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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
ILO head calls on global community “to bring about the future of work that we all want
By International Labour Organization (ILO)
May 30, 2016 - 3:32:27 PM
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GENEVA (ILO News) ‒ The Director-General of the International Labour
Organization (ILO), Guy Ryder, has told delegates they must assume the
responsibilities of the ILO’s social justice mandate if the benefits of
transformative change at work are to
be realized.
Inequality, marginalization and division are not phenomena to which the
world of work must react but “the consequence of what we do, how we
behave, what we decide,” he said in opening remarks to the
105th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC).
The Director-General noted that the world has entered an era where
technology is generating innovate disruption of productive life. The
debate amongst those who celebrate and those who dread such developments
takes place against a background of inequality,
marginalisation, and division.
“If current trends towards and beyond already unacceptable levels of
inequality are allowed to continue ... ultimately all will be losers.”
Introducing his report to the ILC, this year entitled
The End to Poverty Initiative: The ILO and the 2030 Agenda,
Ryder warned that, “The very wealth creating capacity that offers the
prospect of consigning poverty to history also risks taking us further
away from social justice rather than carrying us towards it.”
The Director-General called upon delegates to have this broader context
in mind as they went about their work in the coming fortnight.
Committees of workers, employers and government representatives will be
considering how best to promote decent work in
Global Supply Chains, and
revising Recommendation 71 ‒ the ILO instrument providing guidance for responding to crisis through employment and job creation.
Another committee will evaluate the landmark
2008 ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization,
looking at how the Declaration has been promoted and implemented in the
past and asking what more can be done to improve the application of the
Declaration to meet decent work objectives in the future.
Ryder encouraged the continuing work on reviewing Labour Standards by the
Committee on the Application of Standards, noting that “a strong, authoritative and relevant standards system is a precondition of an effective, influential ILO”.
This Conference will also vote on approving proposed amendments to the
Maritime Labour Convention 2006, to modify rules
around Maritime Labour Certificates, and to provide guidance on
shipboard bullying and harassment. Another vote will be to adopt
proposed changes to modernise
seafarers’ identity documents as referred to in
Convention 185.
The first day of the Conference also saw
Mildred Oliphant elected as president of the International Labour Conference over its duration from
30 May to 10 June. Oliphant has been the Minister of Labour of the Republic of South Africa since November
2010.
The Conference elected as Vice-Presidents, Ramón Alberto Morales Quijano
(Governments) from Panama, Alberto Echavarría (Employers) from Colombia
and Eric Manzi (Workers) from Rwanda.
The International Labour Conference (ILC) sets the broad policies of the
International Labour Organization (ILO) and meets once a year in
Geneva, Switzerland. The annual “world parliament of labour” brings
together more than 5,000 government, worker and employer
delegates from the ILO’s 187 member States.
© Copyright 2016 by thebahamasweekly.com
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