India Opposes Ilo Moves On Inspection, Social Labelling

India has opposed the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) proposal to allow international inspection of labour standards and introduce social labelling.

Labour minister M Arunachalam has said the proposal mooted by ILO director-general Michel Hansenne to extend special procedure, currently applicable only to conventions 87 and 98 (freedom of association), to other conventions did not have statutory sanctity.

The director-general's report, The ILO, Standard Setting and Globalisation, which will be discussed at the 85th session of the International Labour conference next month in Geneva, again tries to establish a link between trade and labour standards.

Arunachalam told an ILO Asia-Pacific symposium recently that ILO standards are becoming increasingly unrealistic in relation to conditions prevailing in developing countries and are difficult to implement fully.

 

M K Pandhe, general secretary, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), who is also a member of the ILO conventions committee, has said the director-general's proposal to give more impetus to recommendations will make the ILO further toothless. No country will take them seriously, he said.

Stating that the report was too general, Pandhe said the ILO should explore new areas of conventions which are Third World-oriented. Social labelling, Pandhe said, is being seen from the interests of the advanced countries. Wages in India cannot be made at par with America, Germany and Japan, unless economic growth is faster. The standards of living cannot change overnight, he said.

The All-India Organisation of Employers (AIOE) has also criticised the proposed international inspection of labour standards. No country with self-respect should allow international inspection to get an award on overall social label, said M K Garg, advisor, AIOE.

The report stresses the need for universal recognition of the basic rights of workers as defined in the ILO's seven core conventions to enable workers to get a fair share of benefits from liberalisation and globalisation.

India has ratified only three conventions