20 November, 2011
Actrav’s biennial symposium was held from 4-7 October 2011 at the ILO in Geneva, and was devoted to exploring Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) and other forms of precarious work. Over 100 unions from around the world participated in the symposium, including ICEM affiliates and experts from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Africa.
Participants analysed the use of CAL around the world, the impact of the degeneration of permanent employment on the rights of workers, and what steps must be taken to mitigate these impacts.
Participants agreed that combating precarious work requires a comprehensive policy response that includes economic, fiscal, and social policies geared towards full employment and income equality, a regulatory framework to reduce and ultimately eradicate precarious work, and greater efforts to empower workers by promoting the extension of collective bargaining. This will ensure that all workers can access and exercise their right to associate and to bargaining collectively, freely, and without fear.
Basic income security through a universal social protection floor and minimum wages globally are indispensable to limit precarious and indecent employment and living conditions, as well as policies to combat the erosion of the employment relationship.
The symposium drew attention to the vital role the ILO must play in providing a regulatory framework to stop the growing circumvention of labour and social protections through precarious employment arrangements. The conclusions call on the ILO to produce a Law and Practice Report and convene an ILO expert meeting on obstacles to collective bargaining for precarious workers. They also recommend increasing efforts to implement the Employment Relationship Recommendation 198 and other relevant ILO standards.
A copy of the Symposium’s conclusions as well as all documents relating to the Symposium can be found here.