Role of International Labor Organization in Setting Global Health and Safety Standards

ILO Role and International Labor Conference

International Labor Organization was established in 1919, as a part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War 1(WW1). Its main aim is to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue in handling world-related issues. 

ILO is an agency of the UN that is devoted to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equality, security, and human dignity. It is the only Tripartite United Nations agency that brings the representatives of governments, employers, and workers to jointly shape policies and programs. 

It is a global body responsible for developing and monitoring international labor standards. 181 countries are members of this organization and working with them, ILO ensures the labor standards are respected in practice. 

So far, ILO has adopted more than 180 conventions and 190 recommendations covering all aspects of the world of work, and nearly half of these conventions are relevant to Health and Safety. 

Every Year in June, ILO members meet in Geneva, Switzerland where each state is represented by a delegate. Each delegate consists of two government delegates, an employer delegate, a worker delegate, and their respective advisers. 

Every delegate has the same right, and all can express themselves freely and vote as they wish, worker and employer delegates may vote against their government's representatives, or against each other. Many of the government representatives are cabinet ministers responsible for labor affairs in their own countries. Heads of states also participate in the conference. A two-thirds majority is required before they can be adopted. 

ILO Convention

The adoption of a convention by the ILO Conference allows the government to ratify it, and when a specified number of governments have done so, the convention becomes a treaty in international law. All ILO conventions are considered Labor standards, irrespective of how many governments have ratified them. 

Ratification of a convention imposes a legal obligation to apply its provision. It is voluntary for a country to ratify a convention. If states don't ratify a convention, it has the same legal force as the recommendation. Each government is bound to submit a report about its compliance with its ratified convention, and an ILO Committee examins report to find out the breaches of labor standards. 

An example of a convention is the Occupational Safety and Health Convention 1981 and its protocol of 2002. 

Important Terms

ILO: International Labor Organization

UN: United Nations