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XVIII Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor Opens in Medellín

The XVIII Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor (IACML), held under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS), was inaugurated on Monday in Medellín, Colombia. In attendance were the region’s Ministers of Labor, workers’ and employers’ representatives, and international organizations.

The inaugural ceremony, held in the Colombian city’s Plaza Mayor Convention Center, was addressed by Angelino Garzón, Vice President of the Republic of Colombia; Rafael Pardo, Minister of Labor of Colombia; Sherry Tross, Executive Secretary for Integral Development of the OAS; Humberto Centeno, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare of El Salvador; and Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

In his welcoming address, Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzón noted that the 50th anniversary of the Conference was being celebrated in Medellín, and so there was an imperative need to work with a greater commitment toward the defense of the human rights of workers. “Labor rights, union freedoms, the right to unionization, the right of petition, and collective bargaining are all elements of human rights; while it is true that the world has been globalized in terms of business, it has also been globalized as regards to rights,” he said.

The representative of the Colombian government noted that child labor and precarious labor conditions among senior citizens, young people, and persons with disabilities are important topics that must stand at the center of every country’s employment policies. At the same time, he called for agreements to promote economic growth with inclusion and social dialogue, because “no country in this highly competitive world can progress economically and socially with precarious employment. The foundation for economic development is wages with decent jobs.”

Garzón also stressed the importance of issues such as the right to comprehensive social security, the implementation of pension plans that are coherent with national economic needs, the promotion of social dialogue, and fostering social responsibility among unions and businesses.

In his inaugural address to the IACML, Minister Pardo acknowledged that although much progress has been made, “poverty, informal economic activities, and inequalities weigh us down” in the Americas, even though “the new social, political, and constitutional contract has called on us to build states founded on justice.” For that reason, he said, “the time has come, 50 years after our first Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor, to renew the commitment to social justice, decent work, and sustainable development that inspired the actions of our predecessors.”

Speaking of Colombia’s achievements in labor matters, Minister Pardo noted its 37 consecutive months of falling unemployment figures and, while he was aware that informality was one of the most serious problems in the labor market, he said that “it has been showing a downward trend in recent months, with a fall from 67% in September 2012 to 63.8% in September of this year.”

For her part, Sherry Tross, the Executive Secretary for Integral Development of the OAS, explained that for the Organization, “this Conference is of the utmost importance: not only because it is one of the Organization’s oldest forums, but because it represents a dynamic process that, over the years, has been able to adapt to different circumstances in the region and that, fifty years later, continues to demonstrate its relevance and vitality.”

In offering an overview of the Declarations and Plans of Action that the IACML has adopted over the past five decades, Tross explained that they “reflect their times,” from “the promise of the Alliance for Progress in the 1960s,” by way of “protectionism, the despair of the lost decade, and the liberalization of trade,” to “the call for integration of the 90s; the increased demands for innovative and streamlined policies in the new millennium; and, more recently, concerns about the financial crisis and its impact on employment, and the key role of social protection, sustainable development, and decent work.” That evolution is centered around a common theme that has remained unchanged over the years, Tross explained, which is that “employment must remain one of the main objectives of economic and social policy.”

The Director-General of the ILO said that the topics chosen for this anniversary conference – social justice, decent work, and sustainable development – “are objectives to which the ILO is firmly committed.” He also congratulated the OAS and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development for maintaining an open forum for Inter-American dialogue through the IACML since 1963. “This forum has been the privileged venue for discussions on this region’s most pressing labor issues. Latin America and the Caribbean have changed greatly since then, and they currently stand at a juncture that is both promising and challenging,” he said.

The ILO representative noted that in recent years, the region’s unemployment rate has reached such historical levels as 6.4% in 2012, but he also reminded his audience that almost 50% of employed workers are only able to secure precarious jobs. Finally, he said that some of the current challenges in this area include youth unemployment, which stands at about 14%, the lack of universal social security coverage, slow growth in productivity, and insufficient attention paid to professional training.

Finally, Humberto Centeno, the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare of El Salvador, which hosted the previous IACML, reminded the meeting that “one of the achievements of this forum for dialogue has been the development of a pioneering initiative in the region: participatory gender audits, the chief aim of which is to support the hemisphere’s labor ministries efforts in incorporating the gender perspective into their institutional work.”

“This meeting presents us with an opportunity to continue addressing the world of work’s most pressing challenge, which is the promotion and creation of productive jobs in the context of decent work. That demands the further implementation of strategies to develop strong, sustainable, and balanced economies, allowing the development of macroeconomic and labor policies that are in harmony with the environment, while making progress with the construction of fairer conditions at work and with addressing the scourge of child labor,” he concluded.

This year, the Conference is celebrating its first five decades under the theme “50 Years of Inter-American Dialogue for the Promotion of Social Justice and Decent Work: Progress and Challenges towards Sustainable Development.” As part of the commemoration, recognitions were presented to Belisario Betancur, former President of Colombia and also a former labor minister, and to Amino Affonso, former Minister of Labor of Brazil, who were in attendance at the First Conference of Ministers of Labor, held in Bogotá in 1963.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-426/13