----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Givel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 7:48 AM
Subject: [toeslist] ILO Director-General targets decent work deficit
> Subject: ILO Press Release 01-19: Decent Work Agenda
>
> Monday 11 June 2001
> For immediate release
> ILO/01/19
>
> ILO Director-General targets decent work deficit
> Calls on organization and international community
> to integrate decent work agenda
>
> GENEVA (ILO News) * "We need to make decent work a
> reality in our countries and embed this goal in the global
> economy," said the International Labour Office (ILO)
> Director-General Mr. Juan Somavia in a plenary address to the
> 89th International Labour Conference, which is
> meeting in Geneva.
>
> "For the last two decades, governments and international
> financial institutions have focussed on bringing down budget
> deficits: I think it is now time to focus with the same energy on
> bringing down the decent work deficit", Mr. Somavia insisted.
>
> He called upon tripartite delegates from the
> Organization's 175 member States to act as "the catalysts to
> create an expanding global consciousness for decent work."
>
> To meet the challenge, the Director-General said that
> the ILO needs to project a "clear and coherent message of what it
> is about today."
>
> Highlighting the need to increase awareness of social
> issues at the national and international level, he told the
> assembled delegates: "To move forward we need to confront the
> widespread perception that we who address social issues are
> playing in the minor league of the global economy, while the hard
> ball actors in the world of commerce and finance occupy a
> superior sphere of policy."
>
> He said that perception is and should be "subverted by
> the reaction of people all over the world and their perception of
> the failure to deal credibly with their social concerns and
> priorities in the age of globalization."
>
> Fundamental principles and rights at work and employment
> must be part of the agenda. Insisting that "what is decent is
> built on universal rights and principles, but reflects the
> circumstances in each country, Mr. Somavia pointed out, "in that
> sense, there is a floor but there is no ceiling." The threshold
> of decent work "evolves as the possibilities and priorities of
> societies evolve."
>
> The decent work framework can be mapped onto a practical
> policy agenda, adapted to the concerns and circumstances of
> different countries by implementing such policies into the
> development agenda as:
>
> * Promoting enterprise and employment alongside policies to
> defend basic rights at work;
>
> * Strengthening the social partners and reinforcing their
> dialogue around the decent work goals;
>
> * Formulating policies to extend the reach of social
> protection systems and promote gender equality.
>
> He highlighted the need for "a common approach in the
> international system, which encompasses our decent work goals and
> avoids "situations in which member States receive different and
> contradictory advice from different international organizations,
> amounting to policy schizophrenia."
>
> Underscoring that it was "essential that the
> international system stops acting as if it were a series of
> unconnected islands, and begins to put together the type of
> integrated responses required by the interrelated
> challenges of the global economy."
>
> He promised that these issues will be taken up in next
> week's meeting of the ILO Governing Body's Working Party on the
> Social Dimension of Globalization. He stressed recent efforts
> to raise the Organization's profile and exert more influence,
> adding "We must have the will to make a difference to the path of
> globalization. We must contribute to fair rules of the game and
> level playing field for both people and countries."
>
> Encouraging the ILO's tripartite constituency "to agree
> that it should take on a significant role in tracing social road
> maps for the global economy", he encouraged it to "forge a strong
> tripartite alliance
> that is open to the world."
>
> He concluded that the goals of the ILO Constitution go
> far beyond the Organization's immediate areas of influence:
> "Employment and security depend on wider economic policies * so
> dialogue and cooperation with Finance, Trade and other Ministries
> at the national level, and with multilateral organizations
> internationally, is absolutely essential."
>
> ********************************
> Stuart M. Basefsky *
> Information Specialist *
> CORNELL UNIVERSITY *
> New York State School of *
> Industrial & Labor Relations *
> 420 Ives Hall *
> Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 *
> *
> Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
> Facsimile: (607) 255-9641 *
> E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
> ********************************
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
