On 18 June 2010, the International Labour Conference (IL C) concluded its 99th session, giving a strong call for placing employment and social protection at the centre of recovery policies. The Conference delegates unanimously declared, “We must get the right balance of policies to secure strong, sustainable and balanced growth.” Many of the members present in the discussions were supportive of a Convention.

ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia, in a message to the closing plenary of the Conference, stated that the ILO had thus reinforced the idea that the only real recovery is a recovery without social deficit and that quality jobs are at the heart of recovery. Delegates called for action to apply the ILO’s Global Jobs Pact. The Pact was adopted at a crisis summit held during ILC in 2009 and received strong support during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in September 2009.

The Conference reiterated its call to the ILO to place full and productive employment and decent work at the centre of economic and social policies, to strengthen the social dimension of globalisation. “It is urgent for the ILO to play its full role in the challenges posed by globalisation,” said Mr. Gilles de Robien, France, President of the Conference.

Representatives of governments, employers and workers alike noted that the continuing lack of a jobs recovery placed ‘a terrible burden’ on the unemployed and, at the same time, hindered efforts to create ‘the right environment for enterprises to create employment’. Others cautioned again the premature exit from stimulus packages, which was ‘simply going to make matters worse’.

An important item on the agenda was the discussion of standards for domestic work, leading to a discussion of an ILO instrument in ILC 2011. The Conference has placed discussion of the Convention (accompanied by a Recommendation) on the agenda for ILC 2011. Indian trade unions that participated in the ILC said that the Indian government cut a sorry figure with its anti-worker attitude in declining to ask for a Convention (set of rules) on decent work for domestic workers. Some trade unions report that the government had even put up an amendment opposing the adoption of a global Convention, stating that the time had not yet come for such an instrument. According the provisional record of the proceedings, the Government of India also pushed for an amendment suggesting that the rules being discussed be ‘guidelines’ rather than ‘standards’. Despite the position of the GOI,

The ILC also adopted a new international labour standard on HIV and AIDS—the first international human rights instrument to focus specifically on the issue in the world of work. After two years intense and constructive debate, this new standard has been adopted by a vote of 439 to 4, with 11 abstentions. The standard is the first internationally sanctioned legal instrument aimed at strengthening the contribution of the world of work to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. It contains provisions on potentially life-saving prevention programmes and anti-discrimination measures at national and workplace levels, and emphasises the importance of employment and income-generating activities for workers and people living with HIV, particularly in terms of continuing treatment.