New international labour standards

Protection of wages

When the International Labour Conference met in Philadelphia in 1944 it had before it a report prepared by the Office which contained the draft of the Declaration of Philadelphia. The report also contained recommendations for future action by the ILO. Among other things it pointed out that wage policy lay "at the core of the preoccupations of the International Labour Organisation"; yet, up to that time, only three international standards touching on the subject had been adopted. The report stated:

A Convention or Recommendation on methods of wage payment dealing with the periodicity of wage payments, deductions from wages, the prohibition of truck (the obligation to spend wages on goods supplied by the employers), the adequacy of remuneration in kind, the protection of wages in legal proceedings and similar subjects would also be of great value in relation to many parts of the world, especially in regard to rural workers. This was the germ of the Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95).

In this case it was the International Labour Office itself which initiated a Convention by means of an Office report.

Targeting the worst forms of child labour

The elimination of child labour is a longstanding major objective of the ILO. In 1919, the ILO's first Conference adopted a conventions which fixed the minimum age for employment in industry. In 1973, the ILO adopted its comprehensive Minimum Age Convention (No. 138) which requires states to design and apply national policies to ensure the effective abolition of all forms of child labour and to set the minimum ages for employment. This has proven to be a difficult task confronting much resistance, particularly vested commercial interests and market pressures as well as moral indifference and cultural attitudes. The problem is compounded by unmet development needs that would put parents at work and children in schools.

In 1992, the ILO launched the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) to continue the struggle against child labour through practical projects in the field. It counts a number of success in phasing out child labour in specific cases and in providing educational alternatives in many fields, such as football stitching, carpet weaving, tackling sweatshop conditions in the garment industry, withdrawing children from work in mines and quarries and saving young girls from trafficking and sexual exploitation. Above all, the ILO has been at the forefront in creating greater awareness of the urgent need for coordinated action in a targeted manner and that much, much more needs to be done.

This lead to the idea of concentrating immediately on the worst forms of child labour as morally abhorrent situations under any circumstance or development condition while pursuing the wider aim of reducing child labour in all its forms. This is the objective of the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour adopted in 1999. It was approved unanimously by governments, workers and employers, reflecting a solid political consensus for action now.

Safe use of asbestos

The protection of health against the harmful effects resulting from exposure to asbestos dusts (mainly causing asbestos's and several types of cancer) became, after the Second World War, a subject of great concern not only for workers' organisations, but also for employers' organisations, the competent national prevention services and the public at large. The world production of asbestos increased greatly to reach 5 million tons in 1974 (compared with some 675,000 tons in 1940) and to exceed 6 million tons in 1980. Thus the number of workers exposed to asbestos has considerably increased. Moreover, the risk of asbestos-related diseases has extended much beyond the industries directly concerned; the presence of asbestos in the environment in certain regions of the world has reached the point where it appears to pose a health hazard for the population as a whole.

In November 1972, when considering the occupational safety and health programme of the ILO (as a part of the programme and budget of the ILO for 1972-73), the Governing Body decided to hold a meeting of experts on the safe use of asbestos. The Workers' group of the Governing Body was pushing strongly for this meeting, which took place in December 1973. It identified the pathological effects of exposure to asbestos and suggested a number of measures to improve the protection of workers and to reduce hazards to a minimum. It also recommended the adoption of an international instrument on the subject, as well as the elaboration of a guide on the safe use of asbestos, in consultation with appropriate national and international bodies.

In June 1980, the International Labour Conference adopted a new list of occupational diseases appended to the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 (No. 121), in which lung cancer caused by asbestos was included. Asbestosis had already been covered by the original list.

In November 1980, the Governing Body decided to call another meeting of experts, which was convened in October 1981. The experts made recommendations on the content of an international instrument and suggested to the Governing Body the elaboration of a code of practice which would either precede the instrument or proceed in parallel.

In February-March 1982, the Governing Body called for a third meeting of experts on the safe use of asbestos. This meeting, which took place in October 1983, drew up a Code of Practice on Safety in the Use of Asbestos. At its session in November 1983, the Governing Body took note of this code and authorised the Director-General of the ILO to publish it. At the same time, the Governing Body decided to place on the agenda of the 71st Session of the International Labour Conference in 1985 the question of safety in the use of asbestos. The subject was dealt with by the Conference under the double-discussion procedure (i.e. at two subsequent sessions, in 1985 and 1986) and in 1986 the Conference adopted the Asbestos Convention (No. 162) and Recommendation (No. 172).