“More than 61 million jobs have been lost since the start of the global crisis in 2008 and our projections show that unemployment will continue to rise until the end of the decade. This means the jobs crisis is far from over so there is no place for complacency.”
(ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, 20 January 2015)
Introduction
In the era of economic crisis, the dramatic increase of unemployment and poverty levels have alarmed the international community to take drastic measures and improve the protection of labour and welfare rights. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations, which aims among others to promote labour rights and enhance social protection. Employment security is a fundamental form of security, which plays a key role in addressing economic challenges. Here, I attempt to give a brief introduction to the concept of employment security and examine to what extent employment security has been integrated in the ILO instruments.
Defining Employment Security
Employment security is defined as “the protection against loss of income-earning work” (ILO Socio-economic programme, 2004). It is noteworthy that “employment security” is defined differently between self-employed and wage/salary workers. Particularly, the definition of “employment security” for salary/wage workers refers to “the strong protection against unfair or arbitrary dismissal”. Whereas, for self-employed workers, it refers to “the protection against sudden loss of independent work, and/or business failure”.
The Report titled as “Economic insecurity is a global crisis”, based on the ILO’s Socio-Economic Security Programme (SES), has prescribed that economic security is an umbrella term that constitutes two major divisions: basic social security and work-related security. Employment security differs from job security but both are two core components of the work-related branch of economic security. Employment security refers to the opportunity of a worker to retain his employment, whereas job security refers to the ability of a worker to retain his job which is very suitable to him (i.e. a job position which is in conjunction with his interests, abilities, training and skills).
ILO Instruments on Employment Security
In 1944, the ILO has firstly introduced the concept of employment security through the adoption of the Declaration of Philadelphia. The Declaration of Philadelphia, which is binding upon all ILO member States, has embedded employment security under the umbrella of economic security (Part II(a) of the Declaration of Philadelphia). Few decades later, the ILO has adopted Convention on the Termination of Employment (No.158) and its corresponding Recommendation (No.166)Recommendation (N.166). Convention No.158 sets out the core principles for the protection of workers against unfair dismissals. It stipulates that a dismissal can be justified only for reasons related to “capacity or conduct of the worker or based on the operational requirements of the undertaking, establishment or service” (article 4 of Convention No.158). Furthermore, it prescribes that particular reasons, such as race and marital status shall not constitute valid reasons for termination of employment (article 5 of Convention No.158). After Slovakia has ratified Convention No.158 in 2010, the total number of ratifications to Convention No.158 has increased to 36. The limited number of ratifications shows that Convention No.158 has not been warmly embraced by the ILO Members. This should create concerns regarding the reasons lying behind the reluctance of the ILO member States to implement international labour standards on employment security.
Just before the outbreak of economic crisis, the ILO has managed to set employment security at the centre of effective labour protection by adopting the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization (2008). The Declaration 2008 has prompted all ILO member States to adopt the ILO Instruments on Employment Security. Particularly, it has urged ILO member States to implement Convention No.158 and Recommendation R.166 (as legal framework) in order to examine to what extent Decent Work Agenda has been implemented at the national level (ILO, “Manual on Concepts and Definitions of Decent Work Indicators”, 2012).
Conclusion
The ILO has taken an important step by adopting the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization (2008), which is binding upon all ILO member States. However, this step should have been taken well-before the outbreak of economic crisis. This would have been given time for preparation to both, the ILO member States and the ILO, to adopt the appropriate legal framework in order to enhance employment security and increase resilience to future economic shocks. As Ashleigh Brilliant stated “Nothing we can do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future.” Hence, even if the ILO has not placed employment security at the heart of effective labour protection before the outbreak of economic crisis, it should continue and intensify its efforts to promote employment security. According to the “Report of the Committee on Employment and Social Policy: 12th Item on the Agenda” (306th Session, November 2009), this goal should only be achieved by creating employment opportunities, enhancing workers’ skills, abilities, job experience and by integrating them into labour market.
Useful Material
- ILO official website (about the ILO)
- Employment protection legislation database – EPLex (this database gives useful information on the legislation on termination of employment for each country)
Post by: Christiana Antonoudiou, PhD Candidate in Labour Law and Human Rights at University of Bristol Law School