Background

 

Individual and collective labour disputes have been increasing worldwide, as well as in many parts of Asia and the Pacific. Changes in the labour markets, particularly in high labour migration regions, increased range of individual rights protections, new diverse forms of work and changes in workers’ preference, significant gaps in productivity levels, a decrease in trade union density and low collective bargaining coverage as well as increased inequalities have been requiring the need to have robust and effective tripartite labour mechanisms for dispute resolution to support sound industrial relations and promote effective access to remedy. 

 

As part of their duty to protect against business-related human rights abuses under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), governments should take appropriate steps to ensure, through judicial, administrative, legislative or other appropriate means, that when such abuses occur within their territory and/or jurisdiction any affected victim, including any affected worker or workers, have access to effective remedy. Whilst effective State-based judicial grievance mechanisms are at the core of this mandate, State-based non-judicial mechanisms play an essential complementary role. Governments should ensure that voluntary conciliation and arbitration machinery, appropriate to national conditions, is made available to assist in the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes between employers and workers. Non-State-­based mechanisms at the operational-level also play important complementary role enabling companies to identify, address, and remediate individual and community grievances at an early stage. However, the UNGPs stress that poorly designed or implemented grievance mechanisms can risk compounding a sense of grievance amongst affected stakeholders by heightening their sense of disempowerment and disrespect by the process.

 

Against this backdrop, establishing robust and well-functioning tripartite labour mechanisms that provide access to effective remedy involves the effective implementation and enforcement of laws and regulations protecting workers and employers. In this regard, labour administration and inspectorate authorities play a crucial role in supervising the enforcement of labour laws. The traditional enforcement model - reactive and routine inspections - has been instrumental in ensuring compliance with national legislations and promotion of international standards. However, this model has also shown limitations, in countries where these authorities are not sufficiently resources to fulfill their mandate or where root causes of decent work deficits are prevalent. In today's world of work. New approaches to labour inspection allow to provide better access to remedy are emerging as means to achieve more effective and efficient enforcement and sustained compliance with these norms.

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Session description

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This session will delve into the multifaceted landscape of existing tripartite labour mechanisms supporting access to effective remedy. It will focus on the capacity of State-based remedy mechanisms in ensuring effective access to remedy for both individual and collective disputes. The session will showcase good practices, emphasizing successful examples of how these mechanisms have been effectively implemented. Additionally, the session will also highlight the complementary role of labour inspectorates in leveraging dialogue to implement proactive compliance and interventions that facilitate access to remedy.

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Objectives

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• To reflect on the capacity of State-based mechanisms to ensure that all employers and all workers have access to remedy;

• To identify and analyse effective mechanisms that provide access to remedy for individual and collective labour-related disputes;

• To present examples of the collaboration between governments, employers, and trade unions in the design and administration of grievance mechanisms; and

• To discuss to role played by labour inspectorate in leveraging dialogue for improved compliance and to facilitate remediation and the need for collaboration between labour inspectorate and the judiciary to adjudicate disputes.

 

Questions

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• What are the challenges to ensuring effective remediation and access to labour justice?

• What mechanisms have been the most effective in providing remediation in the world of work?

• How can labour inspectors address challenges of today's world of work to promote compliance and facilitate access to remedy?

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Format

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The session will be held in a panel-discussion format featuring the following speakers.

 

Moderator: Githa Roelans, Head, Multinational Enterprises and Responsible Business Conduct Unit, ILO

 

Mahandra Naidoo, Specialist, Social Dialogue and Labour Administration, ILO

The panelist will share considerations in relation to the specificities of remediation in a world of work emphasizing the importance of social dialogue and highlighting the various avenues through which labour disputes can be resolved – ranging from tribunals, judicial mediation, alternative dispute resolution methods, and grievance handling – and the need for a coordination system between these avenues. The importance of building stronger synergies between private and public processes to ensure better compliance and access to labour justice will be addressed.

 

National Labour Relations Commission (Korea) (TBC)

The panelist will share the experience of the National Labour Relations Commission of Korea highlighting how this tripartite structure allows for effective labour dispute prevention and resolution. Emphasis will also be put on the role of such institution to prevent disputes to occur and to escalate.

 

Sri Lanka Ports Authority (TBC)

The panelist will share insights from the perspective of the State as an employer and will present the labour dispute resolution mechanism set up by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and – explore how this type of mechanism could possibly be established in other sectors as well.

 

Frédéric Laisné-Auer, Labour Administration and Labour Inspection Officer, ILO

The panelist will highlight the multiple benefits/positive impacts of implementing a proactive strategic compliance approach to tackle decent work deficits in a changing world of work. Lessons learned and factors for a successful and sustainable implementation of a strategic compliance approach will be shared demonstrating the role played by labour inspection in leveraging dialogue with a broad range of stakeholders to implement interventions that address labour rights violations. Examples from another region will allow for cross-fertilization.

 

Perspectives from employers and workers

A representative from an employer’s organization and a representative from a workers’ organization from the region will share their views on challenges and perspectives on how to ensure effective remediation and access to labour justice in challenging and evolving working environments.