WSM and partners lobby at the ILO Asia Pacific Regional meeting (ILO AP RM)

The 16th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting reviewed progress made towards building a future with Decent Work since the 15th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting (held in Japan in 2011). From 6 till 9th of December 2016, ILO brought together 351 delegates from Asia and Pacific governments, employers' and workers' groups. Delegates discuss the future of work and emerging challenges and consider policies that can strengthen sustainable development, job creation and social justice in their region.Out of 50 member states invited, 37 members and one Territory attended. A total of 351 participants attended, the highest level of the last four regional meetings. The meeting was composed of 72 government delegates, 34 Employers' advisers delegates and 34 Workers' Delegates. Women represent 28% of the total delegates.

This is an increase compared to the last ILO AP RM in 2011, when it was 20,4% but still below the benchmark set of 30% and beyond, for real gender parity, as called for by the Director-General. The meeting finished by adopting the Bali Declaration.

WSM and IYCW also attended and supported some participants and interventions, in line with the political agendas established by the Asia Network on the Right to Social Protection. The goal was that members of the Steering Committee understand the functioning of the ILO and its Asia Pacific Regional Meeting and lobbies successfully for the inclusion of certain issues in the final conclusions.

The Members of the Steering Committee attending were Father Chetan (India), Leizyl (YCW ASPAC), Sister Sulistri (Indonesia), Ath Thorn (Cambodia), Ganesh Niroula (Nepal) and Ramesh Badal (Nepal). Andy from the International YCW also attended. For WSM, Jeroen, Bart, Francina, Bruno and Bismo attended. In the following posts on this blog, we publish some of the interventions, as well as some interviews made to evaluate their participation.

Attending the ILO AP RM: Sullistri, KSBSI, Indonesia

In this meeting, I can bring forward certain positions and influence the policies on Asia and Pacific level. We promote also the women participation and attention to gender. We can also create links with the National Decent Work programmes in Indonesia.

In my intervention, I focused on the environment and the palm oil sector, which is a big issue in Indonesia. We need a just transition, so that workers do no suffer. Climate change is also mentioned in the SDG, and so we plead for involvement of social dialogue, and include indigenous people and environmental NGOs. The Free Trade Agreements are also part of my intervention, which should include social elements and workers’ rights.

Attending the ILO AP RM: Francina, WSM South Coordinator

I wanted to come to learn more about the trade union dynamics and the process of the ILO. As WSM closely works with labour standards, it is important for me to know what is being debated on regional and global level. In the context of WSM’s work on Social protection, our partners contribute to job creation by offering vocational skills to members.

During this ILO meeting, the aspect of skills was put in a larger context, linking it to multinationals, the importance of new technologies and young workers. Also the social dialogue was very relevant, because workers facing problems on the work floor have to first turn to the first step of social dialogue, the bipartite plant level, before the government is brought in. Also that many states have not yet ratified some of the core conventions was revealing, like India hasn’t ratified freedom of association (ILC87) or collective bargaining (ILC98).

Attending the ILO AP RM: Ganesh Niroula, NTUC, Nepal

Very interesting to witness the tripartite dialogue, hearing what is being raised by all three parties per country. We can learn from good practices and lapses, so situations can improve for workers and productivity as well. We also learn about the situation of decent work and issues in Asia and the Pacific.

Many issues are raised, like the strike in South Korea and the brutal repression by government, or the unfriendly trade union reforms in India or Indonesia and diluting union policies. Certain governments aren’t providing space to organize or to do collective bargaining. For instance, in Nepal, legal strikes aren’t banned, but the Industrial Act passed in this year, specifies certain sectors that prohibit strikes completely. This legislation is stricter, because it prohibits strikes in a larger way than the essential services act, which wasn’t applied too strictly. The Nepali trade unions have filed a case before ILO regarding this legislation.

Through the two interventions from the Nepali workers’ joint representative, Ramesh, which were agreed upon beforehand between trade unions in the JTUCC, we were able to share what is the situation in Nepal regarding labour migration and skills. The employment agenda is discussed here and linked to productivity. Nepal has high unemployment and low productivity. By discussing here with policy makers and employers and learning on these topics, we hope to improve these two aspects.

Attending the ILO AP RM: Leizyl, YCW ASPAC

The meeting was different from what I expected, like the original way to organize the participation, through the panel discussions, which bring together different views from various countries and is more dynamic. However, I feel it really lacks interventions from the grass-root level. For the YCW and myself, this helps to understand the issues that the ILO tackles, like Global Supply Chain, labour migration and decent work, from the perspective of young workers. Every year, we also attend the ILC in Geneva, so this is very relevant. For us, this is not only a moment to lobby for our demands, but also the networking aspect is important. For instance, during this meeting we met a representative from the Singapore trade union, and since we would like to also extend our work there, they offered their assistance to facilitate the start up. Labour migration is an issue that stood out, because after our YCW International council, the YCW provides specific input, but our analysis is still not very clear. In Europe, the focus is currently more on refugees, but here in Asia, the context is different and labour migration is more important for young workers.  The Global Supply Chain is in our opinion is part of the major causes of precarious work, like flexibility and outsourcing. The intervention from the government delegate from the Philippines indicated to me that they want to end contractualization, which is an important demand for us. If I could have made an intervention, it would have been on social protection for young and migrant workers, because this is a right that is currently not respected in most of the Asia Pacific countries.

Attending the ILO AP RM: Father Chetan, NDWF, India

For me, it was the first time to attend, so it was a learning process, which helps us understand the issues better. We also witness the continental dynamics and issues that are being debatted, like labour migration, where they go deeper into recruitment issues, social protection in hosting and sending countries etc. Even though no binding instrument comes out of it, I do feel some government delegates will take certain issues back to their national level and initiate some efforts. India in my perspective will not be among these, as their delegation seemed to simply pretend all is going well, the government is doing so much and there are no major problems. This is regrettable. I also appreciated better the importance of the issue of Freedom of Association, which I understand now is a vital prerequisite for social dialogue and collective bargaining.

Attending ILO AP RM: Ath Thorn, CLC - Cambodia

It is interesting for us to attend, to know more about the priorities of the Asia Pacific Labour movement. We learn about the situation of decent work in each country. We see how sometimes the employers’ or government group try to limit our efforts, even though we are supposed to all work together for decent work. Their delegates often pretend everything is fine, while there are many labour issues and violations. Only 14 states among 47 Asia Pacific have ratified the 8 ILO core conventions.