QUEZON CITY -- Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III vowed to push for equal representation of big and small member states in the policy-making body of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

In a meeting with Swiss Ambassador Valerie Berset Bircher and Mr. Essah Aniefiok Etim of Nigeria at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Bello gave assurance that the democratization of the ILO’s Governing Body is a priority agenda in the Philippines’ chairmanship of the Government Group.

“I don’t see the wisdom of not allowing other nations equal speaking and voting rights in the ILO’s Governing Body,” Bello told Bircher and Etim whose respective countries are also relegated to observer status in the ILO body. Switzerland is host to a number of world organizations, but has remained an observer in ILO’s Governing Body.

“Let me assure you that this concern is among the key items we are pushing in our stewardship of the Government Group,” he added.

Bircher and Etim, co-chairs of the democratisation committee of the ILO, met the labor chief to express support for the Philippines’ Government Group chairmanship, a day after Bello presided over the group’s hybrid meeting in Geneva attended by over 160 member states of the Government Group last week. In the Government Group meeting, the Philippines reaped praises and congratulatory messages from member states.

Earlier, ILO Director General Guy Ryder apprised Bello on the important role the Government Group will play in ensuring that governments around the world provide social protection to their respective workers.

Ryder took note of the social amelioration initiatives taken by the Philippine government to help workers hardly hit by the Covid pandemic. Bello pointed to the one-time cash assistance DOLE-Abot Kamay Ang Pagtulong (AKAP) given to displaced OFWs, the emergency employment program Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) for disadvantaged informal sector workers, and the cash aid under COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for displaced formal sector workers at the height of Covid lockdowns last year. 

But as head of the government group of the ILO, Ryder stressed that Bello will have a crucial role in adopting measures to address global unemployment which stood at 125 million.

Noting that 53 percent of the world’s workforce do not enjoy social protection, Ryder asked Bello to also push governments to provide social protection to their workers.

“From temporary amelioration, there is a need for a more systemic, permanent social protection,” Ryder told Bello.

The labor chief took Ryder’s suggestion as an equally greater challenge to the Philippines’ chairmanship of ILO government group.

The Governing Body of the ILO started meeting on Monday. (DOLE)