THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)
What is the ILO?
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is
a specialised agency of the United Nations. Headquartered in Geneva,
it is the only worldwide tripartite organisation in which workers’
and employers’ organisations are represented on equal terms
with governments. By August 2005, it had 178 member countries. The
ILO was founded in 1919, under the Treaty of Versailles. Even before
the ILO was set up, efforts had been underway, particularly by the
trade unions, to reach international agreements on labour protection.
This was in response to the “social question”, but it
was also a bid to prevent competitive disadvantages from arising
due to “too much social policy” by a few states. Union
demands for, among other things, the 8-Hour Day, protective measures
for young people and women, the right to freedom of association
and comprehensive social insurance were reflected in the first ILO
Conventions, adopted in 1919. At that time, regularised working
conditions for homeworkers were already a major focus for trade
unions , but it was not until 1996 that the Home Work Convention
(C177) was adopted.
What does the ILO do?
The ILO’s main task is to lay down the international
labour and social standards that improve the living conditions of
the working population worldwide. These Conventions and Recommendations
are negotiated and, where appropriate, adopted at the annual International
Labour Conference (ILC). They form the basis for national legal
standards. States retain the sovereign right to decide whether or
not to ratify the adopted Conventions and Recommendations. If they
do ratify them, they commit themselves to transposing them into
national law and they have to report back regularly to the ILO on
this process. Normally, the laws that regulate working conditions
and social benefits in Germany are above the minimum standards agreed
internationally within the ILO. This also goes for the regulations
on home work. But the Federal Republic does take great interest
in the ILO’s standard-setting activities. It does so out of
social and ethical conviction, but also as a way of preventing a
destructive process of reducing labour and social standards, due
to competition for markets and inward investment. Moreover, the
ILO offers technical cooperation to member states, facilitating
the implementation of Conventions and Recommendations in practice.
It is also involved in a whole range of vocational training, education,
research and information activities.
How the ILO operates
The main ILO bodies are the International Labour
Conference (ILC), the Governing Body and the International Labour
Office. It also has regional conferences, sectoral committees and
committees of experts. The ILC brings together two government representatives,
one employer representative and one worker representative from each
participating member state, as well as non-voting technical advisers.
Meeting for about three weeks each June, the ILC elects the members
of the Governing Body, approves the budget, adopts the ILO’s
work programme every two years, discusses and decides upon international
labour and social standards, monitors their application and provides
a global forum for the consideration of labour and social issues.
Non-governmental organisations are admitted as observers, as long
as they have been recognised in advance as relevant to the ILO’s
work.
The ILO is a democratic, international organisation.
In the World Trade Organisation, for example, the industrialised
nations determine policy. But in the ILO, as in the United Nations,
the principle is one country, one vote – regardless of how
much the country contributes to the budget. The ILO is the only
international organisation in which the social partners (workers
and employers) are directly represented.
The Governing Body meets three times a year and
is the ILO’s executive. It takes decisions about ILO policy,
draws up the agenda for the ILC, makes proposals to the ILC on the
work programme and the budget and elects the Director-General. The
current Director-General of the ILO (since 1999) is Juan Somavia
from Chile. The Governing Body is composed of 56 members (28 government
representatives, 14 employer representatives and 14 worker representatives).
Ten countries (including Germany) have a permanent seat on the Governing
Body. The other 18 government representatives are elected by the
ILC for a period of three years.
The International Labour Office (also abbreviated
as ILO) is the International Labour Organisation’s secretariat,
headed by the Director-General. The ILO currently has about 1,800
staffers from more than 100 countries. The Office is there to carry
out the tasks assigned to it by the Governing Body. Particularly
important are the bureaux for employers’ and workers’
activities, ACTEMP und ACTRAV. While they are an integral part of
the Office, they also reflect the ILO’s tripartite system.
The
ILO’s political significance
Given the constantly expanding globalisation of
markets and financial structures, the ILO has become increasingly
significant as an institution dedicated to the creation and maintenance
of global minimum standards. Companies operating worldwide tend
to locate their production in countries with low labour standards
and social standards. Within the garment industry, homeworkers are
usually at the bottom of the production chain – for example,
sewing teeshirts and trousers for C&A and H&M or for brands
like Adidas and Nike in return for a wage that is below the living
minimum, and without social protection in case of sickness, or maternity
protection, or provision for old age. The big firms that benefit
from such arrangements often refuse to take responsibility for them,
because they buy through middlemen. So home workers must be equipped
with rights that have not only moral but also legal force. The Home
Work Convention provides the basis for this. Only if the downward
spiral of working people’s rights in the South can be halted
will it be possible to maintain the higher standards in the industrialised
countries. The only answer to the trend of worldwide deregulation
through the market is to agree international standards and make
sure they are applied. It is in the logic of capitalism to produce
at the lowest cost. Only by making decent living and working conditions
mandatory worldwide can we ensure that unworthy living and working
conditions no longer representative a competitive advantage, but
are offences against current law and are punishable as such.
Worldwide ratifications
The International Labour Organisation has 178 Member
States. At the time of writing, there are 185 Conventions. The ratification
process is on an upward curve. By 1995, the total number of ratifications
by Member States was 6,253. But by October 2005, this total had
risen to 7,335. Significantly, the current trend is to ratify not
only the newest Conventions, but also those adopted by the International
Labour Cofnerence some time ago.
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