The ILO-AT is an agency whose primary function is to outline international labour standards. Through this, the agency ensures its member states advance social justice as well as promote decent work. The ILO-AT was created by the 1919 Peace Conference that followed WWI. The original constitution of the organization established it as an autonomous organization associated with the League of Nations. The ILO-AT drafts and adopts international labour conventions. ILO-AT has a unique tripartite structure. This structure enables government representatives, employers, from both the public and private sector, and the employees to openly debate on issues related to labour and economy and create labour standard. The ILO-AT standards reflect the views of all the three groups. In this paper, the roles and functions of the ILO-AT will be discussed.
One of the roles of the ILO-AT is to organize the International Labour Conference. The organization holds the conference once a year to set the broad policies of the ILO, including conventions and recommendations. The conference makes decisions about the ILO’s general policy and work program. In the meetings, the agency also examines a number of alleged breaches of ILO labour standards. For instance, in 1998, the agency held a conference, and in the conference the members adopted the “ Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights of Work” (The ILO, 2019a) . The declaration asks member states to ensure employees are given the right to associate and bargain. The declaration also commits ILO’s member states to end forced labour, child labour, and discrimination of employees (The ILO, 2019a).
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Principally, the function of ILO-AT was to establish international labour and social standards. The ILO-AT achieves this by drafting and adopting international labour conventions. Before ILO-AT was created, only two international labour conventions had been adopted: one that prescribed modest restrictions on night work by women; the other designed to protect the health of workers in match factories. Neither of these international labour conventions was widely ratified. By contrast, the ILO-AT has adopted many international conventions and recommendations. The international labour standards adopted by the ILO-AT are used as a benchmark by which the rights, as well as the conditions of human beings, have been measured.
For instance, in 1919, the agency adopted its first international convention –the 1919 Hours of Work Convention, the establishment of the eight-hour day as well as the six-day week industry (The ILO, 2019b). The conventions served as guidelines for national treaty. By 2006, 185 conventions and 195 recommendations have been adopted, which covered matters relating to employment and unemployment, various aspects of conditions of work, employment of children and young persons, employment of women, industrial health, safety, and welfare, labour relations and inspection, social policy in nonmetropolitan areas, protection of migrants, and trade unionism and collective bargaining (Barry & Wilkinson, 2011). These conventions and recommendations helped promote social security, improve working conditions, labour relations, lessen frequency of labour conflicts and protect the fundamental rights of labour.
The ILO also examines alleged breaches of the international labour standards. Once the conventions adopted by the ILO are ratified and enacted, governments are required to comply with them. Additionally, the agency issues its member states with labour statistics, which enables them to monitor their progress towards improving labour standards. The agency also maintains several databases as part of its statistical work, which contains data series for numerous countries. To add to this, the ILO-AT issues various compilations of labour statistics, like Key Indicators of Labour Markets (KILM).
The ILO has a training center called the International Training Center of the Internation Labour Organization (ITCILO), which offers training for ILO officers and secretariat members. The ITICILO is based in Turin, Italy, and it collaborates with the University of Turin Department of Law to offer educational programs. For instance, the ITICILO offers a Master of Laws programme of development. The main objective of the programme is to specialize professionals in the field of cooperation and development.
References
Barry, M., & Wilkinson, A. (2011). Research Handbook of comparative employment relations. Cheltenham: United Kingdom, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
The ILO. (2019a). ILO Declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work. [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.ilo.org/declaration/lang--en/index.htm . Accessed 16 th August 2019.
The ILO. (2019b). C001 –hours of work (industry) convention, 1991 (No. 1). [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C001 . Accessed 16 th August 2019.
