The 108th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) concluded its two-week session, which marked the centenary of the International Labour Conference (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday.
The International Labour Conference adopted landmark instruments on violence and harassment and a Declaration on the future of work.
The workers, led by Nigeria’s President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, also used the two weeks event to demand for redistribution of wealth globally, social protection for the workforce and the masses and end to inequality.
Wabba also led the global workforce to demand for a new Convention to end violence, harassment in workplace; which was granted on the last day of the session.
While addressing the session, Wabba had demanded a strong Centenary declaration, which would make a historic centenary celebration.
“A convention to end violence and harassment at work as well as a strong Centenary declaration will make a historic centenary celebration at this ILC,” Comrade Wabba said.
More importantly, the ITUC president demanded for regulation of economic power and the redistribution of wealth; saying, for us, “it is workers first, then profits.”
Wabba said: “We refuse to accept current historic levels of inequality. We reject the reality that more than 70 per cent of the world’s people have little or no social protection.”
Wabba demanded for social justice and the re-jig of tax systems in a manner that restores the re-distributive role of government.
He rejected a situation where more than 50 per cent of the global wealth is owned by less than one per cent of the world’s population.
Wabba said: “Brother Ryder (ILO DG) went on to remind us of the three cornerstones that have defined the milestones achieved by ILO in the past 100 years – ILO’s mandate for social justice, ILO’s tripartite structure and ILO’s constant capacity to adapt and turn towards the challenges of change.”
To get to this desired future, he said, “we must continue to consolidate on our mandate for social justice. We must continue to strengthen our capacity for tripartite relations. We must continue to strive towards accelerated social progress in a way that ultimately engenders sustainable industrial peace which is at the heart of the aspiration and work of the ILO.”
Wabba added: “As we progress into the fourth industrial revolution, we need an economic model that is socially and economically sustainable. The digital transformation should leave no one behind. Technological revolution should not be a threat to decent work.
“Going forward, we need a new social contract that will deliver decent jobs and entrench fundamental rights at work – freedom of association, freedom from discrimination, freedom from child labour, freedom from every form of gender-based violence, the right to living wage and the right to strike.”