Employers' Handbook on ILO Standards-related Activities

LOOKING AHEAD – CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ILS
the ILO Declaration of 1998, highlighting fundamental principles incorporated in ILS,
was an important orientation for enterprises in their worldwide operations. The employers
have also engaged in the “Global Compact”, an initiative launched by the UN
Secretary-General in 1999 for a global partnership between the UN and the business
community. The “Global Compact” aims at promoting the implementation of universal
values in the area of human rights, environment and labour.
At the same time, the employers have drawn attention to difficult and contentious
issues arising in the context of “private” standard-setting initiatives, such as the relationship
between “private” standards and government regulation or the question of
whether enterprises are responsible for the working conditions of their commercial
partners. In the employers’ view, governments cannot relinquish to private enterprises
their responsibility to implement ratified ILS or to enforce national labour law. If there
are problems with law enforcement in certain countries, the solution can only be to
seek to remove these problems and to strengthen the government’ s capacities in law
enforcement.
Quite another question, in the employers’ view, is whether enterprises – voluntarily
– take social initiatives which go beyond what the law requires. One element of
such initiatives can, for instance, be cooperation with suppliers in order to help them
meet legal requirements in the field of occupational safety and health or other labour
conditions. The employers have emphasized, however, that, as far as these voluntary
activities are concerned, it is for the individual enterprise to decide on the contents,
implementation and possible control. They have consequently opposed the imposition
of model standards/procedures on enterprises or claims for any internationally standardized
code of conduct or control mechanism.
In this context, the employers feel that the already existing important contributions
made by internationally active enterprises to the improvement of living and working
conditions in developing countries and thus the facilitation of ILS implementation
have not been adequately recognized so far by the public in developed countries. When
these enterprises invest in local production facilities in developing countries or buy
goods and products from local firms, they contribute substantially to the creation and
preservation of jobs, the financing of social institutions, the improvement of job qualifications,
the increase of productivity levels and structural change, in short, to social
and economic development.
For more detail, see:
l IOE: Codes of Conduct – Position paper of the International Organisation of
Employers, adopted by the IOE General Council, (Geneva, 11 June 1999).
l IOE and ACT/EMP: Employers’ handbook on child labour – A guide for taking
action, (Geneva, 1998).
l ILO: Overview of global developments and Office activities concerning codes of
conduct, social labelling and other private sector initiatives addressing labour
issues, GB.273/WP/SDL/1, (Geneva, Nov. 1998).
l Wild, A.: Social citizenship – what’s going on … and why? A review of corporate
citizenship and social initiatives, Enterprise and Cooperative Development Department,
ILO (Geneva, 1998).
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