CHR to monitor ILO review of RP compliance with int’l labor laws

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will don the role of observer during the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) review of the Philippines’ implementation of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention No. 87.

A high-level ILO mission has arrived in Manila and is to start today its one-week study of the country’s compliance with international labor laws.

CHR Commissioner Jose Manuel Mamauag said the CHR will be observing the ILO’s conduct of its review so that it may provide assistance to the international organization when it deems it is needed.

Mamauag said the CHR’s central office was already gathering from its regional offices all over the country information on the labor sector’s human rights situation so the agency can provide this if requested by the ILO team.

“This information will cover human rights-related labor concerns such as freedom of association and expression, redress of grievances, extra-judicial executions and improvement of working conditions,” he said.

He said the CHR has accepted the ILO’s invitation to discuss on Monday next week the labor sector’s human rights situation.

For its part, the ILO said it was conducting the review to identify areas where it can provide support and technical assistance to the Philippine government to help it implement Convention 87.

The ILO said its team will include ILO International Labor Standards Department’s Director Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry and Deputy Director Karen Curtis, as well as Tim de Meyer, International Labor Standards Specialist of the ILO Subregional Office for East Asia.

During the review period, the ILO said the high-level mission will meet with relevant government agencies and workers’ groups, aside from conducting plant-level visits.

It also said the mission will look into legislative amendments, proposals and gaps to help align national laws with Convention 87, which the Philippines ratified in 1953.

The ILO said it will make the mission’s report on the review available to the Philippine government and local workers’ groups. –PNA