PHOTO: Participants at an ongoing meeting in Monrovia
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
It has been disclosed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in Monrovia that Liberia has not ratified several key international conventions on labour matters.
This was disclosed by an ILO official on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at the start of a three-day capacity building training for labour Hearing Officers and partners held by the ILO in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor.
The training is a follow up on request by the committee on the application of conventions and recommendations brought participants from the Ministry of Labor, the Liberia Labor Congress and the trade unions from all over the country.
ILO Coordinator, Salif Massalay said that the discussion is focused on International Labour Standards reporting.
According to him, the root of the International Labour Standards can be traced to the First World War “Treaty of Versailles” during which ILS conventions and recommendations agreed on the ILO Principles by ILO tripartite members including workers, employers and the government.
The ILO Coordinator said that due to a number of reasons, some key conventions have not been ratified by Liberia because they are conflicting labour laws in Liberia.
He named the Decent Work Act of 2015 and the Civil Service Standing Orders as two conflicting labour laws in Liberia.
Mr. Massaray pointed out that Liberia has ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98, which banned category of workers in Liberia from unionism and it is in contravention to the ratified Conventions 87 and 98 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, and Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining respectively.
Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Labour, Assistant Labour Minister for Regional Affairs, Wilson Dumoe admitted that there are some degrees of ambiguity in the Decent Work Act or the Labour Law.
To this end, the junior minister went on, all partners in the labour sector of the Liberia have agreed that there should be a review of the Decent Work Act to ensure that allissues with the Decent Work Act are standardized.
Minister Dumoe said that Labour issues are quite dedicate and called on participants to take the deliberation very seriously and make the necessary interventions, noting that all labour matters cut across both the public and private sector.
For his part, the Lead Facilitator of the training workshop, Cllr. Patrice Weah noted that the expected outcome of the capacity building training is to strengthen the capacity of government, social partners and other key stakeholders to actively and effectively follow-up with the government to report on ratified conventions and other issues raised by the ILO supervisory bodies.
This week’s labour training, which is taking place in Monrovia brings together over forty tripartite members and other key stakeholders including the Civil Service Agency (CSA), Civil Servants Association, Health Workers, Press Union of Liberia (PUL), Labour Reporters, Judges, Law Practitioners, and Hearing Officers among others.
Black ground to the ongoing workshop:
Since a number of years, Liberia has not submitted any reports under ratified Conventions. In 2020, none of the reports requested under ratified Conventions (C29, C87, C98, C105, C111, C112, C113, C114 and C144) were received. In 2021, in addition to these reports, the Government is called upon to provide reports under Conventions Nos. 81, and 150.
There are three categories of ILO Conventions: a) the “Fundamental or Core ILO Conventions”, b) the “Governance or Priority Conventions”, and c) the “Technical Conventions”.
There are eight (8) Fundamental Conventions and Liberia has ratified six (6)of these. Additionally, Liberia has ratified two of the four Governance Conventions and only seventeen (17) of the one hundred and seventeen (117) Technical Conventions.