ILC-ILO. Notes from the conference- Click on "Read More" to see the notes on the conference as they evolve

In a nutshell the activities of the conference proceed through four Committees, where the different Groups can discuss about emergent issues and previous experiences, and they can as well debate and formulate proposals, amendments, and modifications to previous ILO conventions. Representatives of Countries, workers and employers participate to the work of every committees.

The groups meetings are private and therefore closed to the public, while the committees and the plenary sessions are open.

Tuesday 2^nd of June

The day had a very intense schedule.

I attend the Committee for SMEs and employment creation. The work of the committee focus on the increasing importance of SMEs in the world around the world, in terms of contribution to GDP, employment creation, and income and wealth redistribution. The representatives of Countries, Workers, and Employers agreed on recognizing the strategic role played by SMEs and recognize as well the necessity to formalize the activities of informal enterprises and extend the coverages for workers, including domestic workers and own-employment.

After this meeting I attended a meeting of the Committee for the recurrent discussion on Social Protection. The committee focused on the issues of flexibility, over-timing works, social protection for vulnerable groups, rights to maternity and coverage for women, coverage for workers, and reform of non-standard work. The committee has recognized the necessity to regulate the flexibility of contracts in the work market; in fact the absence of regulation is leading to other forms of exploitation, such as over-timing work, work without social protection and non-standards work. On this regard, the committee has expressed the need to reform the work market in order to improve the social protection and other forms of coverages. Finally, the committee has stressed the importance to have a gender focus on the question of social protection, particularly referring to the lack of rights to maternity and coverage for women.

Wednesday 3rd June

I have attended at the beginning of the day the Committees for the Transition from the informal economy. The main issues that were pointed out by the representatives relates to the necessity to recognize differences among countries and within countries. Particularly it emerged the need to take in consideration the National Context, the National practices, and the diversity within informal economy.

After this, I have attended the committee for the recurrent discussion on Social Protection. The conference focuses on two main features. On one hand it summarizes the contribution of ILO and International cooperation for development to the diffusion of social protection in many countries; each country has reported its own experience stressing successes and improvement, as well as limits and restrains of the ILO interventions.

The second feature addressed by the committees was the identification of constrains and obstacles hindering the social protection. The committee has focused particularly on the environment necessary to promote social protection, with particular regard to the fiscal and the juridical framework of each country.

Thursday 4^th June

Thursday Mei Zegers arrived and we attended the conference together. At the beginning of the day I collected materials concerning the four committees. We conducted a briefing together where I summarized the main contents of the conference.

After this, we went to the committee for the transition from the informal economy. Here the representatives of Countries, workers, and employers, discuss some amendments, proposals and modification concerning the application and implementation of the ILO norms on the transition from the informal economy.