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ILO standards and TUC priorities

Issue date
Speech to the ILO Plenary

Sam Gurney, TUC delegate

19 June 2013

Speech by Sam Gurney, the UK worker delegate to the ILO Conference 2013 and member of the ILO Governing Body.

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There is much that I would like to respond to in this year's report by the Director General.

The subtitle of the report, 'realities, renewal and tripartite commitment', neatly encapsulates the challenge before us. How do we equip ourselves and this organisation to face the massive, growing challenge to deliver social justice and decent work.

The report is welcome in its honesty in setting out some of the problems in regard to the institutional challenges ahead.

In chapter 2 the Director General sets out four areas in need of urgent work.

  • tripartism and representative legitimacy;
  • standards;
  • coherence; and
  • the ILO and enterprises

We agree with this analysis.

The grim reality of what happens when we fail to meet these challenges was shown in the most tragic terms with the Rana Plaza factory collapse in April.

We began the first workers' group meeting of this conference with a minute's silence to remember the dead and their families and I hope they are still in our thoughts now.

This wasn't some terrible natural disaster, it was a totally preventable catastrophe caused by a combination of deliberate actions, negligence and systemic failures.

For years, workers' organisations on the ground, global union federations and other campaigners have been trying to secure genuine rights to freedom of association and legal safeguards in Bangladesh.

A version of the agreement that has now become the Bangladesh Safety Accord was on the table long before these workers died, but with a few honourable exceptions there was little support for it from some of the largest brand names in the world, many based in my own country.

Most of them obfuscated, raised objections and pointed to the problems of dealing with their counterparts and the authorities in Bangladesh.

The reaction in the aftermath was very different, although some like Arcadia, Gap and Wal-Mart still seem to be seeking a way to avoid actually agreeing to binding agreements involving workers. Many others have chosen to join in a tripartite approach, with the ILO now taking a central part in ensuring it works in reality.

But the question we still have to ask is why did it take the death of over a thousand people before we could secure this progress? Why, even now, are some employers saying they are being 'forced' into taking steps that they should have taken as a matter of course and why is the government proposing legal reforms that will still not bring them into full compliance with ILO standards?

In finding solutions to the points raised by the Director General in chapter 2 of his report we must always keep at the centre of our thinking: 'how can the work of a renewed ILO help to prevent such disasters occurring again?'

It is not my intention to single out Bangladesh because sadly it is far from unique. The Committee on the Application of Standards this year has allowed us to focus on many countries with a massive decent work deficit. Once again we have seen countries like Fiji, Guatemala and Swaziland having to account for a lack of progress in supporting the most basic rights to freedom of association.

And at home in Britain, the situation faced by working people is deteriorating fast. Our unions are at the forefront of the campaign for an alternative agenda, quite literally for 'a future that works', with a campaign focused on 5 interlinked areas;

  • Jobs Growth and a New Economy - (fighting back against austerity and developing an economy that serves the people)
  • Fair Pay and a Living Wage - (defending and improving living standards)
  • Good Services and Decent Welfare - (standing up for a society with quality public services)
  • Respect and a Voice at Work - (defending and extending workers rights) and
  • Strong Unions - (building our organising in the workplace and in the community)

When I consider these and then read across to the Director General's report, when I look at the seven centenary initiatives proposed in Section 3 and review the eight areas of critical importance laid out in the programme and budget together with the progress already made with ILO organisational reform and the commitment of the ILO to ensuring that Decent Work is at the heart of the global Post 2015 Development Goals, I think we are right to have some hope.

But if, and only if, we work together and If, and only if, we recommit to genuine tripartism and working for a body of standards that is fit for all.

Conference full consideration of the disastrous alternatives if we cannot do this, should make us all redouble our efforts when we finally leave here on Thursday.

Thank you for listening.

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