The 110th International Labour Conference in Geneva agreed without any opposition to extend its 1998 Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work to include a healthy and safe working environment. This was the culmination of a campaign led by global unions but crucially supported by multi-stakeholder bodies like Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).
It will make a real difference to working people and supply chains all over the world, but especially in those countries and sectors where life is depressingly cheap and risk to workers is high – from the tea estate workers of Sri Lanka and Southern Africa to the garment workers across South Asia, and the electronics industries of East Asia, ETI said in a statement.
ETI’s support for this development was crucial. In the spirit of the ILO’s own tripartite nature, ETI brought together progressive employers, trade unions and NGOs to call on the ILO and the International Organisation of Employers to stop delaying the change and move forward.
The 110th International Labour Conference in Geneva agreed without any opposition to extend its 1998 Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work to include a healthy and safe working environment. This was the culmination of a campaign led by global unions but crucially supported by multi-stakeholder bodies like Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).
In formal terms, the change means that all 187 ILO member states are – by virtue of their membership – bound to uphold the core conventions identified on 10 June: ILO Convention 155 on occupational health and safety and Convention 187 on the promotional framework for occupational health and safety. They will be assessed by the ILO supervisory mechanisms against the workers’ rights set out in those conventions – to be consulted, to be trained, to refuse to work in conditions they fear could cause them harm.
It also means that the conventions will be built into investment decisions, trade agreements and supply chains – both private and public.
“The ETI Base Code already includes health and safety at work, and past reviews of performance have suggested that this is the area where the Base Code has had most impact. But putting health and safety into the 1998 ILO Declaration should make it easier for ETI member companies to insist on adherence to the core conventions, both from the countries where they operate and in the workplaces that form part of their supply chain. Governments in those countries should make adherence mandatory, and competitors should also be bound to the same obligations ETI members have voluntarily undertaken,” the ETI statement said.
ETI member companies will need to review their own health and safety policies to ensure that they are consistent with the core conventions. Crucially, the rights set out in the core conventions require action by governments to enforce them, employers to abide by them, and the active involvement of workers – whether employees, sub-contractors or in the informal sector.
So effective implementation of this fundamental principle and right at work will require ETI member companies to redouble their efforts to ensure workers in their supply chains have genuine freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)
