Marjaana Valkonen: ILO's activities in the promotion of equality must be strengthened

Marjaana Valkonen, Director of the International Affairs department of SAK, emphasises the role of ILO in promoting equality and removing discrimination. Valkonen held a speech on the Global report Time for Equality at Work on Friday 13 June at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

In another speech by Marjaana Valkonen, held on Monday 16 June, she emphasised the importance of improving employment in diminishing social exclusion and poverty. Both of the speeches are now available on SAK's website.

Time for Equality at Work - Global Report

International Labour Conference
91st Session
13 June 2003
Valkonen Marjaana, Workers' delegate, Finland

The Global Report Time for Equality at Work is excellent. It gives us a clear overview of discrimination and the implementation of gender equality in working life. The elimination of discrimination and the implementation of gender equality in working life must be linked with the promotion of decent work.

I would like to bring up for discussion the experiences and priorities important to Finnish trade unions. 80 per cent of employees are organised in trade unions in Finland and 53 per cent of trade union members are women.

The ILO Convention (No. 100) on Equal Remuneration - that is, equal pay for work that is equal and of equal value - was innovative, even revolutionary for its times. It was adopted as far back as in 1951, that is, 52 years ago. In fact, it occurred to me that if this Convention had been on the agenda of this International Labour Conference, I suspect that we would not have been capable of adopting it.

Finland ratified the Equal Remuneration Convention in 1962. At the time, this was an important milestone for women in the trade union movement. Convention (no.) 111, on discrimination, was ratified in 1970.

Both these Conventions are extremely topical, and their practical implementing continues to be a great challenge. It is significant that, in recent years, more and more countries have ratified these Conventions. This proves that there is a shared will to promote these fundamental rights.

In order to promote equality in working life in Finland, an enormous effort has been made across the years. The results have included many extensive reforms, yet especially as regards remuneration, a lot remains to be done. The pay cap between women and men is about 20 per cent in Finland. As a rule, men and women receive equal pay for equal work. Still, the objective that work of equal value should receive equal pay has so far not been reached. Men and women work in different sectors and different occupations, which explains partly the differences in pay. The pay cap cannot be explained by the level of education, for women are on an average better educated than men in Finland. As the Report notes, we are a long way away from equal pay. In order to diminish the pay gap, various methods of job evaluation must be developed.

In Finland, comprehensive incomes policy settlements have guaranteed a better pay development for women than collective agreements negotiated at the union level. Incomes policy settlements have also included agreements on many issues, which have supported the gainful employment of women and improved their status in working life. To name some examples, the incomes policy settlements have included agreements on longer maternity leaves, paternity leaves, development of day-care arrangements and such things as to promote the flexible working hours to make it easier to reconcile work and family life.

The social partners in Finland have also co-operated in development projects even at the level of individual workplaces, such as the "Good and Equal Workplace" project, which is based on a win-win principle. An equal workplace is a productive workplace. Equality improves wellbeing and motivation, and the work brings in better results.

The implementation of equality and the elimination of discrimination require an effective, up-to-date legislation. The main responsibility for implementing equality in working life lies with the employers. I wish to stress that the social partners hold a key role in the implementing of equality in working life. The promotion of equality must be included in the agenda of collective bargaining and it is important that the negotiators on both sides of the table include more women than is the case now.

To promote equality and eliminate discrimination it is necessary that the fundamental trade union rights are implemented everywhere - freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.

In the promotion of equality, a particularly important actor is a strong and independent trade union movement, capable of defending the rights of all workers.

ILO s activities in the promotion of equality must be strengthened. Through various development projects, the ILO must support the dialogue between the social partners concerning such things as the expertise and capacity of the social partners in promoting equality and removing discrimination. Such ILO projects as More and Better Jobs for Women and Equal Treatment of Migrant Workers, to name just two, have been successful. Similar ones must be developed for the future as well.

Women employees are under-represented in collective bargaining negotiations practically everywhere. Moreover, a large number of women work in the informal economy in the developing countries. Their voice is not heard in the negotiations. Women's low status and poor pay levels naturally also affect children. Child labour and discrimination are closely linked. The improvement of women's position is a necessary prerequisite for development and the attainment of social justice everywhere.

In conclusion, I would also like to stress that the safeguarding of free, compulsory basic education is an absolute requirement for all development. In particular, investments must be made to educate women and girls.

Working out of Poverty - Report of the Director-General

International Labour Conference
91st Session
16 June 2003
Valkonen Marjaana, Workers' Delegate, Finland

The Director-General's Report Working out of Poverty is an excellent continuation of the two preceding reports. Improving employment and above all creating decent jobs is a great challenge worldwide. In order to meet this challenge, we must combine our efforts on a global basis and define our goals even more precisely. Improving employment must be made the foremost priority of economic and social policies.

Unemployment is a serious problem in developing countries but a heavy burden in the industrialised countries as well, as it undermines the preconditions of growth and wellbeing. As the report emphasises, unemployment is a major cause of social exclusion and poverty. It is always a crisis for the individual person and his or her family but in the end it affects society as a whole. Due to unemployment, immense reserves of know how and human knowledge are wasted. In many cases, unemployment creates a vicious circle that is hard to break. It rapidly erodes skills of the individual and weakens his or her possibilities to find a new job. In order to reduce unemployment, we need an effective tripartite cooperation. Beside this, we need to implement active employment policies and place special emphasis on lifelong learning.

Finland is an industrialised and knowledge based country. The early 1990's were for Finland a time of economic recession during which the unemployment rate, at its worst, reached a peak of 20 percent. But Finland survived without sacrificing its welfare society. The Finnish social security net - above all our unemployment benefit system - made it possible for people to cope.

A strong tripartite cooperation between trade unions, employer organisations and the government played a decisive role when the economy in the mid-1990's entered a new phase of growth in Finland. This development was based on a wide consensus about the direction of economic and social policies, i.e. abolishing unemployment was declared Finland s number one objective. Comprehensive incomes policy settlements were concluded in order to create a favourable environment for economic stability and new employment opportunities. Better employment is a basic requirement for maintaining and improving the foundations of welfare society.

The Finnish tripartite cooperation is based on a long experience and marked naturally also by national features. It is not unjustified to call Finland a society of agreements. Tripartite cooperation is in Finland based on well-functioning negotiating and contractual relations between the labour market organisations. The ability of trade unions and employer organisations to conclude mutual agreements is an essential part of the Finnish model and an important element of success. The Finnish model would, however, not be possible without a strong and responsible trade union movement. A well-functioning, continuously improving social dialogue creates stability and security.

Strengthening the tripartite cooperation is a great challenge and provides an opportunity to further advance employment and wellbeing. All member states should ratify the Convention (No. 144) on Tripartite Consultations.

Furthermore, the Director-General's Report pays attention to the difficult position of women in working life and the feminisation of poverty. Today more and more women are working in informal economy on low wages. In many industrialised countries - including Finland - women work on fixed term contracts or only part-time. Because of low wages, many women must content themselves with a life on the edge of poverty. Improving gender equality requires broad tripartite cooperation. In this sense, the Global Report Time for Equality at Work that was discussed on Friday deserves our full attention.

Website of the 91st Session of the International Labour Conference