AS WRITTEN

Organisation internationale du Travail
International Labour Organization, 

*  Statement by Mr. Michel Hansenne,
Director-General, International Labour Office,

to the World Summit for Social Development
(Copenhagen, 9 March 1995)


  The International Labour Organisation, representing  not only governments 
but also employers and workers of the whole world, has committed itself 
fully to the success of this Summit.

 While the ILO is directly concerned by each of the core issues of the 
Summit, it has devoted its contribution essentially to the theme of 
employment, because we considered that the expansion of productive 
employment is of strategic importance for social progress. Enabling each 
person to participate, through remunerated work, in the development and 
welfare of society is beyond doubt the best means of combating effectively 
poverty and social exclusion.

 We welcome with great satisfaction the fact that the Heads of State or 
Government will be committing themselves to promoting the goal of full 
employment as a basic priority of their economic and social policies, in 
full respect for workers' rights, and with the participation of employers' 
organizations and trade unions. We are also happy to find in these texts a 
reaffirmation of the importance of fundamental rights and freedoms 
recognized in ILO standards.

 The importance of the commitment which Heads of State or Government will 
be entering into when they adopt these texts needs to be emphasized. For 
the objective of full employment, which was the keystone of post-war 
economic policy, has been lost sight of during the past twenty years. The 
results are well known: 120 million are officially registered as 
unemployed, and in addition at least 700 million workers lead a precarious 
existence because their jobs are not productive. Some 30 per cent of the 
labour force are therefore in open or disguised unemployment. With very few 
exceptions, all the regions of the world are, to varying degrees, affected 
by this problem.

 This Summit must be the Summit to combat the sense of resignation at this 
state of affairs. It is neither inevitable nor irreversible. But we should 
not underestimate the difficulties to be overcome, for the context in which 
we must seek a path to full employment and better employment has completely 
changed.

How to attain full employment in an increasingly globalized economy? That 
is the question to which the ILO has attempted to provide some elements of 
a response in a report entitled World Employment 1995. There can be no 
question of stopping or slowing down the trend towards a globalized 
economy, which opens up new possibilities for renewed economic growth and 
for job creation. Rather it is necessary to adapt our policies and our 
institutions to this new reality.

 The approach to be followed may be summed up in three points.

 Firstly, job creation is essentially the responsibility of the private 
sector. That is why any employment policy must involve civil society - and 
particularly the main actors in the labour market: employers and workers. 
The State must guarantee the fundamental rights and freedoms, as well as a 
legal, economic and social framework which promotes enterprise and job 
creation in equitable conditions. It must associate employers and workers 
in decision-making, because their cooperation and their full commitment to 
the objective of full employment are indispensable.

 Secondly, macroeconomic, sectoral and social policies must mutually 
support each other in order to create stable conditions to stimulate 
enterprise and job creation, to promote the proper functioning of the 
labour market, to assist employers and workers in adapting to change, and 
to guarantee adequate social protection for all.

 Finally, promoting full employment in a global economy requires better 
coordination of the policies of international institutions. The Programme 
of Action recognizes that the ILO has a special role to play in following 
up the Summit, particularly in the field of employment, because employers 
and workers are associated in its activities. This responsibility must be 
assumed in collaboration with other Organizations - and particularly with 
the financial, economic and monetary institutions. For this collaboration 
to be truly effective it must be based on a systematic dialogue among our 
respective constituencies. Ministers of finance and economic affairs on the 
one hand, and Ministers of labour on the other must work in concert in 
order to give coherent policy guidance to all our Organizations.

 If the objective of full employment is not to be a Utopian dream, a new 
approach to developing and implementing economic and social policies is 
required - at both the national and the international level. The roles and 
responsibilities of each actor have to be clearly defined, and each one has 
to be ready to assume them, in collaboration with others. The ILO, for its 
part, is ready to do so.