BusinessLive reports that the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a UN agency that sets global labour standards, has become the latest institution to cancel a conference due to Covid-19.
This will be the first time in the ILO’s 101 years of existence. On Friday, the secretariat indicated that 87 members had voted in favour of a recommendation to defer the 109th session of the ILO conference until June 2021. The conference was scheduled to take place in Geneva from 25 May to 5 June. Employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi commended the ILO for taking a “very responsible stance” in cancelling the conference, which brings together about 6,000 delegates from various countries. Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali commented: “In the circumstances we are in, there is no alternative but to support [the call] that all meetings that have the potential of spreading Covid-19 should be avoided.” In June 2019, the Department of Employment & Labour spent R3.2m to send a 62-member delegation to the ILO conference. In 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa was appointed as the co-chair of the ILO’s Global Commission on the Future of Work, alongside Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page