Promoting Implementation of Labour Rights in Armenia Together

Background and Scope

Successive governments in Armenia have initiated reforms that have weakened institutions vital for ensuring the promotion and enforcement of labour laws. This has left workers vulnerable, a large informal sector and little awareness of the link between working conditions and productivity. The current government has taken some steps to strengthen relevant institutions, but much remains to be done to build an effective compliance system.

Project outcomes

The ILO recognizes that there is a direct link between high performing labour market institutions (labour inspectorate, courts, and workers and employers organizations), the protection of labour rights and the rule of law.

Within the Framework of the Project the ILO will provide tailored advice and tools to nudge these labour market institutions to 1) better deliver what they can and should deliver by themselves, 2) better deliver what they can and should deliver in partnership with other institutions of work, and 3) better influence other stakeholders to better deliver what those bodies can and should deliver within their spheres of operation and influence, all in the pursuit of compliance and decent work. This approach, with a focus on mining and services, will ensure that labour market institutions contribute to greater compliance with national labour law.

Strategic compliance

The project aims to build a strategic compliance system. Achieving compliance requires looking beyond the traditional enforcement model, towards a strategic compliance model. This requires 1) the use of proactive, targeted and tailored strategies, based on data-driven diagnoses of compliance influences, which 2) more effectively target priority issues and employers, 3) engage stakeholders inside and outside of government, and 4) tailor a combination of deterrents, incentives, awareness-raising, and guidance interventions to empower workers to exercise their rights and motivate employers to meet their duty to comply.

Sector-specific tools and piloting

The ILO considers that it is not possible to improve the government’s capacity to enforce and promote labour law for specific sectors only, without improving this capacity for the economy as a whole. The ILO also considers, however, that it is good practice to develop sector-specific tools to address sector-specific problems and subsequently determine if lessons-learnt from the application of these tools can be replicated in other sectors or even the economy as whole. Having consulted the social partners, the ILO considers that mining and services are sectors that, on the one hand require the development of sector-specific tools, and on the other hand constitute good “testing grounds” for the possible wider application of lessons-learnt. Further information/justifications on the selection of target sectors are provided in the Project Targets Section of the proposal.

Specific project outcomes

In assisting Armenia in improving the government’s enforcement and promotion of labour rights, the project will simultaneously work on the achievement of three inter-related outcomes. Particularly: improvement of the systems in the appropriate government institutions for enforcing and promoting Armenia’s labour laws and standards in the mining and services sectors, increasing access to judicial and non-judicial remedies related to labour laws and standards and active participation of social partners in promotion of compliance and access to remedies.

The Project is funded by the United States Department of Labour /USDOL/(Grant No IL-35631-20-75-K).