FNPR presentation at the 12th BRICS Trade Union Forum – Durban, South Africa, 26 September 2023

Intervention by:
Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia

XII BRICS Trade Union Forum - Durban, South Africa 
Panel discussion, September 26, 2023

ILO and BRICS on advancing the future of Decent work, inclusive development and social justice

Dear colleagues, friends,

BRICS trade union forum is an excellent platform for developing global responses to the challenges of today’s world. Indeed, the implementation of the concept of Decent Work, on which we have worked for decades within the ILO, implies changing the entire paradigm of the world order.

Decent work is no longer a «thing in itself». It is no longer the prerogative of one specialised UN agency. The question we face is how can the ILO values and conventions become part of the new multipolar world order? 

The issue is how to rise above selfish interests of individual geopolitical groupings and the MNEs they are connected with. These forces want to bring back the times when several parent states have freely exploited numerous and deprived colonies.

Respect for workers' rights as an integral part of universal human rights, respect for human dignity and the satisfaction of citizens' basic needs — all of these are the prerequisites for the implementation of not only the ILO Decent Work Programme, but also the entire UN's Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.

The development, ratification and application of ILO conventions, as an indispensable part of the entire UN normative framework, will strengthen the rule of law in our turbulent world.

Speaking at this year’s International Labour Conference, Mikhail Shmakov, the FNPR President, stressed that "social dialogue is intended to become a binding global mechanism comprising collective agreements at all levels, specifically in global supply chains, in digital production, in the platform economy and in conditions of remote work. (…) The world must demonstrate greater solidarity and come to the aid of the developing and poorest countries which are barely coping with all the new crises — from climate disasters to socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These shocks have led to a mounting global food and cost-of-living crisis, plunging tens of millions of workers into hunger and extreme poverty.

Characteristically, this has happened primarily in countries that have resolutely embarked on the path of self-sustaining, independent development. Suffice it to say that since 2020 African countries have spent more on servicing external debts than on health care for their citizens.

The Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection, which the ILO Director-General Mr. Gilbert Houngbo referred to in his report at the ILC in Geneva, demonstrates workers' demands for the creation of a Global Social Protection Fund for the least developed countries. This Global Accelerator should contribute to a fair transition to a new development paradigm.

This area of work is one of the possible contributions of our Forum's trade unions in the search for answers to contemporary challenges.

I would especially like to dwell on the point made in the ILO Director General’s ILC report that, in order to achieve social justice, it is necessary to revive the social contract. Globally, it should take the form of the Global Coalition for Social Justice.

Let me reiterate that both the Global Accelerator and the Coalition for Social Justice are global in nature, and this is no coincidence. The quest for social justice goes far beyond the realm of the world of work. In countries with rising inequalities and exploitation, growing decent work deficits and citizens' distrust of the elites, social justice is a prerequisite for peace and stability. 

And that is the dialectical unity of both the revitalisation of the ILO itself and the strengthening of its role in the contemporary world order.

In our work, we shall strive to ensure that social justice becomes the foundation of a solidary multilateral system, a new social contract on a global scale.

Ensuring universal labour protection through adequate wages, improved working conditions, full, productive and freely chosen employment should be crucial to the success of the Global Coalition and the Global Accelerator.

The bottom level of labour protection set out in the ILO Centennial Declaration should, with our coordinated participation, be further developed through the expansion of the ILO’s work on minimum wages not below the subsistence level.

Meaningful steps must be taken towards normative action to regulate decent work in global supply chains through mandatory compliance with workers' rights by transnational corporations. It is necessary to strengthen the ILO control over the implementation of its MNE Declaration, particularly with regard to social dialogue with trade unions. In the future, it is essential that transnational collective agreements be signed.

And here an important role seems to belong to BRICS trade unions, including at the regional, national and sectoral levels.

Occupational safety and health becomes an increasingly important issue for the ILO. We have just succeeded in adding ILO occupational safety and health instruments to the list of its fundamental conventions. In this regard, it is necessary to intensify campaign for the ratification and implementation of the core ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention 155, and Convention 187 concerning the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health.  I am pleased to report that the Russian Federation has already done so with our active participation

Dear comrades,

For many years now, we have witnessed an attempt by a number of employer organisations to challenge the legal basis laid down in the ILO’s fundamental conventions on the right to strike. Our joint action, supported by the majority of Governments, must, once and for all, put an end to attempts to infringe on this right of workers, which they have won at the cost of a century-long struggle.

In conclusion, I would like to thank our South African hosts and assure all of you that Russian trade unions will make a worthy contribution to the implementation of the decisions that we collectively take at this meeting.

The FNPR International Department