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Labour administration and inspection in the modern world

Issue date
ILO speech

Sam Gurney

16 June 2011

Sam Gurney of the TUC, workers' group spokesperson in the committee looking at labour administration and inspection, made the following speech in moving the adoption of the report of the committee at the International Labour Organisation conference today.

Our work in the CAT goes to the very heart of the basic mission of the ILO and I was proud as worker spokesperson to play a small role in this. This is especially the case when I look back at the role some of the giants of the British Labour movement have played in this area.

In 1919 Ernest Bevin and George Barnes saw the newly created ILO, in the post-first world war world, as a vital tool to establish the basic rights that unions could build upon, they recognised the essential need for strong public labour administration and inspection systems.

Two and a half decades later, Clement Attlee, Labour party leader and deputy prime minister in the British war time coalition during the second world war flew to Philadelphia to take part in the ILO conference because he to saw the crucial need for the ILO to renew itself and prepare for the aftermath of that global conflict. Out of that conference emerged the Declaration of Philadelphia which placed renewed stress on the necessity for strong labour administration and inspection.

In the 21st century the work of the ILO has expanded, but the need for a basic foundation of public labour administration and inspection to ensure Decent Work and social justice, alongside strong workers' organisations remains more crucial than ever and needs an urgent reinforcement. What has changed and what we tried to address in our committee is the sheer diversity of the global workforce.

We are pleased that the committee conclusions are strong and unequivocal on the essential point that labour administration and inspection needs to cover all workers:

  • those in the formal and informal economy;
  • those in rural and agricultural employment;
  • home-based workers and crucially in the light of the our new convention, domestic workers, although from the deeply disappointing interventions of my British government and employer counterparts in the debate this appears not yet to be recognised by everyone;
  • workers in subcontracted, outsourced, disguised and triangular employment relations;
  • workers in the public sector;
  • migrant workers and those posted across borders;
  • workers in extended global supply chains, including in Economic Processing Zones; and
  • that it must be at the heart of combating child and forced labour.

All workers have rights and all workers need protection.

We also reaffirmed the key points that these services are:

  • public functions;
  • that labour and employment ministries must be at the heart of policy development at a national level to ensure coherent government approaches that deliver job rich growth and decent work;
  • that genuine, timely and effective social dialogue and tripartite working is essential to ensure effective operation, as are effective enforcement and sanctions mechanisms; and
  • that notwithstanding the crisis, and indeed in part because of it, more resources are required. Investment in public employment and inspection services is exactly that an investment.

So is our basic mission any different today from that of the founders of the ILO, has the mandate of the ILO changed? No. But the circumstances in which we work are changing and the ILO must adapt.

Labour administration and labour inspection remain among the core business of the ILO, however this has to be reaffirmed again, including in terms of resources and staff, both within the ILO and at national level.

In this regard I would make a particular appeal to governments who provide additional voluntary support to the ILO not to neglect the importance of this area; something sadly my own ministry of international development in the UK has recently done by cutting nearly all its partnership funding to this organisation.

In the final section of the conclusions we have set down a series of concrete proposals which the office with our support as constituents needs to act on. I won't list them all, but they are all concrete and necessary.

To highlight some of the most significant:

  • work to promote the ratification and implementation of the labour administration and labour inspection conventions and protocol 81;
  • more in-depth research and data collection around labour inspection, in particular on strategies to ensure coverage of all workers by inspection and on compliance through government procurement;
  • a tripartite experts meeting on private auditing initiatives: We have a real concern that the growth in these initiatives will undermine public inspection;
  • the development of strategies to promote the application and enforcement of labour legislation for workers in the public sector (who are often excluded) and workers in the informal economy, rural economies, EPZs and domestic workers;
  • active work to promote national tripartite dialogue, hopefully through specific committees that will deal with the challenges of labour law enforcement in new forms of employment, making use of the provisions of the R198 on the employment relationship to determine which workers should be covered by labour legislation; and
  • an increased focus on the role of ILO regional offices in the promotion of labour administration and inspection which is crucial, both in terms of promotion and in securing financial resources. Priorities for Decent Work Country programmes should include the need for enhanced and effective inspection systems.

We know that we can't keep asking the ILO to do more with less, but this area of work is not just a part of the ILO's role it is, after the setting of standards, the very foundations upon which all else this house does is based.

The task before us all now, both constituents and the office is to make sure that we act and build on these conclusions, that we don't pat ourselves on the back and say job well done, but that we make every effort to take them forward as the basis for our work as the ILO seeks to achieve Decent Work for all.

I commend the report to you.

Thank you President.

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