III. Labour
Standards and the Debate
One outcome of the Versailles Peace Treaty
at the end of World War I, was the creation of the International Labour Organisation
(ILO), a tripartite international body to set industrial international labour standards
for workers protection. Since that time some 174 Conventions have been developed and
adopted by 150 members.
The Secretary General of the ILO in opening the 1994 International
Labour Conference said,
"The Liberalisation of trade and international movement of
capital offers the world reasonable prospects for economic growth, increasing employment
and declining poverty, but in no way does it guarantee an automatic improvement of social
justice. The international community must attach much greater importance to the social
aspects of globalisation, and must take it fully into account when introducing machinery
and measures to ensure adequate control over the world economy.... for example, the
globalisation of the economy has highlighted the problem of linkage of fair labour
standards in international trade. That is the issue of the social clause."
This was beginning of three weeks of
intense and bitter debate on the social clause as it relates to trade. Brett, spokesperson
for the workers group in a pre conference document following the conclusion of the Uruguay
round of GATT noted:
"We have trade rules for
everything; everything that is except people. GATT negotiators devoted considerable
efforts to fish rights but didn’t have the time of day for human rights. Unfair
exploitation of animals and forests is a legitimate concern for international regulation,
but apparently not the treatment of an Asian worker paid 2 deutsch marks a day and forced
to work more than 60 hours a week. It is an omission for which workers around the world I
assure you will pay for with their health, liberty and lives." (B. Brett,
1994. International Labour in the 21st Century, Great Britain, Epic Book)
The attack rejecting the link between the
social clause and trade, was led by Asian governments. For the first time it was Asian
governments which were setting the agenda for almost every aspect of an international
labour conference. For the first time Asian governments strategically organised and
speaker after government speaker in the conference’s plenary attacked any suggestions
of linking a social clause and trade. 
Arguing for such a linkage, the director of the ICFTU's Human and Trade
Union Rights Department in Singapore asserted,
"It is essential that we have a
mechanism that will ensure millions of workers now contributing to the production of world
trade obtain realistic benefits from that trade. It is essential that we have a mechanism
which ensures that the comparative advantage a country may have in competing in the world
market is not obtained through the suppression of trade union rights at the direct cost of
those who at least able to afford it - the workers." (G. McColl, "The
ICFTU’s Social Clause Linking World Trade with Basic Workers Rights; A Milestone in
Trade Union Objectives," in Proceedings of a Conference on Trade Union,
Human and Democratic Rights, March 1991)
In the Conference, Brett, on behalf of the
workers stated that the social clause,
"Is not about the protection of
trade, but the protection of people. It is not about establishing minimum wages across the
world. It is not about transferring first world wage levels in terms of conditions to
developing countries. Its simply about ensuring that basic human rights are respected in
all countries that trade......
"It is about those human rights every government should respect in
every country whatever its stage of development can afford. Our social clause is opposed
to child labour, our social clause is opposed to forced labour, our social clause is
opposed to discrimination.
"On the positive side our social clause, supports freedom of
association. Our social clause sees free collective bargaining as a means of setting the
wages and conditions of employment a country can afford in the light of its domestic
circumstances."
He went on to say,
"the ingredients of the workers
social clause are based on 6 widely ratified ILO Conventions relating to basic human
rights. Conventions No.87 and 98 (Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining); 100
and 111 (Equal Opportunities and Discrimination); 29 and 105 (Forced or Compulsory
Labour)" (ILO Provisional Record, 1994 9/12)
The wording of such a clause would go
something like the following:
"The contracting parties agree
to take steps to ensure the observance of minimum labour standards specified by an
advisory committee to be established by the WTO and ILO and including those of freedom of
association and the right to collective bargaining, the minimum wage for employment,
discrimination, equal remuneration and forced labour." (Brett, 1994 Op Cit. p 78)
Currently the relationship between trade and labour standards is being
debated in the following fora:
- The ILO Governing Body’s Working Party on the Social Dimensions of the
Liberalisation of International Trade,
- The OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)
- Trade Committee Working Party and the
- Education Labour and Social Affairs (ELSA) Committee
- The forthcoming Multilateral Investment Agreement currently being negotiated
- The Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries. (See Labour Ministers Fifth Conference,
January 1995, Delhi Declaration; "the linkage - trade and labour standards - is
totally unacceptable").
The international trade union movement
continues to endeavour to position the issue within both the implementing phases of the
World Trade Organisation, the emerging structures of APEC as well as within the OECD
processes.
Matheson, page 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
5 
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Labour
Standards, Workers, and the Ecumenical Movement
