Foreign Minister Emma Bonino met the Director General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Guy Ryder, at the Farnesina today, 19 November 2013. The meeting concluded with the ceremony delivering Italy’s ratification instrument for Convention no. 186 of 2006, the Maritime Labour Convention, which will enter into force in our country on 19 November 2014. The Convention is an important instrument to protect decent living conditions for seafarers and fairer competition standards – a “level playing field” – for shipowners and operators.
Minister Bonino declared at the ceremony that “in light of its historic seafaring traditions, Italy is delighted to play a part in improving working conditions on ships, not least in terms of social security. Italy intends to continue its policy of supporting the ILO in achieving its goals and in its initiatives to establish international standards in this sensitive area”.
During their talks, Minister Bonino also reaffirmed Italy’s support for the ILO reform process, to streamline the organisation and increase its functionality. Our county also supports the ILO’s strategic priorities for the 2014-15 budget planning process. She said she was pleased with the operation of the ILO Training Centre in Turin and hoped to see its initiatives extended to all of the Organisation’s personnel, especially in the sector of technical assistance to developing countries.
Italy is one of the ten permanent members of the ILO Board, and the 6th contributor to its budget (our obligatory payment for 2014 will amount to €14.7 million). In recent years, the Foreign Ministry has also made voluntary payments for the ILO’s technical cooperation projects: €14 million a year in 2007 and 2008, about half of which for the Turin Centre. In 2009-11 our entire voluntary payments went to Turin (4 million 2009, 2.5 in 2010 and 1.6 in 2011). Voluntary payments were suspended in 2012, but resumed in 2013, with €1.7 million (€1.5 million of which for the Turin Centre).
Italy is also the third member country in terms of the number of ILO Conventions ratified (112). They include Convention no. 143 on Migrant Workers, and no. 189 on working conditions for domestic workers, adopted by the International Labour Conference in 2011 and ratified in 2013. The specific safeguards for migrant workers envisaged by Convention 189 are particularly significant, not least in view of the high number of foreign nations employed in this sector in Italy (about 900,000, 88% of whom are women).
