The General Survey Promoting Employment and Decent Work in a Changing Landscape, examined three Conventions and five Recommendations, namely, Employment Policy Convention 1964 (No. 122), the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention 1983 (No. 159), the Home Work Convention 1996 (No. 177), the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Recommendation 1983 (No. 168), the Employment Policy (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation 1984 (No. 169), the Home Work Recommendation 1996 (No. 184), the Employment Relationship Recommendation 2006 (No. 198), and the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation 2015 (No. 204).

In addition to the General Survey, the CAS discussed also its Addendum, that examined the impact of the pandemic on the strategic objective of employment, and on the above-mentioned International Labour Standards.

In their intervention, the employers’ group key considerations referred mainly to issues as:

• Private sector led economic growth is the best path to sustainable and inclusive recovery from the pandemic.
• The need for an enabling business environment for creating a stable, predictable, and incentivising environment for investment, innovation and employment creation.

These two points were highlighted in the introductory remarks of the employers’ spokesperson, who said: “we consider section 1 on Convention No. 122 to be the centrepiece of the Survey. Convention No. 122 in essence requires ratifying Member States to declare and pursue as a major goal an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment. While the Convention does not prescribe the means and strategies to achieve this goal, the key role of the private sector and an inalienable environment for entrepreneurship of sustainable enterprise for its achievement should be recognized.We recall that the ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work, 2019 states that the ILO must direct its efforts to supporting the role of the private sector as a principal source of economic growth and job creation by promoting an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprises. In our view, due regard to sustainable enterprises will be of the essence to ensure a job-rich recovery from the crisis and to enable economies and societies to emerge from the crisis stronger and more resilient than before. We also trust that the Committee of Experts will give due consideration to an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises in their future assessments and explanations of Convention No. 122 and the other Conventions related to employment”.

Related to this point, the employers’ Group spokesperson commented that, with regards to the views expressed by the CEACR on Recommendation No. 198, “while the employment relationship in most countries still remains the main form of dependent labour, we consider that the diversification of the world of work and the emergence of new and alternative forms of work should be acknowledged and, on the whole, be welcome. These new forms of work have a significant potential for integrating more people in the labour market and thus to contribute to full, productive and freely chosen employment in line with Convention No. 122”.

Moreover, the employers’ group expressed concern on the changed format and focus of the General Survey. It reminded the CEACR that “the purpose of the General Survey is to provide an in-depth review of the national law and practice of Member States for selected Conventions and/or Recommendations, including information on modalities and difficulties in the implementation of individual provisions”. However, this was not possible due to an uneven examination of standards, with some provisions more in depth and other in less details. It was also difficult because of the focus of the General Survey on topics covered by standards, rather than on the standards themselves.

Regarding the status of the instruments analysed, except for Recommendation No. 198, the employers expressed that they “overall retain their relevance as guideposts for designing balanced policies that help achieve the objective of full productive and freely chosen employment”.

These points were mostly retained in the General Survey’s outcome document, where “the Committee recalled that employment is one of the four strategic objectives of the Decent Work Agenda and has been a primary concern of the ILO since it was founded. It noted that employment is at the heart of the ILO’s social justice mandate, expressed in the ILO Constitution and reaffirmed in the 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia, as well as in the 2019 Centenary Declaration, [...]. Moreover, the Committee recalled that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development integrates the principle of full, productive and freely chosen employment in Sustainable Development Goal 8, and that this key principle is inextricably linked to the other SDGs, particularly Goal 1 (ending poverty), Goal 4 (education), Goal 5 (gender equality) and Goal 10 (reducing inequalities)”.

In addition, the Committee “considered the central role of Convention No. 122 as a governance Convention and noted that Convention No. 122 requires ratifying States to declare and pursue, as a major goal, an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment. The national employment policy should be developed, implemented, monitored and reviewed in consultation with the social partners and persons affected by the measures to be adopted”.

The Committee recognized that employment “policies should take into account the situation of disadvantaged groups who face difficulties in accessing the labour market, protect workers and promote an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprises, in particular micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as cooperatives and the social and solidarity economy”.

Moreover, the Committee recognized “the role of the private sector as a principal source of economic growth and job creation and supported the role of the public sector as a significant employer and provider of quality public services. In order to support a job rich recovery, the Committee stressed the need for the public authorities to invest in strengthening labour market and educational institutions, improving access to relevant quality education, training and lifelong learning opportunities, as well as to improve labour market information systems to anticipate labour market needs”.

In conclusion, the Committee recalled “the Centenary Declaration, which states that the ILO must direct its efforts to “supporting the roles of the private sector as a principal source of economic growth and job creation by promoting an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprises” and support governments in “strengthening the institutions of work to ensure the protection of all workers and reaffirming the continued relevance of the employment relationship as a means of providing certainty and legal protection to workers”.

On this basis, the ILO Office is requested to support ILO Constituents in:

• collecting data, that will be helpful in designing balanced policies that help achieve the objective of full, productive and freely chosen employment.
• the elaboration of well-targeted national comprehensive employment policies, based on tripartite consultation.
• supporting national social dialogue processes and capacity building for social partners.