1990 - 2010 From strength to strength
IOE celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1995 with more than 114 employer-organisation members in 112 countries.
The membership firmly reiterated that ILO should remain the principal field of action. It stressed that IOE needed to continue
to press for reform within the ILO as it faced a mounting funding and political crisis with the withdrawal of the US contribution.
The membership also renewed the ongoing commitment to strengthening employer organisations, especially in developing and emerging
countries.
Beyond this, members also called for fostering stronger links with the United Nations system,
including the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund. This was the first time that cooperation with the UN system was made part of IOE’s core strategy.
VOICES FROM THE PAST
“This reform is important. It should enable us to take advantage of our strategic position at the crossroads of economic and social issues, to help us set in motion our own global strategy aimed at promoting free enterprise as the source of the creation of wealth and productive employment.”
The implosion of communism in Eastern Europe and Russia in the late 1980s and early 1990s clearly presented an opportunity for IOE. In 1992, IOE issued a joint document with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) detailing the steps both organisations believed necessary for achieving constructive economic, social and political reform and the role of ILO.
Throughout the 1990s, IOE staff dedicated considerable time and resources to assisting emerging or newly formed employer organisations and following up on the recommendations made in 1992. It collaborated very closely with ACT/EMP. More than 13 new members from Eastern Europe and Central Europe joined IOE in less than a decade – a measure of the success of the organisation’s outreach efforts.
And lastly, the issue of “communist” and “free” employers which had dogged the organisation since the 1950s was definitively resolved.
VOICES FROM THE PAST
“IOE is first and foremost a human community; it will endure as a political force only if it remains so.”
1998 ILO Declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
This ILO Declaration was developed from an idea by Employers. They sought to promote universal fulfilment of the core labour standards. The standards cover freedom of association/right to collective bargaining, abolition of forced and child labour and elimination of discrimination in employment. The Declaration was adopted in 1998 and clearly gave ILO the exclusive mandate in the field of labour standards. This was critical in a global economy where technology was on the cusp of transforming international trade.
VOICES FROM THE PAST
“Respect of human rights and alleviation of poverty can only be achieved by constructive collaboration between labour and management.”
When IOE was founded in 1920 and until the 1980s, representatives of business were characterised by being only male. From the 1980s, and to a greater extent in the 1990s, women began to take on more senior roles in employer organisations and joining the ranks of the Employers’ Group. The first woman to join the Employers’ Group was in 1981. She was Lucia Sasso-Mazzufferi from Confindustria (Italy).
More broadly, from 2007–2013, the percentage of women representing employers at the ILO increased from 18.5 to 23.5 percent. Twenty years after the start of the new century, women have become an important force both within the Employers’ Group and IOE, even though more needs to be done to expand their participation.
Global Industrial Relations Network
In 2008, IOE’s Global Industrial Relations Network (GIRN) was established. This initiative brings together major corporate
companies of IOE member organisations to identify and anticipate emerging industrial relations or human resource issues and
trends so that they can better prepare for and address them.
GIRN members are also given access to IOE’s deep knowledge and expertise in international employment and human rights,
as well as insights into UN and other multilateral initiatives impacting the global employment environment.
Building on the example of the GIRN, IOE began efforts in 2008 to set up a Global Occupational Safety and Health Network (GOSH). Safety at work has been a preoccupation of IOE members since the organisation’s inception. Throughout the past 100 years, IOE has supported numerous ILO Conventions to protect the health and well-being of workers. IOE set up the GOSH, the first dedicated network of OSH and sustainability professionals from multinational enterprises and member organisations to discuss and debate current and emerging issues within their remit on a confidential basis.
