EI demands decent work and social dialogue for educators
EI Deputy General Secretary Haldis Holst, in a speech to the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on 13 June, urged the ILO to guarantee decent work and social dialogue for teachers worldwide. She highlighted that this would contribute achieving quality education for all.
Ensuring decent work in the education sector
Reacting to ‘sector’ being now one of the six ‘policy’ departments of the ILO, Holst said: “There is no doubt that a sectorial approach to the ILO’s work is effective in bringing decent work closer to workers. […] Education is one of the largest sectors, and the ILO sectorial activities on conditions of work and labour rights for teachers concerns millions of workers. But education is not only about decent working conditions for teachers. Education is a ‘decent work’ strategy in itself as education will be a key post-2015 Development Goal.”
She also acknowledged that the ILO does important work on education in general, including combatting child labour through education; preparing tomorrow’s workforce through skills and training policies, promoting freedom of association and collective bargaining for public servants; promoting education rights for indigenous peoples; and focusing on specific areas such as early childhood education.
“The ILO review should include a strategy to cluster more formally the ILO’s education-related work, linked to the Area of Critical Importance on Jobs and skills for youth,” Holst also emphasised.
Guaranteeing social dialogue for quality education
She further underlined that EI is encouraged by the attention that the ILO Director General has placed on social dialogue in his report and by the discussions on collective bargaining in public services.
“We hope that this conference will come out with a renewed commitment by member states that fundamental rights such as freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, rights that lie at the heart of social dialogue, apply to teachers in both the public and private education sector.”
A well-functioning social dialogue is crucial to decent work, but it is also crucial to achieving quality education for all, Holst added. “Teachers should be key actors in both designing and implementing educational reform. That will only happen where there is respect and dialogue and where unions are acknowledged as the voice of teachers.”
