ITUC, ILO hinge developing nations' growth on IMF, World Bank reforms
From Collins Olayinka, Abuja
THE recently concluded meeting of the G20 leading economies may not succeed in assisting developing nations to mitigate the effect of the economic meltdown, except the operations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are re-engineered towards helping poor nations.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) stated yesterday in separate statements made available to The Guardian from their headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and Geneva, Switzerland respectively, in which they warned against complacency, saying the battle was still far from being won.
Specifically, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) stated that the Financial Stability Board which was created at the London Summit, and has been given a major role in developing new financial regulations, may be confronted with transparency questions ab initio.
The statement added: "However, trade unions are highly critical of its lack of transparency and are concerned that the very bankers who created the crisis in the first place may be exerting behind-the-scenes influence on its work, especially to thwart action on financial-sector bonuses which net one of the main drivers of the credit collapse that plunged the world into a deep job-destroying recession."
Highlighting that since the International Monetary Fund's role in tackling the crisis has been reinforced by the Pittsburgh meeting, it posited that: "There are few signs that its imposition of "pro-cyclical" policies on less wealthy countries is to be reversed, despite the fact that the G20 countries themselves are pursuing the opposite path through economic stimulus measures which must continue in order to avert even greater loss of jobs than the already dire forecasts of the ILO and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)."
The General Secretary of the OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee, John Evans, urged world leaders to tread the path of caution in dishing out the roles to be played by the IMF in the restoration of the world economic order.
He added: "It is encouraging that the G20 agreed to work on an international framework for a transactions tax, to help make sure that the financial sector pays a fairer share towards economic recovery and development. We will be pressing for rapid and real progress on this as well as on the urgently needed reforms to the international financial institutions' policies and structures, where the G20 has so far only scratched the surface."
The statement, which was signed by the ITUC General Secretary, Guy Ryder, read in part: "We are pleased that the G20 leaders responded to our demand to put decent jobs at the heart of recovery and reform, and it is also now clear that the G20 could provide important new mechanisms to govern the global economy. This new approach is long overdue and the role agreed for the ILO is especially important, but big questions remain on some key areas, notably on the IMF, financial regulation and climate change."
It maintained that with the global jobs crisis still worsening, a meeting of G20 labour ministers which has been scheduled to take place in early 2010 will be a key focus for the global trade union movement in the coming months, along with achieving an effective result at the Copenhagen climate change conference.
"The G20 Labour Ministers' meeting must push the maintenance and creation of decent jobs even higher up the agenda, with implementation of the ILO Jobs Pact as a central objective. The international trade union movement must be given a seat at the table in this meeting, and we will be carrying forward our intensive efforts with governments, the ILO and other global institutions, to make sure it and the June G20 Summit in Canada deliver the results that working people demand," Ryder added.
In its reaction to the outcomes of the meeting, the ILO said the endorsement of its Global Jobs Pact and the decision of the leaders to build "an employment-oriented framework for future economic growth," was a welcome development.
A statement from Geneva yesterday lauded the pledge to implement recovery plans that support decent work, help preserve employment and prioritize job growth.
"The messages coming from Pittsburgh are that the crisis is not over, that measures taken are on the way to creating or saving up to 11 million jobs in 2009 but that stimulus measures need to be maintained to curb unemployment and precarious work," the ILO chief said.
