UNIT 7.
USE OF INTERNATIONAL LABOUR INSTRUMENTS AND THE PRONOUNCEMENTS OF ILO SUPERVISORY BODIES 15.
Designing national public policy strategies and proposals
T
he ILO's international labor standards establish a framework of obligations and policy guidelines for the creation of public policies. The Conventions, Recommendations, Protocols, and Resolutions adopted at the ILO Conference provide policy and legal guidelines and direction regarding the necessary measures to be taken by States to comply with the international obligations contained in ILO Conventions. A significant number of the problems denounced by trade unions are related to governance issues, inadequate public policies developed without consultation and without the participation of trade unions. Trade unions can use international labor standards and the pronouncements of the supervisory bodies to support the elaboration and design of public policy strategies and proposals or national plans with a view to the State's compliance with its international obligations under ILO Conventions. The Recommenda-
tions and Resolutions adopted by the International Labour Conference are relevant to the support of this type of strategy and proposals. For example, in the area of the informal economy, particularly important are the Resolution concerning decent work and the informal economy and Recommendation No. 204 concerning the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy. Recognizing that informality is a multidimensional and heterogeneous phenomenon, these ILO instruments have a comprehensive approach and contain guidelines for the design, adoption, and evaluation of public policies in the areas of macroeconomics, employment, wages, labor migration, education, labor inspection, data collection and statistics, among others. In the area of social security, the following are particularly important: the Resolution concerning the recurrent discussion on social protection (labor protection) and Recommendation 202 concerning
PRACTICAL GUIDE TO TRADE UNION ACTION AT THE ILO
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