Intervention by INDIA

323rd Session of Governing Body, 12-27 March, 2015

GB.323/POL/4

Fourth Item on the Agenda

Sectoral and Technical meetings in 2014 and proposals for sectoral work in 2016-17

Madam Chair,

We thank the office for presenting this document on sectoral and technical meetings in 2014 and proposals made in relation to sectoral meetings for 2016-17. The sectoral activities are important aspect of the ILO work and there is a need to make them more relevant in changing times. we would like to align ourselves with the statement by Government Group and that of ASPAG. The involvement of Governments is critical to success of these sectoral activities and they need to be involved in  the process from an early stage including identification of sectors and regions they are relevant to.

We take note of the sectoral meetings held in the second half of 2014. The textiles,  clothing, leather and footwear industries are labour intensive with high employment elasticity  especially for female labour force. The potential of employment generation in these sectors and presence of female workforce, necessities the existence of flexible working hours to ensure work-life balance. India has ratified the relevant ILO conventions addressing working hours and wages such as C-001 “Hours of work (industry) convention”, C-004 “Night Work (Women) Convention”, C-014 “Weekly Rest (industry) convention and C-016 “Minimum wages fixing machinery convention”. We are further making affirmative Policies to enhance Female Work Participation by focussed industrial training for women in the country, promotion of skills and jobs which are women specific and night Work for women conditional to adequate  safety provisions.

Compliance with regard to wages and working hours in aforementioned industries is a major challenge before the member countries. An effective labour inspection system is central to ensure compliance and contribute to a level playing field.

The incidence of  temporary and other forms of employment discussed at  Global Dialogue Forum with a reference to electronics sector has become significant for very many sectors the the new global economic order. Temporary workers include mostly migrant workers, women workers, contract workers, construction workers etc. who are vulnerable in terms of decent work opportunities and fundamental principles of rights at work. One of the principal factors responsible for temporary forms of employment is large scale skill mismatch in the demand and supply of labour. We urge the Office to include these aspects in the discussions in the forthcoming sectoral meetings as they address a large majority of workforce.

In recent years, globalisation, technological changes, rapidly changing nature of production and changing dynamics in the world of work call for a proactive role of ILO to identify the challenges and opportunities that different sectors exhibit in meeting decent work in different national context. While we welcome the proposed global sectoral meetings 2016-17  in the identified eight sectors as bought out in Para 22, we would urge ILO to hold regional and sub-regional meetings with country office experts and national experts including national governments to identify core sectors which play major role in terms of providing employment opportunities and are critical to regional economy.  we believe that the forum can be made more effective and inclusive by focusing more on the problems of under developed and developing counties of the world as they face greater challenges.  Another critical issue emerging is presence of migrant workers in almost each sector of economy and needs to be flagged in these sectoral committees. We agree with the means of action as highlighted in para 20 on consensus building and capacity development. we agree that promotion of ratification of relevant ILO conventions is the fundamental way of addressing the issues at policy level.  We look forward the recurrent and statutory sectoral work 2016-17 for ILO and the implementation of ILC and Governing Body decisions and resolutions and conclusions adopted by the sectoral meetings.   India has been  saying this all along that while we welcome the approach of  policy coherence and leveraging support for decent work through strategic partnerships within the  UN system , we are concerned that such partnerships should not dilute the core principles and ideology of ILO and its supremacy and leadership on subjects related to labour.

 Madam Chair,

We expect that recommendations of these sectoral activities including those of the advisory bodies will be put up to the GB for approval so that the sectoral activities can be well integrated into the core priorities and the course of action as decided by the P&B agreed by the GB.  With these remarks, we support the draft decision of the agenda document.

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