Vic van Vuuren & Joni Musabayana ILO East & Southern Africa

1. Vic van Vuuren & Joni Musabayana ILO East & Southern Africa

2. Introduction • ILO Started 1919 • First specialised unit of the UN in 1946 • Only tripartite UN agency • Role of the trade unions at international and regional level • Dual role of ILO • International Standards through Conventions, Recommendations, Policies and Declarations • E.g. South Africa apartheid era • Zimbabwe • Swaziland • Development

3. ILO “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.” Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General

4. Decent Work 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

5. Decent Work • Decent work is captured in four strategic objectives: • fundamental principles and rights at work and international labour standards; • employment and income opportunities; • social protection and social security; • and social dialogue and tripartism.

6. ILO Core Conventions The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, adopted in June 1998, highlights a set of core labour principles endorsed by the international community. The Declaration covers four main areas for the establishment of a social “floor” in the world of work: ● freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; ● the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour; ● the effective abolition of child labour; ● the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

7. Decent Work These objectives hold for all workers, women and men, in both formal and informal economies; in wage employment or working on their own account; in the fields, factories and offices; in their home or in the community.

8. Decent Work • Reality Check • The world has lost the plot • The value of a human being has diminished • There is a need to bring back ethics into the work place • Greed is the norm and workers are dispensable and no longer a company’s most valued asset • Comparison of Y2K and the Global Financial Crisis

9. Decent Work Country Programmes • Decent Work Country Programmes have been established as the main vehicle for delivery of ILO support to countries. • DWCPs have two basic objectives. • They promote decent work as a key component of national development strategies. • At the same time they organise ILO knowledge, instruments, advocacy and cooperation at the service of tripartite constituents in a results-based framework to advance the Decent Work Agenda within the fields of comparative advantage of the Organization.

10. Overview of the South Africa DWCP • The formulation of the SA DWCP involved a series of consultative meetings between the ILO and the NEDLAC constituents. • During these consultations, key decent work deficits were identified and country priorities defined. • The priorities for the SA DWCP give effect to the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed to all citizens under the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa in the bill of rights. • South Africa’s first DWCP was launched on 29 September 2010.

11. Overview of the South Africa DWCP South Africa DWCP Priorities: Priority 1: Employment Promotion Strengthening Fundamental Principles and rights at work Priority 2: Priority 3: Strengthening and Broadening Social Protection Strengthening Tri-partism plus and Social Dialogue Priority 4:

12. Key Outcomes • Priority 1: Principles and Rights • Up-to-date International Labour Standards are ratified, complied with and reported on. • Labour Administrations apply up-to-date ILO conventions, both ratified and those earmarked for ratification. • Priority 2: Employment Promotion • More women and men, especially youth and persons with disabilities, have access to productive and decent employment through inclusive job rich growth • Sustainable and competitive enterprises (including cooperatives) create productive and decent jobs especially among women, youth and persons with disabilities • Skills development increases the employability of workers and the inclusiveness of growth

13. Key Outcomes • Priority 3: Social Protection • More people have access to better managed and more gender equitable social security and health benefits • Workers and enterprises benefit from improved safety and healthy conditions at work • The World of Work responds effectively to the HIV&AIDS epidemic • Priority 4: Social Dialogue • Strengthened labour market institutions and capacitated social partners (tripartite –plus) contribute to effective social dialogue and sound industrial relations

14. Decent Work Tripartism and social dialogue are central to the planning and implementation of a coherent and integrated ILO programme of assistance to constituents in member States.

15. Conclusion Like many things in life it is easier to talk and to strategise and to agree on initiatives------- it is however far more difficult to walk the talk. What is needed is strong and COMMITTED leadership together with capacitated and professional monitoring systems