All social partners in the labour force must work together : EFC DG
View(s):Employers need to look beyond their bottom lines while workers must look beyond their rights, a Sri Lankan labour specialist has told an international labour grouping in Geneva.
“The time has also come for governments to do what they ought to do in terms of their country’s socio economic requirements without being inhibited by populist political interests. Tomorrow’s challenges in the world of work can only be faced if all social partners work together. Let this be our goal and objective,” said Ravi Peiris, Director General of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC) speaking at the 102nd International Labour Conference.
Discussing the international scenario, he said global growth has slowed down while unemployment has started to increase, leaving a total of 197 million people without a job in 2012.
The unemployment rate is set to increase again and the number of unemployed worldwide is projected to rise to 5.1 million in 2013, and by another 3 million in 2014. Young people remain particularly stricken by the crisis. Currently, 73.8 million young people are unemployed globally.
The Global Jobs Pact which was adopted in 2009 called upon countries to introduce job – centred policies. “Notwithstanding all this, we have observed that the ILO has been very much preoccupied with the imposition of labour standards and its supervisory mechanism, rather than creating an enabling environment for employment.”
How must the ILO respond to these challenges?
• Shouldn’t the ILO need to be less prescriptive and more proactive?
• Shouldn’t the ILO need to be less critical and more practical?
• Above all, shouldn’t the ILO acknowledge the unique diversity of its constituents and postulate standards that would not be interpreted by uniform yardsticks?
Sri Lanka has adopted a labour policy which recognizes creation of employment as one of its policy directives, he said. The government forecasts per capita GDP of US $ 4800 by 2016 but there is much to be done in creating an enabling environment for employment growth in Sri Lanka.
“Very recently, the social partners in Sri Lanka signed the Decent Work Country Programme which sets out country priorities for the next four years. Now, the time has come for us to acknowledge and accept that decent work necessarily requires certain decent conditions which directly impinge on uplifting the quality of work,” he added.
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