May 28, 1998
LABOUR: GLOBALIZATION, SAPS & DEBT IMPEDE EMPLOYMENT POLICIES
Geneva, 27 May (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- Economic globalization, structural adjustment and demographic growth compounded by indebtedness, are coming in the way of pursuit of active employment policies called for by the ILO Convention, the ILO Committee of Experts has said in its Report to the 86th International Labour Conference beginning here next week.
The 18-member Committee of Experts (of jurists and labour experts) on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, has drawn pointed attention to the issue in its General Report to the Conference.
The ILO convention on employment (no. 122) adopted in 1964, entered into force in 1966 and has now 89 adherents. While making observations in the body of its report on individual country observance, the Experts Committee has made some general comments on the whole gamut of issues impeding countries in following employment promotion policies.
Though problems of employment and labour conditions caused by indebtedness and structural adjustment policies of the international financial institutions have been repeatedly coming up at the ILO, with some comments from the Experts from time to time, the ILO (under pressure of the major industrialized countries and the employers) has never been able to come to grips with them - or even highlight them in the same way the ILO bureau does visavis the WTO and trade.
"There is no doubt," the Experts Committee says in its report this year, "that economic globalization continues to have a profound impact on the formulation and application of active employment policy in all countries which have ratified this Convention."
In several developing countries, problems caused by structural adjustment and demographic growth are compounded by indebtedness.
In particular, "several governments in Africa have said that the conditions created by structural adjustment are such that they are no longer able to apply a real employment policy, whereas such a situation makes such a policy even more imperative, in order at the very least to attenuate the negative effects of adjustment on employment and living standards," the Experts report.
In some of the transition economies in central and eastern Europe, where they appear to have overcome some of the recessionary phase of transition, their problems and policies they pursue in the framework of the application of the Convention are increasingly resembling those of the industrialized economies.
But in other transition economies, despite the adoption of legislation establishing the right to work, the low unemployment rates recorded still mask large-scale unemployment, the Experts say.
As for the EU, the available information seems to imply that attaining the objective of the Convention will depend to a large extent on the "as yet unknown impact of the expected developments in budgetary and monetary policy, and efforts to bring about a return to sustained economic growth."
Drawing attention to the terms of the Maastricht Treaty requiring members to promote employment as a matter of common concern, the Expert Committee expresses the hope that the concern of the EU members to establish a common currency "will not divert attention from the objectives of the (ILO) Convention."
By concentrating, sometimes exclusively, on the description of active labour market policies, the Experts stress, "many governments would appear to be in danger of overlooking the fact that major goal of full employment must be at the core of all economic and social policy, and that ... active employment policy involves other aspects of government action than those for which the Ministry of Labour has responsibility."
It would be a mistake to regard the convention only as an instrument to combat unemployment. In Article 1 "by assigning the States parties to the Convention the threefold objective of full employment, productive employment and freely chosen employment, the Convention is more demanding -- even if it is left to each government, in consultation with the persons affected, to determine the measures needed to meet that objective."
In observations critical of the labour-market policies in the industrialized countries, the Experts note that in examination of the reports before it, "the Committee has noted in particular the risks inherent in some of these measures (of labour market policy)."
"The undue perpetuation of youth employment programmes or programmes for the long-term unemployed could lead to the development of a distinct 'secondary' labour market with lesser conditions. The same is true of systematic incentives to withdrawal from the labour market.
"The examination of the reports and the information available shows that unemployment rates are lowest in countries with the highest activity rates.
"The generalization of measures such as involuntary early retirement or measures which would indirectly have the effect of dissuading women from seeking employment, would similarly be incompatible with the objectives laid down in Art. 1 (of the convention)."
Too extensive a definition of disability for purpose of establishing entitlement to invalidity pensions would be contrary to the principles of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Convention (No. 159).
And attempts to find new sources of job creation in personal services for needs not yet covered, referred to by several governments, must also be viewed with caution: they should not have the effect of confirming part of the active population to low skilled, poorly paid, low productivity jobs," the Experts add.