International Labour Organisation (ILO) officials say countries with better collective bargaining mechanisms have lower labour unrest. “Research has demonstrated that countries with highly coordinated collective bargaining tend to have less inequality in wages, lower and less persistent unemployment and fewer and shorter strikes, than countries where collective bargaining is less established,” said the Director of the ILO Sub Regional Office for South Asia, New Delhi, Leyla Tegmo-Reddy.
Ms Tegmo-Reddy was speaking at the first tripartite meeting organised globally, on ‘Negotiating Decent Work in the Age of Globalization in South Asia and China,’ in Ahungalla this week. Seven countries including South Asian countries and China participated in the event.
“As research evidence has shown, this system of joint determination helps in building cooperation and trust between employers and their workers, just as it has the capacity to promote efficient use of the human and non-human resources for enterprise productivity and competitiveness,” said the Director of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIALOUE) Department of the ILO Geneva, Tayo Fashoyn.
Collective bargaining is also seen as useful at times of economic downturn like the present global recession.
“Collective bargaining has proved to be a useful tool to deal with the negative effects of economic crisis and the best mechanism to find common solutions to the current challenges in the workplace,” said Ms Tegmo-Reddy.
However, the ILO says there are restrictions all over the world against collective bargaining, although the ILO core convention 98 - on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining - has been in use since 1949.
Given the importance placed on it, the ILO will hold a high level tripartite meeting next month, in Geneva, to discuss the collective bargaining situation globally.
The tripartite meeting in Ahungalla in southern Sri Lanka will be used to provide feedback for the meeting in Geneva.
“This tripartite meeting will follow up in all the recommendations and build up on current in-depth research being carried out by the ILO globally, in South Asia and China,” said the Director of the ILO office for Sri Lanka, Tine Staermose.
The ILO says the meetings and discussions will pave the way to improve implementation of collective bargaining mechanisms in different countries. |
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