LABOUR: Non Aligned Movement Opposes ILO Director’s Report

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jun 11 1997 (IPS) - The Non Aligned countries rejected the report by director general of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Michel Hansenne, Wednesday, as it “implicitly endorses the social clause.”

In a declaration before the International Work Conference, currently meeting in Geneva, the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) countries reawakened debate of the social clause which sets the industrialised and developing nations at odds.

The social clause, which aimed to make free trade conditional on the fulfilment of international labour norms was officially discarded following the last ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), according to the NAM declaration.

The ministerial conference of the WTO in Singapore last December rejected “the use of labour norms with protectionist aims” stipulating that comparative advantages, especially the developing countries with low salaries “should not be brought into the matter.”

However, Hansene’s report goes against these criteria “appearing to adhere to the protectionist outlook which links trade to labour norms,” said the NAM.

Colombia’s ambassador to the international bodies in Geneva, Gustavo Castro Guerrero, read the declaration out Wednesday, during the plenary session of the conference.

Castro said he was doing this in the name of the 113 NAM member States and the five observers, including China, adding that four members of the block – Chile, Jamaica, South Africa and Venezuela – were formulating reservations on the document.

The NAM declaration flatly questioned Hansene’s proposals in his report on the normative action of the ILO in the era of globalisation.

The director general proposed member States adopt measures to assure trade liberalisation is accompanied by social progress.

He promoted the observance of basic human rights in the labour sphere, set out in the basic ILO agreements: union freedoms and collective negotiation, heavy labour, the war on discrimination and the minimum working age.

Another of his suggestions was for the use of a “social global sticker” to be awarded to producers who observe the principles set out in the basic agreements.

The NAM expressed its concern at Hansene’s report as it has several imperfections and “introduced an unsustainable link between the labour norms and trade,” which it considers unacceptable, said Castro.

The ministerial conference in Singapore “did not confer the ILO a new mandate to take an initiative on trade and labour norms,” he added.

Taking an openly controversial stance, the NAM said the diversity in the application of labour norms basically reflects the differences in levels of economic development.

“The labour norms are not the main cause of the comparative advantage of the developing countries,” said the declaration. Furthermore, “there is no evidence that lower levels of social protection affect the commercial parameters,” they said.

The NAM declaration practically decided the fate of Hansene’s report, but the leader still has another two years to go at the head of the ILO.

The opinions on the report expressed by delgates during the International Labour Conference will set the tone for the judgement made by the ILO Administrative Coucil.

The next Council meeting will take place on June 20, following the close of the conference. And the following session is planned for next November.