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Why we should all be concerned about ConDem cuts to the International Labour Organisation
13
July 2011
In March the Tory-led
Government announced plans to cut DfID funding to the International
Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN body that sets international
standards in labour law. Although the UK will still pay the
minimum affiliation fee, the UK will no longer support the
ILO's anti-poverty targets with additional funding.
The ILO, founded in 1919
by Britain, is based on tripartite collaboration between governments,
employers and trade unions. The ending of UK support for this
important organisation for the promotion of democratic trade
unionism represents a major attack on workers' rights across
the world.
Ministers have stated
they do not believe the ILO is an effective tool for combating
poverty - in actual fact the Government simply do not like
how the ILO tackles poverty - through the promotion of rights
at work, social protection, better employment practices and
decent work opportunities.
Instead of supporting
the central ILO philosophy of social justice through enforcement
of international human and labour rights, the Tory-led Government
favour providing basic education and low-level aid.
As Owen Tudor of the TUC
says: "There is, of course, nothing wrong with giving
poor people a handout, but it sits uneasily with other rhetorical
flourishes from Conservative politicians who demand in the
UK that people be given 'a hand up, instead of a hand-out':
there is no more effective 'hand up' than the freedom to organise
and bargain collectively, the right to decent work and equal
treatment, and the freedom from dictatorship that the ILO
has provided across the world for decades."
The international context
was underlined by MP Denis MacShane who described the cut
as a "terrible signal to send workers in Egypt, Tunisia,
Libya, Bahrain and Yemen who need ILO help more than ever".
More information:
The
Tories’ shameful attack on trade unionism
ILO
cut is more than political bias: it’s about ending a
rights-based approach to poverty reduction
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