16 August 2016
Included in the updated Environmental and Social Framework that the Bank’s executive board adopted
on 4 August, this ’labour safeguard’ needs strong compliance measure to
protect working people from the exploitation of corporate greed.
The other banks that already have a labour safeguard include the
African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development and the WB’s own private-sector lending arm, the
International Finance Corporation (IFC).
For the World Bank to catch up with most other development banks, not to mention bilateral aid agencies, it will need careful guidance notes on interpretation and implementation. Where the WB’s labour safeguard is weaker than those at the other banks we want to see coherence.
Foremost among the flaws is the lack of any reference to the
International Labour Organization’s fundamental rights conventions,
which define the core labour standards (CLS) endorsed by the other
banks.
The WB safeguard commits to prohibiting child labour, forced labour
and discrimination in Bank-financed projects, but for the fourth CLS,
freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, it adds the
qualification that these rights must be respected only ’in a manner
consistent with national law’.
If freedom of association, the heart of democratic rights and freedoms, is absent or imperfectly protected in the country’s legal framework, the Bank could allow working men and women in WB-financed projects to be at a higher risk of violation of their rights than those working in projects funded by others. This goes against the universal nature of the CLS as affirmed in the ILO’s Declaration of Fundamental Rights at Work adopted by all ILO member countries in 1998.
Another flaw is the shifting of the responsibility to identify risks
of child labour, forced labour and dangerous working conditions in
primary supply chains from the Bank and the borrowing countries to the
supplier. This actually represents a dilution from an earlier version of
the draft WB labour safeguard published in August 2015.
The Bank has announced that it will take up to 18 months for
‘intensive preparation and training’ before the safeguard becomes fully
operational in early 2018.
Among the steps that it will take are the preparation of Guidance
Notes that will give specific instructions to WB staff and borrowers on
how the labour and other safeguards must be interpreted and applied. We
ask that the Bank consult the ILO and the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC) in the preparation.
This call has been heard by the Bank’s president Jim Yong Kim who
phoned me after the adoption of the new policy to talk about
implementation of the labour safeguard and told me of the Bank’s
intentions to consult trade unions and the ILO extensively as the
guidance note is prepared as well as for the other measures to
operationalise the safeguard.
The WB president can benefit from the ITUC and Global Union
Federations’ experience with labour safeguards at other development
banks which shows that they have a real impact in ending labour rights
violations when banks take the following steps:
(1) ensure their staff are properly trained on labour issues; (2)
make clear to borrowers that the standard is obligatory and the precise
actions they must take for their labour practices to be in compliance;
(3) work in close cooperation with workers’ organisations that can
inform the bank of potential safeguard violations.
Early consultation with trade unions on risks of non-compliance in
new projects is probably the most effective practice for preventing
violations.
The ITUC will continue to campaign for the World Bank to address the
weaknesses in the new policy when it comes up for a scheduled revision
in a few years. In the meantime, accepting the premise that denial of
workers’ rights and unsafe working conditions are incompatible with
goals of eliminating poverty and reducing inequality, the Bank must take
serious measures to make sure that its labour safeguard is applied
rigorously throughout all the projects and activities that it finances.
Source : http://www.equaltimes.org/
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