HISTORY
The Constitution of the ILO was drafted in early 1919 by the Labor Commission,
chaired by Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in
the United States. It was composed of representatives from nine countries:
Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom
and the United States.
The process resulted in a tripartite organization, the only one of its kind, bringing
together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive
bodies.
The driving forces for the ILO's creation arose from security, humanitarian,
political and economic considerations. The founders of the ILO recognized the
importance of social justice in securing peace, against a background of the
exploitation of workers in the industrializing nations of that time. There was also
increasing understanding of the world's economic interdependence and the need for
cooperation to obtain similarity of working conditions in countries competing for
markets.
Reflecting these ideas, the Preamble of the ILO Constitution states:
Whereas universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based
upon social justice;
And whereas conditions of labor exist involving such injustice, hardship and
privation to large numbers of people as to produce unrest so great that the
peace and harmony of the world are imperiled; and an improvement of those
conditions is urgently required;
Whereas also the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labor is
an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the
conditions in their own countries.
The areas of improvement listed in the Preamble remain relevant today, including
the regulation of working time and labor supply, the prevention of unemployment
and the provision of an adequate living wage, social protection of workers,
children, young persons and women. The Preamble also recognizes a number of
key principles, for example equal remuneration for work of equal
value and freedom of association, and highlights, among others, the importance of
vocational and technical education.
The ILO moved to Geneva in the summer of 1920, with France's Albert
Thomas as its first Director. Nine International Labor Conventions and 10
Recommendations were adopted in less than two years. These standards covered
key issues, including:
hours of work ,
unemployment ,
maternity protection ,
night work for women ,
minimum age , and
Night work for young persons.
A Committee of Experts was set up in 1926 to supervise the application of ILO
standards. The Committee, which still exists today, is composed of independent
jurists responsible for examining government reports and presenting each year to
the Conference its own report on the implementation of ILO Conventions and
Recommendations.
The Great Depression, with its resulting massive unemployment, soon confronted
Britain's Harold Butler, who succeeded Albert Thomas as Director in 1932.
The American, John Winant, took over as head of the ILO in 1939 - just as the
Second World War was imminent. He moved the ILO's headquarters temporarily
to Montreal, Canada, in May 1940 for reasons of safety.
His successor, Ireland's Edward Phelan, had helped to write the 1919 Constitution
and played an important role once again during the Philadelphia meeting of the
International Labor Conference, in the midst of the Second World War.
Government delegates, employers and workers from 41 countries adopted
the Declaration of Philadelphia as an annex to the ILO Constitution. The
Declaration still constitutes the Charter of the aims and objectives of the ILO. The
Declaration sets out the key principles for the ILO’s work after the end of World
War II. These include that “labor is not a commodity”, and that “all human beings,
irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-
being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of
economic security and equal opportunity“.
In 1946, the ILO became a specialized agency of the newly formed United
Nations.
America's David Morse was Director-General from 1948-1970, when the number
of Member States doubled and the Organization took on its universal character.
Industrialized countries became a minority among developing countries, the budget
grew five-fold and the number of officials quadrupled.
The ILO established the Geneva-based International Institute for Labor Studies in
1960 and the International Training Centre in Turin in 1965. The Organization
won the Nobel Peace Prize on its 50th anniversary in 1969.
Under Britain's Wilfred Jenks, Director-General from 1970-73, the ILO advanced
further in the development of standards and mechanisms for supervising their
application, particularly the promotion of freedom of association and the right to
organize.
His successor, Francis Blanchard of France, expanded ILO's technical cooperation
with developing countries. The ILO played a major role in the emancipation of
Poland from dictatorship by giving its full support to the legitimacy of the
Solidarnosc Union, based on respect for Convention No. 87 on freedom of
association, which Poland had ratified in 1957.
Belgium's Michel Hansenne succeeded him in 1989 and guided the ILO into the
post-Cold War period, emphasizing the importance of placing social justice at the
heart of international economic and social policies. He also set the ILO on a course
of decentralization of activities and resources away from the Geneva headquarters.
In March 1999, Juan Somavia of Chile took over as Director-General. He
emphasized the importance of making decent work a strategic international goal
and promoting a fair globalization. He also underlined work as an instrument of
poverty alleviation and the ILO's role in helping to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals, including cutting world poverty in half by 2015.
Under Somavia, the ILO established the World Commission on the Social
Dimension of Globalization, which published a major report responding to the
needs of people as they cope with the unprecedented changes that globalization,
has brought to societies.
In May 2012, Guy Ryder (UK) was elected as the tenth Director-General of the
ILO. He was re-elected to his second five-year term in November 2016. Ryder has
emphasized that the future of work is not predetermined: Decent work for all is
possible but societies have to make it happen. It is precisely with this imperative
that the ILO established its Global Commission on the Future of Work as part of
its initiative to mark its centenary in 2019.
