People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 27
July 07, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 27 July 07, 2013 |
Shift
of Policy Needed for Job-Rich Growth: ILO Hemalata THE
102nd session of ILO was held in The
director general’s report was titled ‘Towards the ILO
centenary: Reality,
renewal and tripartite commitment’ to prepare for the
observation of the
centenary of the formation of ILO in 2019. The prolonged
global economic crisis
that continues to haunt the world is reflected in the
report. JOB
LOSS
The
report points out that 4.45 crores workers per year, ie,
more than 22.2 crore
people all over the world, will enter the labour market in
the next five years
in search of new jobs. Around 20 crore workers are now out
of work. ‘It
requires a shift of policy mixes and production patterns
towards job rich
growth’. It also warns about the declining prospects of job
creation on the
scale that is required. ‘Robotics is making a major
breakthrough in
manufacturing with 2 lakhs industrial robots coming into use
each year and a
total of 15 lakhs expected by 2015. The implication is that
manufacturing can
be a major contributor to gross domestic product and
productivity but with a
more modest share in job creation. Robotics and automation
will most probably
accelerate the ongoing decline of manufacturing employment
worldwide and seem
likely to penetrate other sectors too, including transport,
hospitals and the
caring profession’ the report says. WIDENING
DISPARITIES Quoting
this year’s annual survey on global risks of the World
Economic Forum, which
categorised ‘severe income disparity’ as the highest likely
risk, the director
general’s report expressed concern at the widening
inequality within and
between countries. According to the report ‘…Concentration
of very high incomes
for very few people at one end of the scale, and low incomes
for large numbers
at the other, has weakened global demand and the poverty
reducing effect of
growth. Importantly, wider inequalities have gone hand in
hand with a growing
disconnect between incomes and productivity, which has
distorted economic
incentives’. At the global level, as per the report, 70
percent of households
can be categorised as poor, 28 percent as middle class and 2
percent as rich. We
have seen inequality widen under neoliberal globalisation in
our country where
the net worth of the 100 richest Indians was around Rs 12
lakh crore in 2011 –
more than the size of the annual budget of the country while
the poorest 10
percent of the rural population survive with less than Rs 15
per day and the
poorest 10 percent of urban population with Rs 20 per day. Referring
to the ILO’s concept that unacceptable levels of inequality,
like absolute
deprivation and hardship can pose a threat to social
stability and cohesion,
the director general sought a major role for ILO in
addressing this issue in
the coming years. The
report admits that work no longer works to lift oneself out
of poverty as often
‘work fails to generate income above poverty levels’. It
expresses concern at
the increasing numbers of working poor. The World of Work
Report, 2013, shows
that ‘many of those who succeed in getting out of poverty
remain in near
poverty circumstances or in danger of falling back into
their previous
conditions’ In the wake of
the attempts of companies and
countries to improve their competitiveness, particularly in
their efforts to
overcome the impact of the global economic crisis, the ILO
director general’s
report argues that ‘it is logically impossible for all to
become more
competitive: greater competitiveness for one by definition
means lesser competitiveness
for another. By the same token, not all countries can export
their way out of
crisis, because one’s export is another’s import.’ It seems to wonder
why countries were failing
to ‘grasp and act on that simple logic’ and risk ‘setting
off a competitive
downward spiral in pay and conditions against which the ILO
has warned, for
example in the 2009 Global Jobs Pact, and which can benefit
no player in the
long term’. DECLINING
SHARE OF
WAGES The
report observes that in the background of
the huge differences in the international wages, the notion
that
competitiveness can be enhanced by reducing wage costs, is
not valid. The more
pertinent question is to examine the relationship between
wages and
productivity. And in this regard all the available evidence
shows that wages
were lagging behind productivity in both the developed as
well as the
developing countries; the share of wages in national income
has come down. The
average labour share in 16
developed countries fell from about 75 percent in the
mid-1970s to about 65
percent just before the global financial crisis hit. In the
case of 16
developing and emerging nations, the corresponding reduction
from the early
1990s up until the crisis was from 62 percent to 58 percent.
In Full
time permanent jobs with fixed hours,
defined benefit pension on the completion of a largely
predictable and secure
career path with a single employer are becoming rare
globally, as per the
report. Today,
about half of
the global workforce work for more than one employer. Work,
which the ILO calls
‘atypical’, or ‘non standard form’ where workers do not have
any job security,
income security or social security, has become predominant;
the ‘standard’ has
become the exception. This is one of the methods through
which wage costs are
brought down by the employers. The
director general’s report candidly admits that ‘it has been
difficult to find
consensus on these issues in the ILO although considerable
effort has been
invested in trying to do so’. The ILO has adopted many
Conventions and
Recommendations on several issues like part time, home based
work, on
employment relations etc. But, as the report says, these
conventions and
recommendations have received ‘only modest levels of
ratification. …. and
strong controversy continues over the issues they address…
The defence of
legitimate interests in these matters as in others, and the
divergent views
resulting from it are a normal part of the life of the ILO.
But, the report
warns, ‘if they result in a long term stand off on matters
which must and will
be the subject of political decisions and action at the
national level, there
is a risk that the ILO will inevitably be seen as irrelevant
in areas where it
absolutely must be present.’ The
facts and figures that are presented in the ILO director
general’s report
mirror the increasing attacks on the lives and livelihoods
of the workers by
the employers under neoliberal globalisation and more in the
context of the
global economic crisis. The governments today are
increasingly formulating
policies and intervening in workers’ struggles to protect
the interests of the
big national and multinational corporations. ILO
IN ACTION! However,
the International
Labour Organisation (ILO), as is well known, is not an
organisation of labour
as the name suggests. It is a tripartite forum comprising
the employers’, the
workers’ and government representatives and was established
as an agency of the
In
this background, the Preamble of
the ILO constitution had to acknowledge that ‘…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 peace
and harmony of the
world are imperilled; and an improvement of those conditions
is urgently
required;…’ The preamble gives examples of how this can be
done ‘by regulation
of the hours of work, including the establishment of a
maximum working day and
week, the regulation of the labour supply, the prevention of
unemployment, the
provision of an adequate living wage, the protection of the
worker against
sickness, disease and injury arising out of his employment,
the 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, the
organisation of
vocational and technical education and other measures’. Since
its formation, the ILO has
adopted many Conventions and Recommendations, after
elaborate discussions in
its conferences where all its three constituents, the
workers, employers and
governments participate, on all these issues. But as the
director general’s
report noted very few Conventions and Recommendations have
been ratified by the
governments. And still fewer, if at all, are implemented.
The most important
conventions like the one on the right to organisation and
collective
bargaining, equal wage, etc are freely flouted by the
employers with the
connivance of most of the governments globally. But, given
the composition of the ILO, despite presenting the facts
that show increasing
attacks on the workers under neoliberal globalisation, the
language in which
these facts are presented seeks to blunt the disastrous
consequences of its
impact. Solutions are sought and recommendations made on the
assumption that
there is no basic contradiction between the interests of the
employers and the
workers, and whatever differences exist can be resolved
through negotiations
and within the existing system – through ‘social dialogue’.
The blatant refusal
of the employers to enter into any type of talks with the
workers’ or their
unions, the increasing use of the State administration to
attack and intimidate
workers and their organisations, the increasing
interventions of the
governments including at the policy making level in favour
of th employers etc,
which the workers experience in their daily lives do not
find mention in the
reports. In 2008 it has even adopted a ‘Declaration
on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation’. Guy
Rider, a former general secretary of ITUC who was elected as
director general
of ILO last year, sought a mandate from the conference to
reform the ILO to
make it more relevant and effective and take it closer to
its constituents. The
role of IMF in imposing conditions related to work and
workers, a sphere in
which it was not competent, was criticised and the ILO seeks
to involve itself
in such issues. It was also suggested that like the G 20, E
20 and L 20
meetings should also be held involving the employers and
workers. The
director general also wanted ILO to directly engage with the
multinational
corporations. The recent intervention of the ILO in the case
of the worst
industrial accident in history due to the collapse of a
building housing
several garment factories in Bangladesh that led to the
death of more than 1100
garment workers, most of them women was highlighted as an
achievement for the
ILO. Soon after the accident, the director general of ILO
went to In the
102nd
session, the ILO has selected eight areas in its effort ‘to
embark on its
second century with an explicit commitment to the most
vulnerable in the world
of work’. These include formalisation of the informal
economy, decent work in
the rural economy, protection of workers from unacceptable
forms of work, and
creating and extending social protection floors. It is
interesting that when
more and more workers were being employed under informal and
non standard forms
of work including in the developed countries under
neoliberal globalisation,
the idea of ‘formalisation of informal economy’ was
supported by all the
advanced capitalist countries including those in the
European Union, the USA
etc. All
the draft
resolutions on the items in the agenda were unanimously
adopted by the
conference. Even in the case of ‘social dialogue’ which was
being increasingly
flouted globally, there was total consensus on its
necessity. However, the
experience of the working class whether it is in relation to
the various ILO
conventions, recommendations and resolutions that are
unanimously adopted or to
the national laws of their own countries is that, these
remain only on paper so
long as the governments are not compelled to implement them
through strong
struggles by the working class. Our
experience in
