FOCUS ON LABOR RELATIONS

A delegation of the International Labor Organization (ILO), representatives of the International Organization of Employers, the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, UNICEF, UNDP and EU have taken part at the “Round table” meeting “Status and Prospects of cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the International Labor Organization.

The event was organized by the ILO, the World Bank and the Council of Federation of Trade Unions of Uzbekistan. Speakers told about the normative-legal foundation set up in the country, which meets the requirements of international standards, about government decisions and programs in the sphere of rural economy. They focused particularly on the measures being undertaken in the Republic on the implementation of the ILO conventions, ratified by Uzbekistan and explanatory work conducted among the population on the principles of international and national standards of labor. There are about 15 large-scale events conducted annually in collaboration with international organizations and devoted to the sphere of labor and social protection.

Head of the organization Guy Raider had highly assessed the activities of Uzbekistan in this direction in his speech at the 105th session of the ILO. He stressed that the experience of the Republic deserved to be disseminated among other countries, since it has a positive impact on reforming all sectors of economy, including agriculture, raising the level of the population’s well-being and improvement of the labor legislation. Currently the national specialists and the ILO experts study jointly the system of undertakings realized by the Ministries, departments and civil society institutions. The organization regularly assigns its representatives to missions for evaluation of performance quality at all levels.

In the course of discussion representatives of international organizations had positively assessed the activities on the prevention of child and forced labor in the country. The ILO Regional Director Heinz Koler thinks that “Uzbekistan today is an example for other countries on the introduction of labor standards. The Republic has achieved a breakthrough in these directions in recent years.”

A working group on the elaboration of a country program on decent labor for 2017-2019 was set presently in this country. The guests were familiarized with the condition of realization of key components of the action plan for the period 2016-2018 on the perfection of labor conditions, employment and social protection of employees engaged in rural economy. Representatives of the World Bank informed the Uzbek side about rendering assistance in the implementation of the action plan. In this connection Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States in Uzbekistan Pamela Spratlen noted that the USA remain committed to further fruitful cooperation with Uzbekistan bоth in the field of labor relations and other directions. The diplomat underlined that the level of awareness of Uzbekistan population about international and national labor standards was rather high. “It is very important in this respect the government of the country pays great attention to these issues,” said P.Spratlen.

The foreign participants expressed their readiness to continue their fruitful cooperation with Uzbekistan in the successful implementation of the current and outlined projects in these directions.

Jahon Information Agency