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| Sunday, 1 May 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
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International Labour Organisation : The champion of labour rights
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is the foremost organisation in the world that deals with labour rights. The ILO is a UN specialised agency that promotes social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights. The ILO was founded in 1919. It is considered as the only existing organisation of the Treaty of Versailles which brought the League of Nations into being and it became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946. What are the major functions of the ILO, you might wonder. The organisation formulates international labour standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labour rights such as freedom of association, the right to organise, collective bargaining, abolition of forced labour, equality of opportunity and treatment, and other standards regulating conditions of work related issues. The ILO provides technical assistance primarily in the fields of vocational training and vocational rehabilitation, employment policy, labour administration, labour law and industrial relations, working conditions, management development, cooperatives, social security, labour statistics and occupational safety and health. The organisation promotes the development of independent employers' and workers' organisations and provides training and advisory services to those organisations. It achieves its work through three main bodies, all of which encompass the unique feature of the Organisation: its tripartite (three part) structure, which consists of government, employers and workers. International Labour Conference The member States of the ILO meet at the International Labour Conference in June each year, in Geneva. Each member State is represented by two government delegates, an employer delegate and a worker delegate. They are accompanied by technical advisors. It is generally the Cabinet Ministers responsible for labour affairs in their own countries who head the delegations, take the floor and present their governments' points of view. Employer and worker delegates can express themselves and vote according to instructions received from their organizations. They sometimes vote against each other or even against their government representatives. The Conference plays a very important role. It establishes and adopts international labour standards. It acts as a forum where social and labour questions of importance to the entire world are discussed. The Conference also adopts the budget of the Organization and elects the Governing Body. The Governing Body The Governing Body is the executive council of the ILO and meets three times a year in Geneva. It takes decisions on the ILO's policy. It establishes the programme and the budget which is then submitted to the Conference for adoption. It also elects the Director-General. It is composed of 28 government members, 14 employer members and 14 worker members. Ten of the government seats are permanently held by States of chief industrial importance. Representatives of other member countries are elected at the Conference every three years, taking into account the geographical distribution. The employers and workers elect their own representatives respectively. The International Labour Office This is the Permanent Secretariat of the International Labour Organisation and focal point for the overall activities that it prepares under the examination of the Governing Body and under the leadership of a Director-General, who is elected for a five-year renewable term. The Office employs some 1,900 officials of over 110 nationalities at the Geneva headquarters and in 40 field offices around the world. **** Child Labour
By ratifying the ILO Convention No. 182, the countries commit themselves to take immediate action to prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour. The World Day against Child Labour 2005 celebrated on June 12 will especially focus on child labour in mines and quarries. **** History... The International Labour Organization was set up in 1919, at the end of the First World War, at the time of the Peace Conference which convened first in Paris, then at Versailles. It was in the 19th century that two industrialists, Robert Owen (1771-1853) of Wales and Daniel Legrand (1783-1859) of France pointed out the need for such an organization to protect the labour force. The ILO Constitution was written between January and April 1919, by the Labour Commission set up by the Peace Conference. The Commission was composed of representatives from nine countries, Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, under the chairmanship of Samuel Gompers, Head of the American Federation of Labour (AFL). It resulted in a three party organization, the only one of its kind bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive bodies. The ILO Constitution became Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles. The first annual International Labour Conference, composed of two representatives from the government, and one each from employers' and workers' organizations from each member State, met in Washington beginning on October 29, 1919. It adopted the first six International Labour Conventions, which dealt with hours of work in industry, unemployment, maternity protection, night work for women, minimum age and night work for young persons in industry. |
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Today is International Labour Day. Countries around the world will pay
tribute to millions of workers and draw special attention to issues
related to labour rights. 
It is not only the adult workers that are safeguarded by the ILO. The
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) of the
ILO is working hard to eliminate child labour from the world. 
