THE country will playing a bigger role in global employment affairs in 2022 once it assumes the vice chairmanship of an influential body in the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Governing Board.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said the county was elected last month to the plum seat in ILO’s government body.
The ILO has three bodies in its tripartite governing board representing the labor, employers, and government sector.
International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) director Alice Visperas said the country’s new designation, effective for the next two years, will give it a stronger voice in the ILO.
“This a good opportunity for us since in being the vice chair [of the government group], we will have more leverage to put in our agenda,” Visperas told BusinessMirror in a phone interview.
Labor and Employment Silvestre H. Bello III said the country’s designation is also historic since it is the first observer-nation to be given a higher position in ILO.
“The ILO, the United Nations’ oldest specialized agency, is comprised of titular member states, deputy member states and observer states. The first two have speaking rights, with only the titular member states bestowed with the right to vote. Observer nations have neither the speaking nor voting rights,” Bello explained.
The development, he said, will allow the country to also push for the concerns of other observer-nations.
The issue “unequal representation” has plagued ILO for nearly four decades since many of the poor or developing member countries were not given the right to vote or speak in its governing board.
“With its election, world labor observers say the Philippines, long consigned to an observer status, could now play a pivotal role in the clamor for equality by smaller countries, especially those from Africa, Asia and others,” Bello said.