ILO AND THE DECENT WORK AGENDA

							ILO AND THE DECENT WORK
         AGENDA

               Tayo Fashoyin

 Director, ILO Subregional Office for Southern Africa
 (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia,
   South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe)


                                                        1
History and structure of the ILO

 1.The ILO

 2.Declaration of Philadelphia

 3.Tripartite Structure

 4.1969 Nobel Peace Prize

 5.A specialised Agency of the UN


                                    2
TRIPARTISM IN THE ILO




                        3
  The Decent Work Agenda

The ILO’s Primary Objective Today
is to promote opportunities for
women and men to obtain decent
and productive work, in conditions
of freedom, equity, security and
human dignity.

The Decent Work Agenda has been
adopted by the AU, UN General
Assembly, EC and ECOSOC

                                     4
    ILO 4 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
   Promotion of standards and
    fundamental principles and rights at
    work
       RIGHTS
   Creation of employment
       DIGNITY
   Strengthening of social protection
       SAFETY & PROTECTION
   Strengthening of social dialogue
       VOICE & DIALOGUE



    =    DECENT WORK
                                           5
  Strategic Objective 1:
 Human rights and work

1.Declaration of fundamental principles
  and rights at work

2.International Labour Standards (ILS)

     Conventions
     Recommandations



                                          6
    Strategic Objective 2:
   Employment and incomes
1. Decent Work and Income Opportunities

2. Employment strategies

3. Skills development

4. Recovery and reconstruction

5. Gender promotion

6. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
                                          7
     Strategic Objective 3:
Strengthening social protection
      and social security
 1. Social Protection

 2. Social Security

 3. Income Security

 4. Occupational Health and Safety

 5. HIV and AIDS - a cross-cutting issue
                                           8
    Strategic Objective 4:




Strengthening social dialogue among
government, employers and workers
through consultation, negotiation
and information sharing.



                                      9
             In Summary
   Decent work encompasses respect for
    basic rights, access to employment,
    safe and healthy working conditions,
    and social security.

   Decent work comes about through
    social dialogue.

   Social Dialogue is both a means and an
    end.                               10
     Decent Work Country
     Programmes (DWCPs)

 The DWCP is the integrated expression of
the ILO’s contribution and support to decent
work as a national objective in every member
state.

The DWCPs are developed in line with
national development priorities, AU Plan of
Action, MDGs and the CCA/UNDAF processes.



                                          11
       Status of Agricultural
      Workers - an Overview
   Waged Agricultural Workers…450 million, the largest
    labour force on earth
   Of the 246 million children who go to work 70% are
    in agriculture
   Out of a total of 335,000 fatal workplace accidents
    worldwide, there are some 170,000 deaths among
    agricultural workers mostly women and children
   Each year 22 000 children are killed on the job ,
    most in agriculture
   Agriculture is ranked as one of the most hazardous
    industries together with mining and construction
   7 million agricultural workers have died from AIDS
    since 1985 in the 25 hardest hit countries in Africa
                                                       12
Comparing the ideal situation and
the situation on the ground we
can identify Decent Work Deficits

   This group suffers higher incidences
    of poverty and hunger
   Economic pressures are eroding
    protection levels in terms of wages
    levels, job security,health, safety and
    environmental standards and social
    protection …Agricultural Workers and their contribution to
      sustainable agriculture and rural development, FAO,ILO,IUF


                                                                   13
         Decent Work Deficits
               …cont.
   Decent work deficits are pervasive in the
    agricultural sector. They are expressed in

       the widespread denial of rights at work,
       in poor quality employment and high
        levels of unemployment,
       in unsafe working conditions and lack of
        income security,
       and finally in the inadequate
        representation of agricultural workers in
        the social dialogue which WOULD improve
        their working lives.
                                                 14
The summary of Decent Work
Deficits (in 4 ILO Strategic Objectives)

   Rights deficit: The informal economy is where
    the workers' rights are in greatest deficit in
    terms of freedom of association, collective
    bargaining, forced labour and discrimination at
    work. There exists the “rights” gap due to
    inappropriate or inapplicable labour legislation.

   Employment deficit: In the absence of
    employment opportunities in the formal
    economy, less productive and less
    remunerative and own account work in the
    informal economy increases, during this
    process, survival jobs manifest themselves,
    bringing erosion of all forms to human dignity.
                                                        15
        The summary of Decent
        Work Deficits                    (in 4 ILO Strategic Objectives cont…


   Social protection deficit:

       Insecurity of work, income and absence of protection at
        workplace
       Low income and productivity forces people to work with
        serious occupational safety and hazards
       HIV/AIDs, The pandemic has resulted in employment
        discrimination, social exclusion, gender-related inequalities
        and child labour. It impacts negatively on employment as it
        affects people in the most productive age groups (15-49). It
        results in low productivity and depleted human capital. It has
        challenged social security systems and threatened occupation
        safety and health among certain groups at risk such as migrant
        workers and their families and workers
       Lack of benefits from social protection schemes - this has been
        further compounded by the problem of compliance and
        governance in terms of contribution to the social
        security/protection schemes, due to adverse working
        conditions.                                                 16
      The summary of Decent Work
       Deficits (in 4 ILO Strategic Objectives cont…
   Representational deficit:

    Rural agriculture workers are excluded
    from or under-represented in social
    dialogue institutions and processes due to
    the absence of employer-employee
    relations at work and also due to denial of
    the rights to organize resulting from
    temporary nature of work.


                                                       17
     Agriculture and Basic
        Rights at work

   The right to join and/or form independent
    and democratic workers' organizations of
    one's own choosing is a cornerstone of the
    ILO's stance on social justice.

   Already in 1921 the ILO adopted a
    Convention extending to agricultural
    workers the same rights of association as
    for industrial workers.

    For agricultural workers, numerous
    obstacles remain.                           18
                The Challenges
   In many cases, labour laws are not applied
    because employers and workers are unfamiliar
    with the details of the law, application is found to
    be impractical in agricultural enterprises or
    enforcement is weak. - For example, exclusions
    based on the size of an undertaking or on the
    contractual status of the worker are common

       Trade union organizations are generally weak in rural
        areas, with little more than 2 to 7% of the workforce
        organized, with some exceptions as in Latin America and
        Central and Eastern Europe.
       Collective bargaining is often limited to large
        plantations. Seasonal, migrant and casual labour
        processes,
       and the added constraints of high illiteracy
        levels, ignorance of workers' rights, and isolation;

   all these render the task of organizing among rural
    workers particularly difficult.                          19
     But all is not lost!!!

ILO tripartite bodies have
consistently recalled the need to
apply in practice basic labour rights
in rural areas and strengthen rural
workers' organizations.


                                    20
        Organizing …. in Rural
                Areas
    Addressing the Decent Work Deficits
   A tool for archiving sustainable
    livelihood, development and inevitably reduce
    poverty; a way of mitigating the impact of
    HIV/AIDS

   It is in the interest of governments too;
      It promotes participatory/good governance

      Contributes to the eradication of poverty (MDG
        I)
      Implementation of the AU action plan on poverty
        alleviation (Ouaga AU Heads of State Special
        Summit on Poverty reduction)                  21
    And the benefits of Social Dialogue
   social dialogue is the means by which
    workers, employers and their representatives engage
    in debate and interchange on the means to achieve
    this. Employment creation is the essential instrument
    for raising living standards and widening access to
    incomes
   Social dialogue echoes the needs and aspirations of
    its constituents. Its relevance depends on whether all
    segments of society can make their voices heard



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             THANK YOU

      INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION
Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa (SRO-Harare)
  8 Arundel Office Park, Norfolk Road, Mt. Pleasant,
           P.O. Box 210, Harare, Zimbabwe
           Telephones: (263-4) 369805-12
                Fax: (263-4) 369813-4
 E-mail: harare@ilo.org, harare@ilosroharare.org.zw
          Website: www.ilo.org/sroharare




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