THE work environment world over is an arena for contestations where the centrifugal and centripetal forces as represented by government, employers and workers are perpetually at play.

While employers are eager to get the best from its workforce, employees, as represented by industrial unions, always seek better wages that equal the amount of energy they put into their work. On the other hand, government plays the dual roles of a regulator as well as employers of labour.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) serves as a referee that ensures compliance with internationally accepted norms in order to guarantee a harmonious work arena. This forms the fulcrum of the annual labour conference where regulations are reviewed, new ones made in order to engender a peaceful global work arena.

Over the years, the International Labour Conference (ILC) has assumed different meanings to the tripartite bodies – government, unions and employers.

Need to stress that Nigeria has for many years presented the largest participants. However, the large participants have not translated to tangible achievements for the country, as it has always spoken with divergent voices. Often times, labour unions sing different tones while employers and government are perpetually in disagreement at the meeting.

Because there has never been any kind of control over participants, Nigerians have turned the annual conference into jamboree and occasion to either engage in trade and commerce activities or visit to families and friends in other European countries.

This disturbing trend may have started to change as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Clement Illoh, insisted that all participants held a meeting where Nigeria’s position on matters that would be discussed at the conference were jointly taken and that the country spoke with one voice.

Indeed, this meeting, which was held two weeks before the opening of the conference, had all the three tripartite bodies in attendance.

The meeting may have been responsible for the new perception Nigeria is galvanising at the 2013 edition of the conference as the country is speaking with one voice and the participants disagreed logically when the need arose.

To the treasurer of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Wabba Ayuba, the participation of Nigeria in the 2013 edition of the ILC has been unparallel in the last 10 years.

He said: “Since I started attending the ILC in over 10 years, I can say that this is the first time Nigeria is having the most coherent voice. Few weeks before the conference began, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity insisted that all the participants had a meeting where Nigeria’s position would be articulated. We are expected to report back on how the conference went. This to me has brought a new dimension to our participation. It will make our participation result-oriented and portray the country as a serious country.”

While calling for professionals to head specialised government agencies and ministries, Wabba added: “The appointment of Dr. Illoh as the permanent secretary justifies the calls for the appointment of professionals to man specialised ministries and other government agencies.

“The current system where permanent secretaries do not spend more than two years in ministries is not productive. I know that Dr. Illoh started his carrier in the Labour Ministry and he is now a permanent secretary. This allows the introduction of tailor-made policies that could be beneficial to the development of the country.”

Meanwhile, the ILO has stressed the need to get a grip on the rapid changes affecting the world of work.

The Secretary-General of the ILO, Guy Ryder, while speaking at the opening of the ILC in Geneva, Switzerland, used the opportunity to outline his vision for tackling the various challenges that are having an impact on workers, enterprises and governments around the world.

He said that the world of work was transformed more quickly and more deeply than ever before by rapid changes in demography and technology, growing inequality, poverty and the slow economic recovery.

The ILO scribe maintained that these issues posed challenges for achieving the goal of decent work for all.

His words: “The most important question, the one asked everywhere and with growing urgency and sometimes alarm, is ‘where are the jobs coming from?’ And it is most frequently a question addressed to the situation of our young people.”

Ryder outlined seven initiatives for a “forward-looking and strategic response” to the crisis, as he proposes in his report to the conference titled, “Towards the ILO centenary: Realities, Renewal and Tripartite Commitment”.

He stated that a standards review mechanism would update and enhance the relevance of the body of international labour standards – the ILO’s comprehensive system of instruments on work and social policy.

He also said that the ILO needed to engage more with enterprises. “An organisation which needs to connect better with the realities of business and respond better to business needs and realities, should be making efforts to engage with enterprises.... Frankly, we come to this task very late. We should not delay further in setting about it,” he explained.

He also highlighted four other proposals relating to green jobs, poverty reduction, women at work and the future of work.

Regarding the Green Initiative, Ryder said that the ILO needed to be centre-stage in international efforts to assure the long-term future of the planet.

“Whether we like it or not, production and consumption systems are crucial determinants of environmental sustainability and the world of work is going to have to make unprecedented efforts to reconcile its future with that of the planet,” he stressed.

The ILO also needs to play the fullest role in putting an end to extreme poverty in the world by 2030, he said, and to “eliminate the danger that poverty anywhere constitutes to prosperity everywhere.”

He hinted that Women at Work Initiative would aim to correct the “persisting and profound disadvantage faced by many women in the world of work.” This, he said, was a necessary and good social and economic policy.

Ryder also proposed that an advisory panel on the future of work be established, which would draw up a report for discussion at the organsation’s centenary conference in 2019.

“Here at the ILO we have the mandate, we have the right actors and we are equipping ourselves with the means to make the world of work a better, more humane, kinder and fairer one in which all have a place and where all can have equal opportunity to realise their potential,” he added.

During the two-week conference, delegates attending the ILC will discuss a broad range of issues, including employment, growth and social progress, domestic child labour, the situation in Myanmar, employment and social protection in an ageing world, strengthening social dialogue between governments, employers and workers and promoting decent and green jobs.

The ILO, supported by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), has launched an initiative to reach five million workers with voluntary and confidential HIV counseling and testing tagged “VCT@WORK” by 2015.

The initiative will ensure that people who test positive are referred to HIV services for care and support and treatment if needed.

“We want to use the mobilising power of the ILO to encourage five million working women and men to undertake voluntary HIV testing by 2015,” Ryder added.

He called on all ministries of labour, employers’ and workers’ organisations to join forces and turn this target into reality, saying, “the countdown to 2015 has begun – let us make each day count!”

The rapid expansion of antiretroviral therapy in recent years has allowed eight million people living with HIV to access treatment - enabling them to live longer, healthier and more productive lives and remain part of the workforce.

However, according to UNAIDS, it is estimated that seven million people currently eligible for treatment are not accessing it. Furthermore, it is estimated that around 40 per cent of people living with HIV globally, do not know their status, thus preventing them from accessing treatment. In many countries, this figure is higher than 50 per cent.

“If workplaces embrace this new initiative it could signify one of the most important advances we’ve seen in expanding access to HIV testing within a healthy, enabling environment and linking to on-going support including treatment,” said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS.

The VCT@WORK initiative is part of the ILO’s efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goal six and the global target of reaching 15 million people living with HIV with lifesaving antiretroviral treatment by 2015, as set out in the 2011 United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.

“To reach this goal we need to work together to ensure that all workplaces are free of stigma and discrimination,” the ILO director-general said.

The VCT@WORK initiative builds on the ILO’s recommendation on HIV and AIDS and the World of Work (No. 200), to ensure safe and healthy working environments free of stigma and discrimination.

Ryder stressed that the ILO’s tripartite constituents - governments, employers and workers - will strengthen existing partnerships to ensure access to testing and treatment for workers, their families and communities.