Ei-iE

The International Organisation of Employers (IOE) has impeded the discussion of some of the worst cases of workers’ rights violations at the annual International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conference, held in Geneva from 30 May-15 June.

Since 1926, the conference has discussed the most serious cases included in the annual report of the ILO’s Committee of Experts, a 17-member committee of eminent and independent international jurists. This, year the IOE has refused to discuss any cases.

The President of the EI Regional Committee in Latin America, Hugo Yasky, stated: “The employers group attitude is not surprising. It is in line with the current policy trend of eradicating workers’ rights to keep the wealth in the hands of the financial sector and squeeze the poorest with adjustments. To achieve this, they don’t need the tripartite structure of the ILO; they would prefer to eliminate it, to have the way free. “

Yasky went on to say: “We, as workers, support the independence and legitimacy of the ILO Committee of Experts and Office staff. Workers fully support and believe in the tripartite structure of the ILO and have to join forces to guarantee they continue to be valid."

Last year, 29 trade unionists were murdered in Colombia, but employers don’t think the ILO should even discuss that, nor the terrible campaign of violence against trade unionists in Guatemala or Swaziland.

Egyptians are in the midst of a battle for their most basic rights to decent work, but employers seem to be siding with the military and fundamentalist forces both of which want to deprive workers of a voice.

The IOE has also refused to allow discussion of the withdrawal of collective bargaining rights in Greece and Spain, where plummeting incomes are worsening the country’s economic plight and other serious cases where decent labour laws are under attack.

In Fiji, unions and their members are subjected to continuous breaches of their rights, including dismissal, intimidation and use of violence against trade leaders, as well as serious interference in trade union affairs.

Employer organisations are playing a dangerous political game at the ILO, even as some individual companies are themselves increasingly prepared to discuss workers’ rights openly and frankly.

The ILO was established on the basis of social justice and a commitment to respect for the rule of law as it applies to working people. The world’s most eminent labour law jurists have presented their findings to the ILO Conference, but the IOE is refusing to allow their findings to be examined.

Employers have hijacked the process based on a misplaced ideological conviction that the right to strike, guaranteed under numerous laws and domestic constitutions, poses a threat to corporate greed.

Video statements:

Zoe Lanara (Greece) talks about the crisis in the CAS at the ILC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqOwGvaLJpU

Barmes Dlamini (Swaziland), TUCOSWA President speaking from the IIO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zQG7YDb43A