International Labour Standards,

Decent Work
and
Social Dialogue
Dr. Rahul Suresh Sapkal (PhD)
Assistant Professor (Economics)
School of Management and Labour Studies
TISS Mumbai
GL.11
• The ILO’s mandate to strive for a better future for all in the world of
work requires it […] to understand and anticipate the
transformational drivers of change which are already in operation;
and to be ready to respond rapidly to events and challenges which
cannot reasonably be predicted. […] it seems inconceivable that the
ILO’s quest for social justice could be carried out satisfactorily if the
Organization did not continue to reach out to the most vulnerable.
[…] the ILO […] will rightly be judged by what we do for the weakest
and most disadvantaged, for those in poverty, without work,
without opportunity, prospects or hope, for those suffering denial of
fundamental rights and freedoms….
-Guy Ryder, Director-General of the ILO, 2016
• BUILDING A GLOBAL ECONOMY WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE
• Towards a fair globalization (ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair
Globalization, 2008)
• Vulnerability in the world of work
• The Future of Work at stake
• The energy transition as an opportunity?
A path to full and productive employment
and decent work for all: The 2030 goals
• At the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, decent
work and the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda – employment
creation, social protection, rights at work and social dialogue –
became the central elements of the new Sustainable Development
Agenda 2030.
• An international legal framework for fair and stable globalization
• A level playing field for all
• A means of improving economic performance
• A safety net in times of economic crisis
• A strategy for reducing poverty
What are the ILS’s?
• International labour standards are the result of discussions among governments,
employers and workers, in consultation with experts from around the world.
• It represent the international consensus on how a particular labour problem
could be addressed at the global level and reflect knowledge and experience
from all corners of the world.
• Governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, international institutions,
multinational enterprises and non-governmental organizations can benefit from
this knowledge by incorporating the standards in their policies, operational
objectives and day-to-day action.
• The legal nature of the standards means that they can be used in legal systems
and administrations at the national level, and as part of the corpus of
international law which can bring about greater integration of the international
community.
• Are they binding?
The eight fundamental Conventions are:
• the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise
Convention, 1948 (No. 87) •
• the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)
• • the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) (and its 2014 Protocol)
• • the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)
• • the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)
• • the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
• • the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100)
• • the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No.
111)
Governance (priority) Conventions For
promoting ILS’s
• • the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) (and its Protocol
of 1995)
• • the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129)
• • the Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards)
Convention, 1976 (No. 144)
• • the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122)
Nature and constitutional basis of
Conventions and Recommendations
• Conventions are instruments which on ratification create legal
obligations. Recommendations are not open to ratification, but give
guidance as to policy, legislation and practice. Both kinds of instrument
are adopted by the International Labour Conference, and article 19 of the
Constitution provides:
• 1. When the Conference has decided on the adoption of proposals with
regard to an item on the agenda, it will rest with the Conference to
determine whether these proposals should take the form: (a) of an
international Convention, or (b) of a Recommendation to meet
circumstances where the subject, or aspect of it, dealt with is not considered
suitable or appropriate at that time for a Convention.
• 2. In either case a majority of two-thirds of the votes cast by the delegates
present shall be necessary on the final vote for the adoption of the
Convention or Recommendation, as the case may be, by the Conference.
Placing an item on the Conference agenda
• The agenda of the Conference is settled by the Governing Body
(Constitution, article 14).
• In cases of special urgency or other special circumstances (this has been
the case, for example, where a draft Protocol is being considered) the
Governing Body may decide to refer a question to the Conference with a
view to a single discussion (Standing Orders (SO) (Minimum 18 Months),
article 34(5)); but otherwise there will be a double discussion (i.e.
discussion at two sessions of the Conference) (SO, article 34(4)) (Between
11 to 26 Months).
• The Governing Body may also decide to refer a question to a preparatory
technical conference (Constitution, article 14(2); SO, articles 34(3) and 36).
The Conference itself may also, by two-thirds of the votes cast by the
delegates present, decide to include a subject on the agenda of the
following session (Constitution, article 16(3)).
HOW ARE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
STANDARDS CREATED?
• The development of international labour standards at the ILO is a unique legislative process
involving representatives of governments, workers and employers from throughout the world.
• As a first step, the Governing Body agrees to put an issue on the agenda of a future International
Labour Conference.
• Second:-The International Labour Office prepares a report that analyses the law and practice of
member States with regard to the issue at stake.
• Third-The report is communicated to member States and to workers’ and employers’
organizations for comments and is then submitted to the International Labour Conference for a
first discussion.
• Fourth: A second report is then prepared by the Office with a draft instrument, which is also sent
for comments and submitted for discussion at the following session of the Conference, where the
draft instrument is discussed, amended as necessary and proposed for adoption.
• Fifth:-This “double discussion” procedure gives Conference participants sufficient time to
examine the draft instrument and make comments on it.
• Sixth-- A two-thirds majority of votes is required for a standard to be adopted.
Ratification of Conventions and Protocols
• ILO member States are required to submit any Convention or Protocol
adopted by the International Labour Conference to their competent
national authority for the enactment of relevant legislation or other
action, including ratification.
• An adopted Convention or Protocol normally comes into force 12
months after being ratified by two member States.
• Ratification is a formal procedure whereby a State accepts the
Convention or Protocol as a legally binding instrument.
• Once it has ratified a Convention or Protocol, a country is subject to
the ILO regular supervisory system, which is responsible for ensuring
that the instrument is applied.
Universality and flexibility
• Standards are adopted by a two-thirds majority vote of ILO constituents
and are therefore an expression of universally acknowledged principles.
(Acknowledges Diversity)
• For example, standards on minimum wages do not require member States
to set a specific minimum wage, but to establish a system and the
machinery to fix minimum wage rates appropriate to their level of
economic development.
• Other standards contain so-called “flexibility clauses” allowing States to lay
down temporary standards that are lower than those normally prescribed,
to exclude certain categories of workers from the application of a
Convention, or to apply only certain parts of the instrument.
Updating international labour standards
• There are currently 189 Conventions and
• 205 Recommendation,
• some dating back as far as 1919, and
• six Protocols.
• Creating of SRM
Standards Review Mechanism (SRM)
• The SRM is a mechanism that is integral to the ILO’s standards policy with a
view to ensuring that the the ILO has a clear, robust and up-to date body
of standards that respond to the changing patterns of the world of work,
for the purpose of the protection of workers and taking into account the
needs of sustainable enterprises--- Linking the ILS’s with SDG’s
• Created in 2011 but it was formalized and established in 2015.
• The SRM a tripartite working group composed of 32 members (16
representing Governments, eight representing Employers and eight
representing Workers (Five Annual Meetings from 2015 to 2019)
• Conferred the power to abrogate outdated conventions, recommendations
and protocols
HOW ARE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
STANDARDS USED?
• Models and targets for labour law
• Primarily tools for governments which, in consultation with
employers and workers, are seeking to draft and implement labour
law and social policy in conformity with internationally accepted
standards
• International labour standards thus serve as targets for harmonizing
national law and practice in a particular field.
 Taxonomy of Reform Demands by
Employers

LMR-OGS

LMR-UOGS

Systemic Core/HARD Governance

(LAW) (LAW)
SOCIAL
SECURITY,
ETC.

K R Shyam Sundar and Rahul Sapkal 18

Reform Components
Laws (Systemic/Core)

CODES
??? Governance

Employer Workers/TU

Inspection Procedural

Procedural Substantive Procedural Substantive

Lab Bureaucratic
MW Rise Self-Certification, Randomised Simplification
Size Threshold Labour/Wage ESI Act etc. Inspection
Min. Assured Electronic/Online
Factories Flexibility???? Bonus Act (EPFO/ESI)
Pension, 1000
Act/CLRA (HARD) Gratuity Ceiling
MB Tenure Rise

K R Shyam Sundar and Rahul Sapkal 19

Political Economy of Reforms Strategy
Product Market reforms are elitist
while Labour Law Reforms are
Mass Politics (Political Costs) Reform
Massive Labour Mobilisation Strategy

(broad front BUT some issues

NOW) RELOCATE
Nation FIRM
STRONG VOICE + WIDER al
REFORMS AT
STATE LEVEL
LEVEL

MOBILISATION NO HOLD SOFT

YES HARD
 18 COUNTRY-WIDE
DIALOGU
HARD ALL
SOF E (EVEN
STRIKES/FORMS OF PROTEST/SITES T
PARTISA
N) SEZ/IT/ NONE
OF PROTEST BIOTEC SPSECIAL
SECTORS
 RISING UNORG SECTOR WORKERS’ H IN
MANY
SOME
STATES
STRIKES STATES
 MICRO LEVEL – STRIKES/VIOLENCE STATUS REFORMS
(ESP. BY PRECARIOUS WORKERS) QUO

K R Shyam Sundar and Rahul Sapkal 20

• Procedural compliance • Substantive compliance
• Procedural compliance refers to • What is central to any international
obligations that are formal-legalistic in agreement is that its substantive
character, inasmuch as they only provisions are complied with.
concern the fulfilment of purely • Substantive compliance refers to all
formal requirements drawn up in an obligations other than procedural
agreement. ones that relate to the legislative and
• Specific behavioural provisions and practical implementation of the
obligations, or aspects of requirements of the treaty (Jacobson
implementation are not touched upon and Weiss 1995: 122).
at all in this dimension of compliance.
• Procedural obligations mainly sever as
a tool for achieving transparency of
actors’ behaviour with regard to the
agreement.
• Rational institutionalism • Similarly to the rational institutionalism
• The anarchic structure of the approach, the legitimacy school treats
international system is explained, along noncompliance as occurring voluntarily.
neorealist lines, by the absence of a But in contrast to the former, the latter
legitimate governmental authority to approach does not see the unwillingness
regulate disputes and enforce to bear the costs of compliance as the
agreements which prevent or solve main reason for norm violations, but the
conflicts (Waltz 1979). unwillingness to accept the specific norm
or set of rules as a standard of
• Regardless a central compliance-enforcing appropriate behaviour because actors
authority lacking, regime theory and have not yet internalized the norm in
institutionalism have both considered question.
regimes and institutions as an
appropriate surrogate for this absence. • In the legitimacy view, rules and
decisions are respected and followed
• In rational institutionalist approaches to because they are perceived as binding
compliance, incidents of noncompliance and not because of prudence or
occur voluntarily. States are strategic potential gain (Steffek 2003: p. 254).
actors that weigh the costs and benefits
of alternative policy options to • Legitimacy is the “normative belief by an
compliant behaviour in cooperative actor that a rule or institution ought to be
situations (Tallberg 2002: 611). obeyed” (Hurd 1999: 381).
• Managerial approaches assume that • Legal approaches to compliance - which
states are in principle willing to comply will be placed under the heading of the
with international norms. legalization school - have in recent years
• If states fail to do so it is because they attracted increasing attention in
either lack material capacities and international relations and international
resources, or changing conditions are an law alike.
obstacle to compliance. • Rule-oriented approaches are perceived
• Non-compliance occurs involuntarily and as contrasting diplomatic or power-
is often unanticipated, but is not a oriented ways of dealing with non-
deliberate choice based on an assessment compliance and the settlement of
of the costs and benefits of treaty disputes (Petersmann 1997: pp. 66; Zangl
adherence. and Zürn 2004).
• Deliberate or intentional non-compliance • The legalization school points out that
happens but such instances are states accept international rules and
“dramatic,but rare exceptions rather than norms in general but often have diverging
the rule” (Chayes, Chayes et al. 1998: 41). interpretations over their exact meaning,
content and their applicability.
Sources of international law applied at the
national level
• In numerous countries, ratified international treaties apply
automatically at the national level.
• Their courts are thus able to use international labour standards to
decide cases on which national law is inadequate or silent, or to draw
on definitions set out in the standards, such as of “forced labour” or
“discrimination”.
• Alongside voluntary initiatives and non-statutory rules, the legal
system is one of the means through which international standards are
disseminated.
• Judicial, Executive, Self Enforcement and Voluntary initiatives
Through Social Policy
• In addition to shaping law, international labour standards can provide
guidance for developing national and local policies, such as
employment, work and family policies.
• They can also be used to improve various administrative structures,
such as labour administration, labour inspection, social security and
employment services.
• Standards can also serve as a source of good industrial relations
applied by labour dispute resolution bodies, and as models for
collective agreements.
Other areas of influence
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) – the promotion of inclusive,
responsible and sustainable practices in the workplace
• The ILO defines CSR as a way in which enterprises give consideration
to the impact of their operations on society and affirm their principles
and values, both in their own internal methods and procedures and in
their interactions with other actors.(Negative externalities and Social
Deadweight Losses)
• The ILO can play an important role in CSR through two main reference
points: the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at
Work (1998) and the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning
Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (the “MNE Declaration”),
a revised version of which was adopted by the Governing Body in
2017 in response to new economic realities, and particularly the
increase in international investment and trade, and the growth in
global supply chains.
• This revision reinforced the MNE Declaration through the inclusion of
principles addressing specific aspects of decent work, such as social
security, forced labour, the transition from the informal to the
formal economy, wages, the access of victims to remedies and
compensation.
• It also contains guidance on the process of “due diligence” for the
achievement of decent work, the creation of decent jobs,
sustainable enterprises, more inclusive growth and an improved
sharing of the benefits of foreign direct investment which are
particularly relevant to the achievement of Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) 8.
• Initiatives that promote inclusive, responsible and sustainable
enterprise practices make reference to ILO instruments, including
• the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights:
• Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy”
Framework,
• the United Nations Global Compact and
• the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
• Other international institutions regularly use international labour
standards in their activities.
• Reports on the application of international labour standards are regularly
submitted to the United Nations human rights bodies and other
international entities. International financial institutions (IFIs), such as the
World Bank, Asian Development Bank and African Development Bank
(AfDB), have integrated certain aspects of labour standards into some of
their activities.
• For example, in 2013 the AfDB introduced into its environmental and social
safeguards policy an operational safeguard on labour conditions and safety
and health (Operational safeguard 5), and clients, which makes explicit
reference to ILO international labour standards.
• the World Bank in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers process and
Performance Standard 2 of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)
(part of the World Bank Group), which recognizes that the pursuit of
economic growth through employment creation must also comply with the
protection of the basic rights of workers.
• A growing number of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements,
as well as regional economic integration arrangements, contain social
and labour provisions related to workers’ rights.
• Indeed, the number of free trade agreements with labour provisions
has increased significantly over the past two decades: 70 trade
agreements included labour provisions in 2016, compared with 58 in
2013, 21 in 2005 and four in 1995.
• Free trade agreements increasingly refer to ILO instruments in their
labour clauses, and particularly the Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work (1998) and, in the case of recent
European Union agreements, also to ILO Conventions.
• in the context of the European Union, the special incentive
arrangement for sustainable development and good governance
(the Generalized System of Preferences/GSP+) provides additional
benefits for countries implementing certain international standards
in relation to International labour standards: Rules of the game for a
global economy human and labour rights.
• Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed
in 1992 and was supplemented in 1994 by the North American
Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC) (this agreement was
completely renegotiated in October 2018),
SUBJECTS COVERED BY INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR STANDARDS (20 Thematic Areas)
• Freedom of association • Employment security Social policy
• Collective bargaining • Wages
• Forced labour • Working time
• Child labour • Occupational safety and health Social
• Equality of opportunity and treatment security
• Tripartite consultation Labour • Maternity protection
administration • Domestic workers
• Labour inspection • Migrant workers
• Employment policy • Seafarers Fishers Dockworkers
• Employment promotion • Indigenous and tribal peoples
• Vocational guidance and training • Other specific category of workers
ILS on -FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
• The principle of freedom of association is at the core of the ILO’s
values: it is enshrined in the ILO Constitution (1919), the ILO
Declaration of Philadelphia (1944) and the ILO Declaration on
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998).
• It is also a right proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948).
• The right to organize and form employers’ and workers’ organizations
is the prerequisite for sound collective bargaining and social dialogue
• Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise
Convention, 1948 (No. 87)
• Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)
• Workers’ Representatives Convention, 1971 (No. 135)
• Rural Workers’ Organisations Convention, 1975 (No. 141)
• Labour Relations (Public Service) Convention, 1978 (No. 151)
• Freedom of association under fire (ITUC, 2017 Global Rights Index)
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
• Freedom of association ensures that workers and employers can
associate to negotiate work relations effectively. Combined with
strong freedom of association, sound collective bargaining practices
ensure that employers and workers have an equal voice in
negotiations and that the outcome is fair and equitable. Collective
bargaining allows both sides to negotiate a fair employment
relationship and prevents costly labour disputes.
• Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No.
98)
• Labour Relations (Public Service) Convention, 1978 (No. 151)
• Collective Bargaining Convention, 1981 (No. 154)
FORCED LABOUR
• Although forced labour is universally condemned, ILO estimates show
that 24.9 million people around the world are still subjected to it. Of
the total number of victims of forced labour, 20.8 million (83 per cent)
are exploited in the private economy, by individuals or enterprises,
and the remaining 4.1 million (17 per cent) are in State-imposed
forms of forced labour.
• Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
• This fundamental Convention prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labour, which is
defined as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of
any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”
• Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)
• This fundamental Convention prohibits forced or compulsory labour as a means of
political coercion or education, or as a punishment for holding or expressing political
views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic
system; as a method of mobilizing and using labour for purposes of economic
development; as a means of labour discipline; as a punishment for having participated in
strikes; and as a means of racial, social, national or religious discrimination.
• the adoption of the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930; and the
Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014 (No. 203).
Risk Assessments in Indian Electronics
Industry by CIVIDEP India