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GB.274/ESP/6
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Committee on Employment and Social Policy |
ESP |
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SIXTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA
ILO participation in major international conferences
on employment issues (including ILO meetings)
G8 Conference of Ministers of Labour
(Washington, DC, 24-26 February)
1. The ILO, together with the OECD and the IMF, was invited to participate in the above meeting. This was the fourth time in succession that the ILO has been invited to these G8 meetings on employment and labour issues since the 1996 conference in Lille.
2. The theme of this year's meeting was "labour policies in a rapidly changing global economy". The meeting was structured in two parts; the first was devoted to national policy challenges in the G8 countries, while the second focused on international labour policy issues. The ILO had been requested by the United States Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman, to prepare the briefing paper for the second part of the meeting. This was entitled "Challenges for labour policy in the light of the global financial crisis". The main policy messages of this paper are captured in summary form in paragraphs 9 and 10 of the appended "Chair's conclusions". This reflects the fact that the meeting agreed with the priorities for action set out in the ILO paper.
3. Both Mr. Hansenne and Mr. Somavia addressed the meeting at the outset of the second part of the meeting. This was followed by a lively question and answer session. Their speeches are appended.
4. As will be seen from paragraphs 11 to 16 of the Chair's conclusions, the meeting expressed support for the ILO's work in several fields. Particularly noteworthy is the statement that the G8 ministers of labour "will work with and in the ILO to ensure that it has the ability and resources it needs to fully promote this historic Declaration [on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work]". They also expressed support for "the strengthening of the ILO's capacity to assist countries to put in place and implement core labour standards and to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social safety nets through specific action programmes".
Subregional meeting on economic reform
5. In conjunction with the Action Programme on Structural Adjustment, Employment and the Role of the Social Partners, the Regional Office for Africa and the Dakar and Abidjan MDTs organized a subregional meeting for selected French-speaking African countries on economic reform, employment and the role of the social partners in Dakar from 27 to 29 April 1998.(1) Delegates from six countries attended, including trade union and employers' representatives, representatives of ministries of labour and finance and academic circles. The purpose of the seminar was to discuss the consequences of structural adjustment and economic reform policies on labour and to discuss how the participation of trade unions, employers' organizations and other parts of civil society could be improved with a view to making the economic reform process more sustainable and leading to a better distribution of the fruits of the economic reform measures. The seminar established three committees: on structural adjustment programmes and national and economic social policies (social and economic impact, compensatory policies and recent trends); on social dialogue and the role of the social partners in the formulation, execution and monitoring of structural reform policies; and on strengthening the capacities of social partners to improve participation and better definition of and follow-up on economic reform policies.
6. The three committees based their discussions on the general conclusions of the seminar and reported that recent adjustment policies have led to a reformulation of macroeconomic policies, with some positive effects on growth, but still with negative consequences for social sectors and employment. The devaluation of the CFA franc had some positive impact, but with very unequal effect, and this positive effect was not matched by any increase in employment in the formal sector. Economies were still characterized by high debt and increases in poverty. In this context changes in the development of industry -- and export industry in particular -- and an improvement in the situation in rural areas are still called for; education, training and employment creation, especially in small and medium enterprises, remain a top priority.
7. The participation of the social partners in the formulation, execution and monitoring of structural adjustment programmes was deemed in all countries to be insufficient, and delegates noted the lack of any involvement of the social partners when structural adjustment policies were designed. This was partly due to the lack (or failure to function) of structures that would permit dialogue, even in countries where forums for dialogue exist (such as economic and social councils). Consultation was moreover hampered by the absence of any system of information on labour market issues, which made it difficult for the social partners to make credible policy alternatives. The participants noted that the international financial agencies had become more receptive towards the inclusion of the social partners and of civil society in structural adjustment programmes, but that actual proposals and projects to implement dialogue were still lacking in most countries. Recommendations were made to strengthen the role of ministries of labour, trade unions, employers' organizations and other parts of civil society.
Geneva, 8 March 1999.
1. A full report is available on request from the Employment and Training Department.
Appendix I
Chair's conclusions
1. Labour ministers from the G8 countries met in Washington, DC, on 24-26 February 1999 together with the European Commission and representatives from the ILO, OECD, and IMF, and labour and business leaders, to discuss the theme of "Labor policies in a rapidly changing global economy".
Blueprint for sustaining globalization
2. We agreed that it is very important to design a blueprint for sustaining globalization and improving growth, equity and democracy as we enter the twenty-first century. To maintain open and productive economies -- the driving force behind increasing global integration -- and enhance its social dimension we must ensure that the benefits of change are widely shared. We must ensure that more and better jobs are created and that workers have equal access to them. This calls for strategies that support employability, promote entrepreneurship, enhance the adaptability of workers and firms, and ensure equal opportunities for men and women to participate in the world of work. These strategies require the integration of employment policies and macroeconomic policies at the national and international levels. They also require effective training and education systems, effective labour market policies, and employment-oriented social safety nets.
3. We agreed that global economic growth must take place under conditions of social justice in order to sustain globalization. This calls for the universal respect of core labour standards, which we agree to pursue as a key objective.
4. In a rapidly changing world we see closer international cooperation as an integral part of our competitive economic strategy to sustain growth, create jobs, ensure equity and provide security for our workers. Such a consistent and coherent strategy is vital to enhance consumer, business and financial market confidence in order to support stable economic growth. We support, working in common with our finance ministries, greater cooperation among G8 countries' employment and macroeconomic policies.
National policy challenges
5. We are committed to continue learning from each others' experiences and informing policy development as we put into practice principles adopted by G8 leaders in Birmingham in May 1998 to generate new job opportunities and tackle unemployment and exclusion.
6. National labour market policies are driven mainly by national conditions, although increased economic integration has made employment a common concern and requires an increasingly coordinated approach in this field. The G8 countries are committed to make work pay, to take action to prevent unemployment and the drift into long-term unemployment among certain groups at risk, including low-skilled workers, and to address economically disadvantaged regions or areas where industrial restructuring occurs. To benefit fully from the increasingly dynamic economic reality, we must foster a culture of lifelong learning. We agree that connecting people to the labour market by providing employment services and labour market information, and training opportunities and information on providers, enhances workers' employability, and that early identification and targeting employment programmes to better meet the particular needs of jobseekers and local conditions enhances their effectiveness. Promoting new forms of work organization is also important. All of this requires strong partnerships, including social dialogue.
7. Our discussion of our workforces in relation to demographics led us to conclude that it is very important for governments, in cooperation with unions and employers, to ensure equal access to the labour market for all. We recognize the particular challenges faced by youth and older workers and, in this regard, we welcome the US-OECD youth conference "Preparing youth for the 21st century: The policy lessons from the past two decades" in February 1999 and look forward to the symposium on "active aging" to be hosted by Japan in September 1999.
8. We also agree that it is important to make labour market institutions more effective and to evaluate labour market programmes to share "best practices". We welcome the efforts made within the European Union to develop an integrated and multi-annual employment strategy and look forward to sharing the experience on progress in this field.
Closer cooperation among international organizations and
building international institutional capacity
9. Globalization provides great opportunities but also carries risks for workers and challenges for policy-makers. The recent experience of several countries has shown the obstacles they face to deal with the social fall-out from financial and economic crises. The principal obstacles have been: (1) the weakness of labour institutions and labour law enforcement, particularly restraints on freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining which increase the likelihood that other core labour standards will not be respected; (2) inadequate social safety nets, particularly lack of, or very weak, unemployment and social benefit schemes; and (3) limited effectiveness of labour market policies, particularly weak capacity to implement them. Success in removing these obstacles will better ensure that the benefits of economic progress and change are widely distributed, and contribute to openness in government and help promote democratic societies. International organizations should provide enhanced assistance to help promote these objectives.
10. We agree that we need to make better use of international organizations to help establish the labour market institutions and strong social safety nets necessary to enhance growth, employment and social cohesion. We should strengthen their ability to help countries, especially developing countries, deal with the labour market and social consequences of the financial and economic crises, and to also assure more sustainable economic development.
11. We believe that the ILO's new Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up mechanism will be a key tool in the effort to improve the lives of workers throughout the world. We will work with and in the ILO to ensure that it has the ability and resources it needs to fully promote this historic Declaration. We support the strengthening of the ILO's capacity to assist countries to put in place and implement core labour standards and to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social safety nets through specific action programmes. We also continue to support the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), and urge IPEC to further report in 1999 on programme outcomes, lessons learned and best practices in the effort to stop abusive child labour. And we affirm our support for a new ILO Convention to eliminate the worst forms of child labour.
12. We agree that the tripartite structure of the ILO should also be used to strengthen the involvement of unions and employers in improving labour standards. We also take note of the work being initiated by the ILO with respect to codes of conduct on labour conditions and encourage the ILO to play an active role in their development and promotion. There is a need for international promotion of rules and codes of conduct to encourage socially responsible business. The OECD can also make an important contribution to this effort.
13. We urge the ILO to strengthen its analysis of the labour market consequences of globalization and examine how integrated labour, economic and financial strategies can help address the challenges associated with globalization. Likewise, we urge the ILO to establish a rapid response capacity, enhanced technical assistance, and a clearinghouse to provide feasible and timely policy guidance to countries seeking to implement social safety net strategies to better assure sustainable growth and to reduce the burden associated with economic downturns on workers.
14. We also urge the OECD to work in cooperation with the ILO in these efforts, and encourage continued work by the OECD with non-OECD members to address the employment and labour policy implications of structural changes arising out of the increasing integration of world economies.
15. We continue to recognize the important contribution made by international trade in expanding earnings and employment opportunities for workers, in an environment that fosters labour rights and education and training opportunities. Our common goals of promoting respect for labour rights and continued trade and investment liberalization are both important and mutually beneficial. In that regard, we support continued collaboration between the ILO and the WTO secretariats on these issues. We agree to bring the conclusions of our discussions to the attention of our trade ministers.
16. We note and welcome the increasing cooperation between the ILO and the IFIs in promoting employment, social safety nets, adequate social protections, core labour standards and effective labour market institutions. We welcome the high-level meeting in October 1998 between the ILO and the IFIs and urge that follow-up meetings be held to support the better integration of labour concerns in IFI programmes and in the policy dialogue with members. We also suggest that the need to integrate the work of the ILO and the IFIs be considered at the June 1999 ILO Conference and at other appropriate meetings of these organizations. We welcome the efforts of the World Bank to take better account of the needs of countries to overcome crises and assist them in setting up effective social safety nets.
Follow-up
17. We welcome the intention of the Heads of G8 Governments to discuss the themes of economic and social policies and the importance of human capital in a globalized world at the Cologne Summit on 18-20 June 1999.
18. We agree to continue our dialogue in a comprehensive way, particularly with economic ministers. We welcome Italy's and Canada's offers to host future meetings.
Appendix II
Address by Mr. Michel Hansenne,
Director-General of the International Labour Office
to the G8 Conference of Ministers of Labour
(Washington, DC, 24-26 February)
Five years ago the first "G7 Employment Summit" -- now expanded to G8 -- was held in Detroit. Five years during which the economic and social landscape has been transformed. So have common perceptions of what lies ahead and how to best address today's problems.
The so-called "Asian" crisis, paradoxically, has given a human face to a process largely defined until then by growth rates and other economic indicators. Respect for minimal standards of social justice is no longer seen merely as a by-product of economic development, but as a necessary precondition to it. This is welcome because social justice is not just a moral desiderata, but it makes good political sense -- and good business sense.
Thanks to the determination and overwhelming support of our constituents, not least all of you gathered here today, the consensual formulation of universal core standards of social justice has made very substantial progress in recent years. The process which started at the Social Summit in Copenhagen in 1995, has culminated in the adoption, last June, by the International Labour Conference of a Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Comprehensive monitoring and follow-up mechanisms give it a sharp edge -- "teeth", as some would put it. At the same time, we have registered a large number of ratifications of core labour standards attesting to the wish of governments to balance the economic and social sides of globalization and in particular countries affected by the recent financial crisis, as is the case of Indonesia.
What is, therefore, required today is an active commitment to achieve full respect for these standards and principles everywhere -- not over distant decades, but over the next few years. There is no question in my mind that it can be done, and that the ILO, with your support, is capable of putting this into practice in a constructive and promotional manner quickly. The key is the establishment of a transparent and credible monitoring system to identify needs and priority areas for technical cooperation projects aimed at building up national capacities.
Secondly, we should pursue our dialogue and intensify our cooperation with the Bretton Woods institutions -- and here again your influence will be of crucial importance. Obviously, financial markets need to be controlled and the debate on this is under way. Beyond that, it is imperative to ensure greater coherence between economic and social policies. Finally, ways and means must be found to make social safety nets sustainable, to back them up with viable institutions and to enhance their effectiveness through a permanent dialogue involving strong and independent social partners.
I am convinced that we have a unique opportunity to put in place a compact, as some would call it, or a project, in different terminology, which marries economic progress and social justice for all. In doing so, we can broaden and enrich the concept of good governance -- beyond considerations of efficiency, financial control and budgetary balance -- to include the social dimension which we all have a responsibility to promote and to implement in concrete terms. Your support in this endeavour will be crucial.
Let me thank you all for the confidence placed in the ILO and in myself by all the G8 members collectively and individually, and at the same time ask that you extend the same trust to my successor, as from next week, Ambassador Juan Somavia.
Intervention by Mr. Juan Somavia,
Director-General elect of the International Labour Office
to the G8 Conference of Ministers of Labour
(Washington, DC, 24-26 February 1999)
Madam Chairperson,
I am glad for this first opportunity to meet with all of you at a Labour Ministers' Conference of the G8. Concerning the future of ILO activities, I have made available to you the introduction of the ILO's next budget which moves from 39 major programmes to four strategic objectives. I will not dwell on it but am at your disposal for any query. Let me also express once more my recognition to Director-General Hansenne for all his support in making the transition process at the ILO harmonious and productive.
Allow me now to make some observations as to how the ILO can contribute, together with others in the international community, to place a social pillar under the emerging global economy.
I believe that the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work should constitute a basic minimum standard that is progressively implemented worldwide so that it becomes normal governmental policy and business practice. In many ways, these rights are the first institutional safety nets that women and men need as citizens and as workers, from bondage labour in the south to sweatshops in the north and different forms of gender discrimination throughout. I fully agree with Director-General Hansenne's presentation with respect to the need for effective promotional instruments and follow-up procedures within the ILO.
Beyond the ILO, there are also tasks that need to be done.
The Declaration should be acknowledged as a common objective by the multilateral system as a whole including the Bretton Woods institutions, given its universality and the fact that it stems from a mandate of Heads of State and governments at the World Summit for Social Development. Some, like the ILO, the UN Development Group and bilateral donors, will have proactive responsibilities to promote it through technical cooperation and other support initiatives. But all organizations should agree not to pursue policies, particularly structural adjustment policies, whose practical effects would be to actually undermine these rights in practice. I will make sure that a priority of my mandate is the cooperation with other relevant UN system bodies on this and other issues.
I wish to highlight the statement by Kofi Annan at Davos. He invited world business leaders to apply in their own operations the principles of the Declaration. The ILO will pursue the proposals made by the Secretary-General with firms present in Davos and employers' associations worldwide in order to cooperate with interested counterparts by contributing advice, technical assistance and a multicultural perspective in applying the Declaration.
G8 Governments can back these processes by instructing their delegates in all multilateral institutions, including international financial institutions to promote its system-wide application on a non-conditionality basis. Non-conditionality is key to the promotional success of the Declaration; if not, it runs the risk of losing legitimacy as a source of standard setting.
G8 Governments can also engage with employers' organizations of their own countries to explore ways in which their members can sign on to the Declaration in their own business policies with the cooperation of the ILO's tripartite structure. Enterprises of the developed world should be at the forefront of best practices.
These and other external activities and partnerships should stimulate greater international consciousness of the ILO's Declaration on workers' rights and create a more solid foundation -- with support from all regions of the world -- for the crucial in-house follow-up mechanisms to be established.
I believe that global concerted action of this sort will be key in addressing social safety net issues. Strong safety nets are needed at all times but only tested in crisis situations. Particularly in developing countries, there should be sustained progress in so-called "normal times" to enhance the social floor of both national economies and the global economy through greater social cohesion. If the Asian "tigers" had in fact proceeded to better implement workers' rights and other ingredients of strong safety nets in the good times, the painful impact on people's lives of the financial crisis would be less critical. It must be said, however, that they seldom received such sound policy advice from private and international institutions.
Let me end by reaffirming the basic tenets of the ILO's paper presented to this meeting. To my mind, the main question around this table of ministers is the political and financial viability of strengthened social safety nets in the framework of active labour policies and strengthened industrial relations systems and institutions for social dialogue.
I believe the world does not have an overall resource problem to deal with these issues if we creatively combine available private and public means. Rather, it is a question of national and international political priority and of business, trade union and civil society leadership. Policies are available. It is the capacity to act that must follow.
I am prepared for the ILO to promote the idea that beyond basic human rights, access to decent work is the single most important aspiration shared by women and men throughout all societies. I wish to mobilize and advocate for it and to help unleash through partnerships and alliances the energy, the consciousness and the political will to advance this global cause in practical terms. I urge the G8 to help make decent work a worldwide economic, social and political priority.
If we fail -- the dangers are many. The consensus on open societies and open economies which has been difficult to achieve, will lose legitimacy. We need to implement soon a third consensus on social development through real equality of opportunity in sustainable growth patterns. Its basic components have already been agreed on at the Social Summit. Again, we do not need to reinvent the wheel, we need to act. We know the backlash is brewing and it should be defused in time. By building a social pillar under the global economy, the ILO can make its own contribution to our collective efforts.