24 International Labour Organisation (ILO)

Jessica Lawrence

Introduction

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations specialized agency responsible for coordinating labour-related activities within the UN system. Its objective is to promote social justice and international peace by ensuring decent work and safe and adequate employment conditions for all people.

The ILO works to improve global labour standards and employment opportunities on behalf of its 185 Member States. It has defined four strategic objectives for its work:

Promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights at work;

Create greater opportunities for women and men to decent employment and income; Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all;

Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue

In pursuit of these goals, the ILO engages in a wide variety of activities. It works to create international labour standards, promote them, and supervise their application. It sets out international policies for promoting human rights, improving working conditions, and expanding employment. It offers technical assistance to countries to help them implement ILO standards and programs. And it engages in training, education, and research on labour and employment issues.

The ILO is a prolific lawmaker, having promulgated 189 international labour conventions, 6 protocols, and 203 recommendations on various matters of concern. It is also a major source of labour statistics, covering various aspects of employment in over 200 countries and at the global level.

Learning outcomes:

• To understand the nature and work of the ILO.
• To understand its scope and objectives.
• To see how the ILO is preserving and protecting human rights.

History

Labour and employment have long been concerns of the international community, and international action on this front dates back to the 1800s. Industrialist Robert Owen (who coined the slogan “Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest”), for example, began advocating for international action on labour conditions as early as 1816, when he brought his proposals to the Vienna Peace Conference.

The first international organization created for the purpose of expanding labour protection was the International Association for Labour Legislation (IALL), founded in Basel, Switzerland in 1900. The IALL was not an intergovernmental organization, but rather was a voluntary body composed of sections with representatives of labour organizations, reformers, economists, members of national Ministries of Labour and others. The IALL’s aims were to facilitate the study of and provide information regarding labour legislation, to promote international agreements on labour and workers’ protection, to establish an international system of statistics, and to organize an ‘international labour office’ to serve as a center for these functions. The Association created the original International Labour Office at its first meeting in Basel in 1901. The Association and Office were responsible for the creation of two international conventions on labour issues, one regulating night work for women, and the White Phosphorous Convention of 1906, which prohibited the manufacturing of matches using white phosphorus, a substance that was extremely hazardous to the health of workers in match factories. The responsibilities of the International Labour Office were taken over by the International Labour Organization (ILO) when it came into being after the first World War.

The ILO was founded in 1919, as an agency of the League of Nations. It was created as Part XIII (Labour) of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I. The inclusion of labour in the Treaty of Versailles is highly symbolic, demonstrating the view that peace and labour rights were inextricably linked. As the preamble to the ILO Constitution puts it, “universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice.”

The ILO’s Constitution was drafted by a Commission chaired by then-head of the American Federation of Labour Samuel Gompers, in association with representatives from Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the UK and the US.

The ILO was very active in its early years, adopting six international labour conventions (on work in industry, unemployment, maternity protection, night work for women, minimum age, and night work for young persons in industry) in its first year of operation.

An early challenge came in the early 1920s, when the French Government contested the Organization’s right to deal with questions of Agricultural Labour—a question that was referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice (precursor to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)), and decided in favor of the ILO.

In 1944, in the midst of World War II, representatives came together to adopt the Declaration of Philadelphia, which amended and clarified the aims and objectives of the ILO. The Declaration was annexed to the ILO Constitution, and continues to guide the organization’s work today.

The ILO became a specialized agency of the UN in 1946.

In 1969 the ILO received the Nobel Peace Prize for its work.

The Institution

The ILO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It also maintains a number of field offices throughout the world.

The organization has a unique ‘tripartite’ structure, bringing together representatives of its 185 member governments, employers, and workers in its executive bodies.

The ILO is composed of three bodies: a General Conference of representatives of the Members; a Governing Body; and an International Labour Office.

The General Conference meets once a year in June and is composed of four representatives from each Member State: two government delegates, one delegate representing the interests of employers, and one delegate representing the interests of workers. The General Conference is responsible for adopting recommendations and conventions, as well as deciding the ILO’s work program, policy, and budget.

The Governing Body consists of 56 members elected to three-year terms, 28 representing governments (including 10 to be held by nations of ‘chief industrial importance’), 14 representing employers’ interests, and 14 representing workers’ interests. Its tasks include setting the agenda for the General Conference, adopting the draft ILO budget for submission to the General Conference, and supervising the functions of the International Labour Office.

The International Labour Office carries out the daily tasks of the ILO. It is headed by a Director-

General, who is appointed by the Governing Body for a five-year term. The ILO’s current Director-

General is Guy Ryder, who began his term in October 2012.

A Committee of Experts (established in 1926) composed of independent jurists is responsible for monitoring and reporting on the implementation of ILO standards.

Role as a Forum for Human Rights

A number of human rights are relevant to the protection of labour, including the rights to freedom from slavery and servitude, freedom of association, non-discrimination, the right to work, and the right to leisure. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that:

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 20

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 23

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. 

(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

The codification of international human rights law into the binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) brought with it a separation of these rights into two groups. Civil and political labour rights are protected by the ICCPR, under which:

Article 8

(1) No one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave-trade in all their forms shall be prohibited.

(2) No one shall be held in servitude.

(3) No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour…

Article 22

Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests…

Meanwhile, economic, social and cultural labour rights are protected under the ICESCR, according to which:

Article 6

The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right.

The steps to be taken by a State Party to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include technical and vocational guidance and training programmes, policies and techniques to achieve steady economic, social and cultural development and full and productive employment under conditions safeguarding fundamental political and economic freedoms to the individual.

Article 7

The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work which ensure, in particular:

Remuneration which provides all workers, as a minimum, with:

(i) Fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of any kind, in particular women being guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to those enjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal work;

(ii) A decent living for themselves and their families in accordance with the provisions of the present Covenant;

Safe and healthy working conditions;

Equal opportunity for everyone to be promoted in his employment to an appropriate higher level, subject to no considerations other than those of seniority and competence;

Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as remuneration for public holidays.

Article 8

The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to ensure:

(a) The right of everyone to form trade unions and join the trade union of his choice, subject only to the rules of the organization concerned, for the promotion and protection of his economic and social interests. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public order or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others;

(b) The right of trade unions to establish national federations or confederations and the right of the latter to form or join international trade-union organizations;

(c) The right of trade unions to function freely subject to no limitations other than those prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public order or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others;

(d) The right to strike, provided that it is exercised in conformity with the laws of the particular country. …

The result of this splitting of rights has been an uneven level of implementation and enforcement, such that the civil and political labour rights contained in the ICCPR (non-discrimination, freedom of association, freedom from forced labour) have received a greater degree of protection than the economic, social and cultural rights contained in the ICESCR (right to work, right to adequate working conditions, right to leisure, right to strike).

Additional protections are included in many international and regional instruments, including the major UN treaties, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the African Convention on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and many others.

Approaching labour through the lens of rights is important, because it frames things like the ability to strike, a fair minimum wage, freedom of association, and non-discrimination as legal entitlements, rather than as aid or charity.

All UN entities must abide by the UN Charter, which establishes human rights as a major institutional goal:

We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small…

In this context, the ILO’s work in producing labour conventions, offering technical assistance to improve employment opportunities and conditions, and setting human rights standards for work contribute directly to every person’s rights to adequate work, freedom from forced labour, and safe and healthy conditions of employment.

Human rights are explicitly included in the operation’s mandate as set out in the Declaration of Philadelphia. Article 1 of that document asserts that “freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress” and Article 2 maintains that “all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity.” Article 3 sets out a list of human rights-relevant goals of the ILO, including “full employment and raising of standards of living”, “recognition of the right of collective bargaining”, “the extension of social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care”, “adequate protection for the life and health of workers”, “provision for child welfare and maternity protection”, “the provision of adequate nutrition, housing and facilities for recreation and culture” and “the assurance of equality of educational and vocational opportunity”.

The 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work further elaborates on the way in which ILO Member States are to make human rights central to their labour regulation:

…all Members, even if they have not ratified the Conventions in question, have an obligation arising from the very fact of membership in the Organization to respect, to promote and to realize, in good faith and in accordance with the Constitution, the principles concerning the fundamental rights which are the subject of those Conventions, namely:

(a) freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

(b) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;

(c) the effective abolition of child labour; and

(d) the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

These human rights principles are further elabourated in the eight ‘core’ ILO Conventions, which explain the scope and content of these rights:

Convention No. 29: Forced Labour (1930)

Convention No. 87: Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize (1948)

Convention No. 98: Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining (1949)

Convention No. 100: Equal Remuneration (1951)

Convention No. 105: Abolition of Forced Labour (1957)

Convention No. 111: Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) (1958)

Convention No. 138: Minimum Age Convention (1973)

Convention No. 182: Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999)

In order to ensure the implementation of the Declaration and the human rights contained therein, the ILO assists Member States through offering technical cooperation and policy advice. It also requires Member States to report regularly on their progress regarding implementation of these conventions. Even Member States that have not ratified these conventions must report on the position of their law and practice regarding the conventions’ subject matter. In addition to these supervisory mechanisms, the ILO also has a complaint procedure through which governments and ILO delegates can examine allegations that the provisions of a ratified convention are not being effectively observed.

Summary

Despite these efforts to expand its role and mainstream human rights throughout its activities, some questions and criticism of the ILO’s approach remain. To begin with, the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work only lists four rights as ‘fundamental’, leaving aside many of the rights contained in the ICESCR, such as the right to a minimum wage. Scholars and activists were highly critical of this move, arguing that the ILO was ‘shrinking’ the scope of labour rights.

From an institutional perspective, in 2011 the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) dealt a blow to the organization when it decided to cut funding to the ILO, along with several other UN agencies, after a review in which it claimed to find serious problems with ILO’s working methods. In particular, although DFID found that though ILO is “making some progress on gender issues and there is some evidence of good partnership behaviour”, it also noted that the ILO “has limited impact on UK and international poverty objectives and needs to reform its field structure to improve delivery. It also needs to improve its results reporting, transparency and cost effectiveness.” As the report put it:

There remains little evidence to of tangible gender results being achieved on the ground so far…

ILO needs to restructure and improve its internal processes to enable it to deliver more effectively on the ground…

Beneficiary voice needs to be incorporated into policy making and programme design…

Some good practice on transparency and accountability, such as a clear disclosure policy, but insufficient data available in the public domain on expenditure and results…

The ILO’s broad focus and complex governance structure currently combine to make rapid and substantive change highly unlikely.

The ILO responded to this blow by issuing a statement attesting that it would “study in detail the outcome of the DFID Multilateral Aid Review,” but was “surprised by the conclusions” in the report and argued that the review’s “findings are not necessarily accurate” due to the small number of country projects examined. The ILO further invited DFID to continue the discussion by working together to improve the organization’s performance while continuing work in the future.

Reference

• ILO, “Mission and Objectives,” available at www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/mission-and-objectives/lang–en/index.htm
• Charles Howard Ellis, The Origin, Structure & Working of the League of Nations (1929).
• International Labour Organization Constitution (1919).
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
• Philip Alston & J Heenan, “Shrinking the International Labor Code: An Unintended Consequence of the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work?” NYU Journal of Law & Policy 221 (2004).
• Philip Alston, “Core Labour Standards and the Transformation of the International Labour Rights Regime,” 15 European Journal of International Law 457 (2004).
• B. Langille, “Core Labour Rights—The True Story (Reply to Alston),” 16 European Journal of International Law 409 (2005).
• Department for International Development, Multilateral Aid Review: Ensuring Maximum Value for Money for UK Aid through Multilateral Organizations (March 2011).
• ILO, “ILO Comments on UK Department for International Development Multilateral Aid Review” (2 March 2011), available at http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_152533/lang–en/index.htm