disability are emerging.
During the Conference, the ILO launched a "global campaign on social security and coverage for all" aimed at encouraging countries to extend social security to more of their citizens. Noting that only one out of five people in the world has adequate social security coverage and more than half have no coverage at all, the ILO said that the campaign reflected a global consensus on the part of governments and employers' and workers' organisations to broaden social security coverage among working people, particularly in the informal economy, and raise awareness worldwide about the role of social security in economic and social development. The campaign will seek to develop a broad partnership involving international organisations, donor countries, social security institutions and civil society organisations.
The Conference marked the second World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June with an address by Queen Rania of Jordan, who urged the world to "join hands" to fight child trafficking. The ILO estimates that some 1.2 million children become victims of child trafficking each year.
As usual, the Conference held a special sitting to debate the situation of workers in the occupied Arab territories, highlighting the ILO's efforts to promote "capacity building" in Palestine, including the creation of a Palestinian Fund for Employment and Social Protection, and its role in promoting a dialogue aimed at helping to build confidence among all the parties in the region.
The ILO director-general summarised the 91st International Labour Conference's work as follows: "Whether addressing immediate threats to security at work or tackling long-term challenges like global poverty, the ILO has shown that it is relevant, effective and grounded in a detailed knowledge of how the world works."
