On 1-12 June the ILO held its 104th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC). A Ciett delegation comprising Bettina Schaller (Adecco Group), Denis Pennel (Ciett Managing Director) and Sandro Pettineo (Ciett Policy Advisor) took part as observers in two key discussions: on converting informality into decent work and on labour protection. Annemarie Muntz (Ciett President) took part in the latter discussion as part of the Dutch employers’ delegation.

This year the ILC addressed the second part of the discussion on informality, the first part took place last year, with a view to adopt a recommendation on converting informal work in decent work.

The other session on labour protection reviewed the evolving realities of the changing world of work and how to update the pillars of labour protection to meet new challenges.

Ciett assessment and next steps: On informal work, the ILC adopted Recommendation No. 204 with an overwhelming consensus (484 votes in favour, 1 against and 5 abstentions). The Recommendation aims at guiding Member States in implementing practical measures to support the transition from the informal to the formal economy.

Although the committee experienced some difficulties on how to address informality in supply chains and subcontracting arrangements, and on the issue of minimum living wage, which the employers managed to keep out of the text, there was agreement that for the transition to be effective, Member States should: – Establish inclusive growth strategies that promote the expansion of the formal economy and the creation of decent and productive employment; – Promote a conducive business and investment environment, making reference to the need to remove legal and regulatory barriers that make formalisation less attractive; – Facilitate access to business services; – Encourage access to education, lifelong learning and skills development.

The Recommendation makes reference to better cooperation of relevant bodies, including employment services, when designing and formulating policy frameworks and to enhanced outreach and delivery of employment services to people in the informal economy.

Mention of employment services, without specifying whether public of private, was a key ask for Ciett that managed to be included in the text.

Another positive result in the recommendation is the explicit reference to Convention No. 181 in the list of relevant ILO and UN instruments that are relevant to encourage the transition from informal to formal work.

For Ciett it was paramount to have C181 in this list, because it represents an indirect recognition of the positive role of the employment and recruitment industry in helping people enter the formal labour market. An explicit reference would have not been accepted by the trade unions.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Recommendation talks about “freely chosen employment”, in line with Convention No. 122 on employment policy, but also with art. 23 of the UN Universal Declaration of human rights (1948). This can be useful language to defend the right of people to choose and work as agency workers, against the allegations of trade unions that everyone wants to work on open-ended contracts.

The recurrent discussion of labour protection stemmed from the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation (2008). According to this Declaration, social protection consists of two pillars: social security and labour protection. Social security was addressed in the ILC of 2011, this year the conference will follow-up on that discussion by dealing with labour protection, which includes 4 policy pillars:

– Minimum wage;

– Working time;

– Occupational safety and health (OSH);

– Maternity leave.

During the discussion, the employers’ group underlined that level of protection should not excessively increase the costs of employment, which would likely have a detrimental effect on employment levels. Lifting employment, including in flexible work arrangements, was the best means to ensure protection. Compliance was also linked to reasonable levels and extents of coverage.

Overall, the employers stressed that there is no “one size fits all” measure on labour protection, and called for practical and realistic measures appropriate to diverse realities.

A challenging point in the discussion was that on collective bargaining, which was presented as the solution to all problems and workers pushed for the extension of collective labour agreement to all enterprises. Despite the persistence of the workers, this proposal was not included in the report of the discussion.

The final report of the committee makes reference to the meeting of experts on nonstandard forms of employment and uses some of the language from those conclusions, reached also thanks to the strong presence of Ciett within the employers’ group. This is apparent in the section of the report on future action. Indeed the committee urges the ratification and the effective implementation of the relevant conventions and tasks the ILO Office to assess if there are gaps in international labour standards for the protection of workers, in particular for those in non-standard forms of employment. In this respect, the constituents called for more research and for convening additional meetings of experts. It is difficult to assess the results of this discussion, but overall the language of the report, and in particular on non-standard forms of employment is in line with the conclusions of the meeting of experts of February.

Ciett welcomes additional research on this topic and will closely monitor upcoming developments and meetings, looking particularly at the 2016 ILC discussion on decent work in global supply chains.