INTERNATIONAL LABOUR

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20693, 31 December 1938, Page 13 (Supplement)

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR

Organisation at Geneva : : Method of Work

(Professor J. H. Richardson, Chair of Industrial Relations, Leeds University.)

1 MENTIONED in a previous talk that I had spent nine jiears on the staff of the International Labour Office in

Geneva. We were at the headquarters of the League of Nations and were a semi-independent part of the League’s machinery. We were housed in a long white building on the banks of the lake, and the staff included people from almost every country in the world. We should have been a veritable Tower of Babel had it not been that every mem-

ber of the staff was expected to know English or French as well as his own language. Week after week, and year after year these people worked together studying labour conditions and labour legislation throughout the world and in trying to establish international standards of fair working conditions. If France or New Zealand adopted the forty-hour week, or Britain passed a new Factories’ Act, these were carefully studied in relation to conditions in other countries. There were altogether on the staff more than 400 members forming a kind of international Civil Service. A high standard of efficiency was achieved especially if account be taken of the fact that the people thus working together were drawn from so many different countries and with so many different traditions and methods of organisation.

I am frequently asked whether these people who work together so well during office hours formed a real international community socially in their spare time. This was so to some extent, but there was a tendency for people to associate together more on national than international lines. What was the object for which these people were working, and how had this big staff been formed? They were part of the International Labour Organisation which was set up after the war along with the League of Nations, to help to strengthen the Foundation of World Peace. While the League of Nations was set up to deal with political and economic causes of ■war, the purpose of the International Labour Organisation was to attempt the removal of social causes of war. It was recognised that unrest is caused wherever labour conditions involve serious hardship and privation and that social unrest due to lack of social justice may be the cause of disturbance in international relations. This may be illustrated by the revolutionary movement in Russia which was partly the revolt of the masses of workers being subjected to repression and tyranny, and who had been kept to a Czarist regime in a condition little removed from feudalism and serfdom. In other countries more recently internal divisions partly based on social unrest due to bad working conditions have created internal disturbances and conflict, and serious risk to international peace. The purpose of the International Labour Organisation was to attempt to remove social unrest by international co-operation. In the world at the present time improvements in methods of production and increased use of power are providing the basis for better standards of living. So long as scientific and industrial progress are continued, the means will be provided for still higher wages and, where desired, for shorter hours of work. Of course there will be interruptions with depressions in the trade cycle, and also the rate of progress in different countries cannot be identical. Nevertheless, there is a tendency for the advances to keep more or less in step in different countries. Thus during recent years, there have been general demands for a shorter working week and for annual holidays with pay. These demands are being made not in one or two countries, but in almost all countries. Some, like New Zealand, may proceed more rapidly than others, but the tendency is a general one. Another insistent demand is for measures of social security. Britain has already established some years ago fairly comprehensive schemes of social insurance, and now demands are being made in Australia, New Zealand and the L nited States for measures along somewhat similar lines. It is the work of the International Labour Organisation to coordinate these advances by the Establishment of International Standards. Its chief instrument for doing this is the International Labour Conference, which meets in Geneva for about three or four weeks each year. There have been annual conferences ever since 1919. The conferences are attended by rpresentatives of the various countries that are members of the organisation, and it is an interesting sight to see the Conference Hall filled with various delegations from about fifty different countries. Unlike members of the permanent staff, who are continually resident in Geneva, these delegates come only for a short period of each year. About sixty 3 nt "!? r members of the organisation, and the> include some countries that are not members of the League of Nations. For example, the l nited States of America hate, for several years, been a member of the International Labour Organisation, and it is worth emphasising that Americans are participating actively in this part of the League’s machinery. Only a few weeks a »o an American Director was appointed as head of the International Labour Office, and it !r ? U K C ,. a E"!’.' 1 ™ ovt ' While Europe is so disturbed politically to bring in leadership *u olT t °. utslde - ,fa P an is also a member of the International Labour Organisation, although, as you know. she resigned he** membership of the League of Nations. New Zealand has been a member of the Organisation from the beginning, in 1919. but her active participation only began about ei°*ht years ago. To the Conference now beTng

held in Geneva, New Zealand has sent a full delegation. Each country is entitled to send four representatives. Two of these are representatives of the Government, the third is a representative of the country, and the fourth represents the workers. This representation of employers and workers as well as Governments is especially interesting and differs from many other official International Conferences in which only Governments are represented. Usually the conference is attended by 150 delegates togther with a large number of advisers. You might think that it would scarcely be possible to conduct business efficiently with so many delegates from most of the countries of the world. This is, however, Ensured by Preparatory Work undertaken by the permanent staff, who also organise the work of the Conference, and undertake interpretations. An ingenious device known as telephonic interpretation enables delegates to listen through headphones, each in their own language, to any speech that is being delivered from the platform, and thus the time of the Conference is saved. When any subject is considered ripe for international discussion and agreement, careful investigations are made for several years, and finally a draft of agreement is prepared for submission to the Conference. This year the subjects on the agenda include: Reduction of hours of work, the regulation of hours of work and rest periods of persons employed as drivers of road transport vehicles—a very important matter and one which, if satisfactorily dealt with, would contribute to increased safety on the roads. The third subject being discussed is Technical Education and apprenticeship. After detailed discussion, a vote is taken and if a two-thirds majority is obtained, a proposal becomes a draft convention which is then submitted to each Government with a view to application. Each Government is free to decide for itself whether the convention is suitable for the -conditions of its own country. Thus the Geneva Conference does not set itself up to be a super-parlia-ment or world authority dictating terms to different countries. But as a convention cannot be adopted unles it obtains a twothirds majority, it is evident that there must be a wide measure of support for the principles on which it is based, and the support must include that of a large number of Government representatives. Thus the convention is likely to be suitable for wide application, and it is likely to be supported in many countries. Since the organisation was set up more than 60 conventions have, been adopted, and this may be regarded as a sort of code or standard of fair working conditions. Many of these have been widely applied in most of the chief countries. In many fields, such a ? af * e admission to industry, prohibition of night work of women and young persons, and social insurance, Progress Has Been Considerable. Wages and hours have proved exceptionally difficult to deal with from an international point of view, and progress has been slow. In view of the widely differing conditions, impossible to make any considerable aavance towards uniformity of wages internationally and the most that could be expected at present is that measures may be taken in each State for the abolition of the worst forms of sweating. During the present year, New Zealand has ratfied twenty-two Labour Office conventions. This did not involve any raising of standards in New Zealand, where high standards have long been established. This vas indeed one of the chief reasons why New Zealand took little interest in the work ol the organisation in the first few years after the war. It was argued that New Zealand s standards were so high it had nothing to gain from the organisation. It is true that in wages and hours of work New Zealand has set standards which are amongst the highest in the world, but in some matters, for example, social insurance and social security, other countries have applied systems in advance of those in New Zealand. In these other fields New Zealand can gain from the experience of other countries, while where her own standards are high, she can contribute out of her experience to the development of other countries. In addition to setting international standards of working conditions, the organisation acts as world clearing house of information on all labour matters, and it also ser y es as a platform on which exceptionally bad working conditions in any part of the world can be exposed to world public opinion. During recent years the International Labour Organisation has continued its work with considerable success at a time when the League of Nations has suffered severe setbacks. Some have gone so far as to suggest that the work of the League ° n mu political s . ide might be abandoned and the work of international co-operation be concentrated on the International Labour Organisation. But world forces are too complex for this simple solution to be a success. If World Peace Is To Be Achieved an ; J world peace maintained, it can be done only by successful co-operation in political and economic affairs, as well as in the field of * s ° labour conditions. Ine International Labour Organisation cannot be successful on a permanent scale ii political relations should continue in their present state, of deterioration and strain, international peace and co-operation are one and indivisable and depend upon progress oeing made by many different roads over a broad front.