Assignment on

International Labour
Organization

Submitted To:
Prof. S. B. Saxena,
Faculty of Social Work,
M.S. University, Baroda.

Submitted by:
Jyoti B Rabari,
Roll No: 33,
Sr. MHRM,
Agency: JCT Electronics LTD.
 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to god and my family for making me

capable enough to undertake this project & complete it successfully.

I take this platform to express my gratitude to all those people who have
contributed towards making this Assignment.

I am highly obliged to everyone in the finance department who took out

time from their busy schedules and shared their knowledge and
experience with me.

I would also like to thank Prof. S.B. Saxena, Faculty of Social work,
Baroda for giving me this opportunity to gain prima facie impressions the
ILO.

Jyoti Rabari.
26
 Index

Sr. Topic Page No

No.
1. Acknowledgement

2. Introduction

3. Origin and History

4. Vision, Mission and

Objective

5. Fields of action

6. How the ILO works

7. Main aims of ILO ‘s Work

8. Labour standards and

Convention

9. India and ILO

10. Conclusion

11. Bibliography

Introduction:
26
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is devoted to advancing
opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work
in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Its main
aims are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment
opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue in
handling work-related issues.

In promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and

labour rights, the organization continues to pursue its founding mission
that labour peace is essential to prosperity. Today, the ILO helps advance
the creation of decent jobs and the kinds of economic and working
conditions that give working people and business people a stake in
lasting peace, prosperity and progress.

Work is central to people's well-being. In addition to providing income,

work can pave the way for broader social and economic advancement,
strengthening individuals, their families and communities. Such progress,
however, hinges on work that is decent. Decent work sums up the
aspirations of people in their working lives.

Poverty remains deep and widespread across the developing world and
some transition countries, with an estimated 2 billion people in the world
today live on the equivalent of less than USD 2 per day. In the view of
the ILO, the main route out of poverty is work.

The ILO is the only 'tripartite' United Nations agency in that it brings
together representatives of governments, employers and workers to
jointly shape policies and programmes. This unique arrangement gives
the ILO an edge in incorporating 'real world' knowledge about
employment and work.
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The ILO is the global body responsible for drawing up and overseeing
international labour standards. Working with its Member States, the ILO
seeks to ensure that labour standards are respected in practice as well as
principle.

Origins and history :

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The ILO was created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that
ended World War I, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace
can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice.

The Constitution was drafted between January and April, 1919, by the
Labour Commission set up by the Peace Conference, which first met in
Paris and then in Versailles. The Commission, chaired by Samuel
Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labour (AFL) in the United
States, was composed of representatives from nine countries: Belgium,
Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom
and the United States. It resulted in a tripartite organization, the only
one of its kind bringing together representatives of governments,
employers and workers in its executive bodies.

The Constitution contained ideas tested within the International

Association for Labour Legislation, founded in Basel in 1901. Advocacy for
an international organization dealing with labour issues began in the
nineteenth century, led by two industrialists, Robert Owen (1771-1853)
of Wales and Daniel Legrand (1783-1859) of France.

The driving forces for ILO's creation arose from security, humanitarian,
political and economic considerations. Summarizing them, the ILO
Constitution's Preamble says the High Contracting Parties were 'moved
by sentiments of justice and humanity as well as by the desire to secure
the permanent peace of the world...'

There was keen appreciation of the importance of social justice in

securing peace, against a background of exploitation of workers in the
industrializing nations of that time. There was also increasing
understanding of the world's economic interdependence and the need for
26
cooperation to obtain similarity of working conditions in countries
competing for markets. Reflecting these ideas, the Preamble states:

 Whereas universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is

based upon social justice;
 And whereas conditions of labour exist involving such injustice
hardship and privation to large numbers of people as to produce
unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are
imperiled; and an improvement of those conditions is urgently
required;

 Whereas also the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions

of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to
improve the conditions in their own countries;

The areas of improvement listed in the Preamble remain

relevant today, for example:

 Regulation of the hours of work including the establishment of a

maximum working day and week;

 Regulation of labour supply, prevention of unemployment and

provision of an adequate living wage;

 Protection of the worker against sickness, disease and injury arising

out of his employment;

 Protection of children, young persons and women;

 Provision for old age and injury, protection of the interests of

workers when employed in countries other than their own;

 Recognition of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal

value;

 Recognition of the principle of freedom of association;

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  Organization of vocational and technical education, and other
measures.

Early days:
The ILO has made signal contributions to the world of work from its early
days. The first International Labour Conference held in Washington in
October 1919 adopted 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.

The ILO was located in Geneva in the summer of 1920 with France's
Albert Thomas as the first Director of the International Labour Office,
which is the Organization's permanent Secretariat. Under his strong
impetus, 16 International Labour Conventions and 18 Recommendations
were adopted in less than two years.

This early zeal was quickly toned down because some governments felt
there were too many Conventions, the budget too high and the reports
too critical. Yet, the International Court of Justice, under pressure from
the Government of France, declared that the ILO's domain extended also
to international regulation of conditions of work in the agricultural sector.

A Committee of Experts was set up in 1926 as a supervisory system on

the application of ILO standards. The Committee, which exists today, is
composed of independent jurists responsible for examining government
reports and presenting its own report each year to the Conference.

Depression and War:

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The Great Depression with its resulting massive unemployment soon
confronted Britain's Harold Butler, who succeeded Albert Thomas in
1932. Realizing that handling labour issues also requires international
cooperation, the United States became a Member of the ILO in 1934
although it continued to stay out of the League of Nations.

American John Winant took over in 1939 just as the Second World War
became imminent. He moved the ILO's headquarters temporarily to
Montreal, Canada, in May 1940 for reasons of safety but left in 1941
when he was named US Ambassador to Britain.

His successor, Ireland's Edward Phelan, had helped to write the 1919
Constitution and played an important role once again during the
Philadelphia meeting of the International Labour Conference, in the midst
of the Second World War, attended by representatives of governments,
employers and workers from 41 countries. The delegates adopted the
Declaration of Philadelphia, annexed to the Constitution, still constitutes
the Charter of the aims and objectives of the ILO. In 1946, the ILO
became a specialized agency of the newly formed United Nations. And, in
1948, still during the period of Phelan's leadership, the International
Labour Conference adopted Convention No. 87 on freedom of association
and the right to organize.

The Post War Years:

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America's David Morse was Director General from 1948-1970 when the
number of Member States doubled, the Organization took on its universal
character, industrialized countries became a minority among developing
countries, the budget grew five-fold and the number of officials
quadrupled. The ILO established the Geneva-based International
Institute for Labour Studies in 1960 and the International Training Centre
in Turin in 1965. The Organization won the Nobel Peace Prize on its 50th
anniversary in 1969.

Under Britain's Wilfred Jenks, Director-General from 1970-73, the ILO

made advanced further in the development of standards and mechanisms
for supervising their application, particularly the promotion of freedom of
association and the right to organize.

His successor Francis Blanchard of France, expanded ILO's technical

cooperation with developing countries and averted damage to the
Organization, despite the loss of one quarter of its budget following US
withdrawal from 1977-1980. The ILO also played a major role in the
emancipation of Poland from dictatorship, by giving its full support to the
legitimacy of the Solidarnosc Union based on respect for Convention No.
87 on freedom of association, which Poland had ratified in 1957.

Belgium's Michel Hansenne succeeded him in 1989 and guided the ILO
into the post-Cold War period, emphasizing the importance of placing
social justice at the heart of international economic and social policies.
He also set the ILO on a course of decentralization of activities and
resources away from the Geneva headquarters.

On 4 March 1999, Juan Somavia of Chile took over as Director General.

He emphasizes the importance of making decent work a strategic
international goal and promoting a fair globalization. He also underlines
26
work as an instrument of poverty alleviation and ILO's role in helping to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including cutting world
poverty in half by 2015.

Vision: Work is central to people's well-being. In addition to providing

income, work can pave the way for broader social and economic
advancement, strengthening individuals, their families and communities.
Such progress, however, hinges on work that is decent. Decent work
sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives.

Mission: “ Social justice is the best way to ensure sustainable peace and
eradicate poverty. And I believe in people coming together organizing,
joining forces, making their voices heard.

Objectives:

As the world's only tripartite multilateral agency, the ILO is dedicated to

bringing decent work and livelihoods, job-related security and better
living standards to the people of both poor and rich countries. It helps to
attain those goals by promoting rights at work, encouraging opportunities
for decent employment, enhancing social protection and strengthening
dialogue on work-related issues.

The ILO is the international meeting place for the world of work. We are
the experts on work and employment and particularly on the critical role
that these issues play in bringing about economic development and
progress. At the heart of our mission is helping countries build the
26
institutions that are the bulwarks of democracy and to help them become
accountable to the people.

The ILO formulates international labour standards in the form of

Conventions and Recommendations setting minimum standards of basic
labour rights: freedom of association, the right to organize, collective
bargaining, abolition of forced labour, equality of opportunity and
treatment and other standards addressing conditions across the entire
spectrum of work-related issues.

The four strategic objectives:

 Promote and realize standards and fundamentals principles and

right at work

 Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent

employment and income

 Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all

 Strengthen Tripartism and social dialogue

Fields of action :
26
Global well being and human progress require sustainable economic
development, a fair globalization and multilateral governance that
reinforce both economic growth and social justice at the international,
national and community levels. In support of these aspirations, the ILO
offers an unmatched store of knowledge about the world of work, which
it acquired over more than 80 years of responding to the needs of people
everywhere for decent jobs, livelihoods and dignity. We serve our
tripartite partners - and society as a whole - in a variety of ways,
including international standards-setting, technical cooperation to
member states, dissemination of best practices, training, communication
and publications.

The ILO promotes the development of independent employers and

workers organizations and provides relevant training and advisory
services. Its technical assistance includes such fields as

 Vocational training and vocational rehabilitation

 Employment policy

 Labour administration

 Labour law and industrial relations

 Working conditions

 Management development

 Cooperatives

 Social security

 Labour statistics

 Occupational safety and health

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How the ILO Works……….

The ILO accomplishes its work through three main bodies, all of which
comprise government, employer and worker representatives.

International Labour Organization:

The member States of the ILO meet at the International Labour

Conference in June of each year, in Geneva. Two government delegates,
an employer delegate and a worker delegate represent each Member
State. Technical advisors assist the delegations, which are usually headed
by Cabinet Ministers who take the floor on behalf of their governments.

Employer and worker delegates can freely 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 establishes and adopts international labour standards

and is a forum for discussion of key social and labour questions. It also
adopts the Organization's budget 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 ILO policy and establishes
the programme and the budget, which it then submits to the Conference
for adoption. It also elects the Director-General.

The ILO Governing Body is composed of 28 government members, 14

employer members and 14 worker members. States of chief industrial
importance permanently hold ten of the government seats. Government
26
representatives are elected at the Conference every three years, taking
into account geographical distribution. The employers and workers elect
their own representatives respectively.

The international Office:

The International Labour Office is the permanent secretariat of the

International Labour Organization. It is the focal point for ILO's overall
activities, which it prepares under the scrutiny 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. In
addition, some 600 experts undertake missions in all regions of the world
under the programme of technical cooperation. The Office also contains a
research and documentation centre and a printing facility, which issue
many specialized studies, reports and periodicals.

Tripartism
1. Employer’s organization

2. Social dialogue

3. Worker’s organization

The ILO aims to ensure that it serves the needs of working women and
men by bringing together governments, employers and workers to set
labour standards develop policies and devise programmes. Its tripartite
structure makes the ILO unique among world organizations because
employers' and workers' organizations have an equal voice with
governments in all its deliberations.
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The ILO encourages Tripartism within member States by promoting social
dialogue to help design and implement national policies. Achieving fair
terms of employment, decent working conditions, and development for
the benefit of all cannot be achieved without the active involvement of
workers, employers and governments, including a broad-based effort by
all of them. To encourage such an approach, one of the strategic
objectives of the ILO is to strengthen social dialogue among the tripartite
constituents. It helps governments, employers' and workers'
organizations to establish sound labour relations, adapt labour laws to
meet changing economic and social needs and improve labour
administration.

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Main aims of ILO's work:
Following are the main aims of ILO’s Work……….

1. Decent work for all

2. Employment creation
3. Fair globalization
4. Rights at work
5. Social dialogue
6. Social protection
7. Working out of poverty

1. Decent work: The primary goal of the ILO today is to promote

opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive
work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.”
Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives
– their aspirations for opportunity and income; rights, voice and
recognition; family stability and personal development; and fairness
and gender equality. Ultimately these various dimensions of decent
work underpin peace in communities and society. Decent work
reflects the concerns of governments, workers and employers, who
together provide the ILO with its unique tripartite identity.

The ILO provides support through integrated decent work country

programmes developed in coordination with ILO constituents. They
define the priorities and targets within national development
frameworks and aim to tackle major decent work deficits through
efficient programmes that embrace each of the strategic objectives.
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2. Employment Creation: “A major effort is needed to improve
productivity, earnings and working conditions in order to reduce
working poverty that affects nearly half of all the workers in the
world. We live in a time of opportunity and uncertainty in which
some of the barriers that have prevented women and men from fully
realizing their capabilities are coming down, but in which good jobs
that provide the foundation of security to build better lives are
increasingly difficult to find."

The ILO carries out employment analysis and research, and takes
part in international discussion of employment strategies. It
promotes employment-intensive investment and helps formulate
and implement employment policy. The Organisation provides
technical support and advice in areas ranging from training and
skills to microfinance, job creation, cooperatives, enterprise and
small business development.

3. Fair Globalization :

“There cannot be a successful globalization without a successful

'localization'.”

Globalization is a debated issue on political agendas today. The

discussion, however, tends to be fragmented, with views often
polarized along political or geographic lines. Some blame
globalization for exacerbating unemployment and poverty. Others
26
 see it as a way of solving such problems. Attention and research
concentrate on markets and perceived economic gains or losses
rather than on the impact of globalization on the life and work of
people, their families and their societies.

The Commission explored innovative, sustainable ways of combining

economic, social and environmental objectives to make globalization
work for all. Based on the best available expertise, it made its
recommendations seeking to build upon a broad consensus among
all key actors. The Commission's final report - A Fair Globalization:
Creating Opportunities for All- has been released in February 2004.

The Partnerships and Development Cooperation Department

promotes Decent Work for all as a global goal by –

 Developing and strengthening partnerships and relations with

agencies of the multilateral system, the donor community and other
external development actors

 Contributing to active ILO involvement in multilateral system

coordination and United Nations reform processes at all levels

 Mobilizing extra-budgetary funding for technical cooperation and

funds for the Regular Budget Supplementary Account (RBSA), to
complement and enhance action undertaken through the regular
budget to fulfill the DWA

 Developing ILO technical cooperation policy and coordinating,

supporting and overseeing the management of extra-budgetary
technical cooperation activities
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 Providing full and appropriate information services on the ILO’s
technical cooperation programme and its financing, and on external
relations.

4. Rights at Work: "The rules of the global economy should be aimed

at improving the rights, livelihoods, security, and opportunities of
people, families and communities around the world." - World
Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, 2004.

Since its early days, the ILO has sought to define and guarantee
labour rights and improve conditions for working people by building
a system of international labour standards expressed in the form of
Conventions, Recommendations and Codes of Practice. The ILO has
since adopted more than 180 ILO Conventions and 190
Recommendations covering all aspects of the world of work.

With the adoption of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and

Rights at Work in 1998, ILO member States decided to uphold a set
of core labour standards regardless of whether they had ratified the
relevant conventions. These are basic human rights and a central
plank of decent work.

The Declaration covers four areas:

1. Freedom of Association: The right of workers and employers to

form and join organizations of their choice is an integral part of a
free and open society. It is a basic civil liberty that serves as a
building block for social and economic progress. Linked to this is
the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
Voice and representation are an important part of decent work.
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 2. Forced Labour: The ILO is also pressing for effective national laws
and stronger enforcement mechanisms, such as legal sanctions
and vigorous prosecution against those who exploit forced
laborers. By raising public awareness, the ILO seeks to shine a
spotlight on such human and labour rights violations.

3. Discrimination: Hundreds of millions of people suffer from

discrimination in the world of work. This not only violates a most
basic human right, but has wider social and economic
consequences. Discrimination stifles opportunities, wasting the
human talent needed for economic progress and accentuating
social tensions and inequalities. Combating discrimination is an
essential part of promoting decent work, and success on this front
is felt well beyond the workplace.

4. Child Labour: There are more than 200 million children working
throughout the world, many full-time. They are deprived of
adequate education, good health and basic freedoms. Of these,
126 million – or one in every 12 children worldwide – are exposed
to hazardous forms of child labour, work that endangers their
physical, mental or moral well-being.

5. Social dialogue: The ILO defines social dialogue as including all

types of negotiation, consultation and exchange of information
between, or among, representatives of governments, employers and
26
 workers on issues of common interest. How social dialogue actually
operates varies from country to country and from region to region.
Effective social dialogue depends on:

 Respect for the fundamental rights of freedom of association and

collective bargaining;

 Strong, independent workers' and employers' organizations with the

technical capacity and knowledge required to participate in social
dialogue;

 Political will and commitment to engage in social dialogue on the

part of all parties;

 Appropriate institutional support.

For social dialogue to work, the State cannot be passive because it is
responsible for creating the stable political and civil climate required
for employers' and workers' organizations to operate without fear of
reprisal. Collective bargaining is the most widespread form of social
dialogue and is a useful indicator of the capacity within a country to
engage in national level tripartism.

6. Social Protection: Social Protection is one of the four strategic

objectives of the Decent Work agenda which define the core work of
the ILO. Since its creation in 1919, the ILO has actively promoted
policies and provided its member states with tools and assistance
aimed at improving and expanding the coverage of social protection
to all members of the community across the full range of
contingencies: basic income security in case of need, health care,
sickness, old age and invalidity, unemployment, employment injury,
maternity, family responsibilities and death. Many activities will also
be designed to improve the social protection of migrant workers.
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 7. Working out of Poverty :

“Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere”

Nearly half of the world’s 2.8 billion workers are unable to earn
enough to lift themselves and their family members above the $US2
a day poverty line. But poverty is not just a problem for the poor.
World political and social stability and security is difficult to envision if
such large numbers of people continue to be trapped in cycles of
poverty or see few opportunities in a global system that seems
discriminatory and unfair.

Breaking the cycle of poverty involves creating new cycles of

opportunity and local wealth creation. The ILO encourages
governments and international organizations to respect the opinions
of poor people and to design solutions that are tailor-made rather
than 'one size fits all'. Furthermore, those solutions should be
underpinned by greater policy coherence both among international
agencies and within them.

Labour standards and conventions :

STANDARDS

 ILO standards are essential means of the actions of ilo.

 ILO has a well defined structure and procedure for formulation of

standards

 They are based on the suggestions of govt. employers and workers

CONVENTIONS

 Convention is a treaty
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  They are binding on member states

 Member state can accept or reject a convention, but in total

 Convention has no automatic binding force

 They form the international labour codes

How a convention is adopted

 Governing body proposes agenda

 Conducts a comparative study and prepares a report

 Its suitability is decided

 Questionnaire sent to member states one year before the start of

the conference

 Member states sent reply within 8 months

 First draft prepared and sent to government.

 Tri partite committee appointed.

 ILO sent draft to members’ states.

 Submission of proposals.

 Preparation of final report.

 Review of proposed text.

 Adoption of convention.
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  Copy sent to member states.

Key ILO conventions:

1. Forced labour convention- 1930

2. Freedom of association and protection of right to organise
convention- 1948
3. Right to organize and collective bargaining convention- 1951
4. Equal remuneration convention- 1951
5. Abolition of forced labour convention- 1957
6. Discrimination (employment and occupation convention)- 1958
7. Minimum age convention, 1975

India and ILO:

India has been founder member of ILO. Since 1919 it has been agreed to
principles of ILO. The reason behind is constitution & ILO has same rule.
Ideology always becomes welfare of whole of population of India.

The fundamental task of ILO is to make a decisive contribution for the

betterment of condition of life of the labour:

 Upholding human rights

 Safeguarding the freedom of association
 Abolition of forced labour
 Elimination of discrimination in employment
 Promotion of equality of opportunity
 Protection of children from exploitation
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  Enforcement of minimum wages
 Promotion of social security
 Promotion of adequate conditions of work and life

INDIA’S CONTRIBUTION TO ILO:

India’s contribution to ILO takes three main forms:

1. India provided well qualified technical experts to ILO

2. India hosts many seminars, conferences, meetings and work shops
3. Provides training to the fellows from Asian pacific and African
countries at subsidized rates.

Conclusion:

Thus international labour organization aims for universal peace which can
be achieved only where there exist equality among people. It is based
upon social justice drawing attention to the existence, conditions and
hardships of labour.

ILO works for upliftment of people in their working lives.ILO aims to

reduce poverty because reduction in poverty makes achieving equitable
and sustainable development of people of possible.

And Since 1919 ILO has worked towards upholding human rights,
safeguarding freedom of association, abolition of bonded labour,
26
elimination of discrimination in employment & promotion of social
security etc.

Bibliography:

1. www. google.com

2. www. ILO.in
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