By M P Joseph. First Published in The Week on 30 May, 2020
(Featured Image: Guy Ryder calling on Narendra Modi on 06 July, 2016; Source: Press Information Bureau)
The report last week that Mr. Guy Ryder, the taciturn Director General (DG) of the even more taciturn International Labour Organization (ILO) had expressed the ILO’s ‘deep concern’ of the ‘dilution’ of labour laws by some Indian states, is damaging. But what is an international shocker, is that the DG has requested Prime Minister Modi to send a ‘clear message’ to some of India’s state governments and to the central government to uphold India’s international commitments and its labour laws.
Note that the Director General is asking our Prime Minister to send that message not only to some of our state governments, but also to the central government. Simply put, sans diplomacy, he is asking the Prime Minister to send the message to Modi himself, for it is he who heads India’s Central Government.
Having spent 20 years in the ILO, I can vouch that the ILO is the most reluctant-to-open-its-mouth UN Agency. Unlike say the UNICEF which you will find in the media nineteen to the dozen times a day, you will never find the ILO much in the media.
The ILO rarely ever says anything, except through its skillfully drafted, million times re-drafted, malice-towards-none and acceptable-to-all International Conventions and Resolutions, that can be interpreted to mean whatever any government wants it to mean. The fact that, even then, in its 100 years the ILO has adopted only 190 International Conventions show how reticent it can be.
When the ILO expresses an opinion, it does so by attributing its views to its faceless Governing Body that meets just twice a year or to the even more impersonal International Labour Conference that meets once a year. A statement attributed to the Director General happens once in a blue-moon and is always clothed in vague generalities, and in long-winded diplomatese.
The reason for such circumspection is that the ILO is dependent for its success on global consensus, and therefore does not want to offend anyone, least of all a government of its member country. The ILO does not have the influence of the UN and the power of the veto wielding Security Council, or the money of the UNDP, World Bank, IMF etc., nor the media savviness of the UNICEF. Nevertheless, for a century now the ILO has been bridging that unbridgeable global gap between those who count, the world’s rich business houses and corporates (which it calls the employers’ organizations), and those who don’t count, the world’s countless poor (which it calls, the workers).
The ILO has steadfastly brought international focus on the world’s most vulnerable, on unorganized workers, agricultural labourers, migrants in search of work, on gender disparities in the workplace, and on the issues of the millions of the world’s temporary, casual and daily wage earners. It has been a focus on those who don’t count.
The ILO tries to make those who don’t count, count. But must do so, without treading on those who count, namely the world’s most powerful employers, and the governments who often represent them.
A Tight Balancing Act!
I don’t then blame Guy Ryder for not opening his mouth too often. Never know which of the powerful in government, employers and trade unions you will offend!
Surprisingly – or perhaps unsurprisingly – the ILO’s reticent balancing act has had a string of successes. Many of what are now our common-place social thoughts and concepts that are an integral part of our thinking today, are contributions of the ILO, imbibed across continents and time.
For example, the concept of 8 hours work, 8 hours rest and 8 hours recreation and overtime for work beyond 8 hours, the concept of rests after 3 or 4 hours of work, are inputs of the ILO to our thinking and laws. It is then disquieting that under the cover of Covid, some of our state governments have made 12 hours work, the norm in our workplaces. Imagine having to work for 12 hours every day in a dingy dark workplace. A double whammy for our poor.
The concept of equal pay for equal work, upon which lies the foundation of gender equity in the workplace is a contribution of the ILO. The abolition of child labour and the thought that the place for a child is the school and not the field or the factory, the abolition of forced and bonded labour are ILO contributions. Social dialogue, social protection and the need for putting in place social safety nets are influences of the ILO to global social thought.
The fundamental principle of the ILO is its belief in a difficult to define and even more difficult to achieve ideal- Social Justice. In my years in the ILO I realised that the ILO believes in its own dictum, that poverty anywhere constitutes a threat to prosperity everywhere.
The act of balancing the world’s rich employers and its poor workers, stems from ILO’s persistent goal of Social Justice and is the most defining aspect of ILO’s work. In this balancing act, the ILO puts the governments of its member countries, all 187 of them, at the fulcrum.
The ILO is unique amongst UN agencies in that it has as its members not only the governments of its constituent countries, but also the employers and the workers’ organizations of these countries. The ILO calls itself a tripartite body, meaning that, it has as its members three parties from every country- governments, employers and workers.
Among the three parties, it is the governments that are the most important to the ILO. Governments are sovereign, while employers and trade unions – even though some of them behave as though they are – are not.
Therefore, the ILO is hardly ever critical of a government. If it must be critical, the criticism is always couched in multiple layers of sugar. Never have I ever known the ILO, and certainly not its DG, make a direct offensive on any government, not even upon the governments of its weakest member countries.
India on the other hand is not a weak country. And in the ILO it certainly is not. It is a founder member of the ILO, joining it in 1919, while still a British Colony. It has a hundred-year history with the ILO. While India is rarely on the decision-making bodies of other UN agencies, India is a permanent member of ILO’s Governing Body and has been held in high esteem always.
Therefore, at a time when India has been howdying upto the world and hobnobbing with the rich and the powerful countries, the Director General’s ‘appeal’ to the Prime Minister to send a clear message to himself, is a tight slap on the government’s face.
No, it is not a slap on the nation’s face, but only on the government’s face. For it was on the initiative of the nation’s trade unions seeking the ILO’s intervention to protect workers’ rights and international labour standards, that the DG decided for once to speak up.
The nation is with its poor. Only the centre and some state governments strayed.
But the devil must also be given its due. And truth be told. The ILO’s slap on the government’s cheek, has had its impact. Some of the state governments have begun to roll back the anti-labour policies that they have put in place under the cover of COVID-19. A double whammy for our poor has been avoided.
The government has begun to turn the other cheek.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of AlignIndia.
Mr M P Joseph is a former Indian and UN Civil Servant. He belongs to the 1978 batch of the IAS and has worked with the UN & ILO in India and abroad for 20 years. He can be contacted on mpjoseph@hotmail.co.uk