A Brief Background
The three day National Consultation of Trade Unions, Environmentalists and groups working with labour, held in Bangalore on 27-29 October, 1995, rejected the linkage of Labour and Environmental Standards with Trade in the framework of WTO. At the same time, the Consultation unanimously called for the implementation and improvement of labour standards, environmental standards at the national and international levels.The Bangalore Consultation was a follow up to the New Delhi Consultation on Social Clause in Multilateral Trade Agreements held in March 1995. The New Delhi Consultation was called in the context of the Proposal, which came up from the industrialised Western Countries, to incorporate 'Social Clause' in the Instruments of Multilateral Trade Agreements. The proposal had come in the wake of the liberalisation of Global Trade, which got institutionalised with the completion of Uruguay Round of GATT Negotiations and its metamorphosis into World Trade Organisation. 'Social Clause' in the Multilateral Trade Instruments guarantees the right of importing countries, to deny import of goods produced by countries or factories that violate certain pre-defined, universal, minimum labour standards.
The New Delhi Consultation was held from March 20-22, 1995. About seventy participants including senior leaders of Central Trade Unions, major organisations from the Unorganised and Informal sectors, Women's Organisations, Peoples Movements, Child Labour Campaign Groups, Environmentalists and Academics participated in the New Delhi Consultation. The presence of ex-bureaucrats who negotiated in GATT on behalf of government of lndia added to the substance of the Consultation.
There were separate sessions for Organised Workers, Unorganised Sectors and Women and Child Labour. The Consultation also discussed the issues emerging from the proposal to link Environmental Standards with Trade. There was also a session on the Macro-Perspectives and emerging Theoretical Questions. Another session was on linkage of Human Rights with Trade. In each session, a panel representing various organisations and various view points presented their case followed by discussions from the floor.
Extremely differing perspectives were presented. But everyone listened the other with appreciation and acknowledgement. Some preferred an outright rejection of the proposal to link labour standards with international trade. On the contrary, some favoured the strategic use of the proposal, to demand better standards for the workers. While the representatives of the organised sector were mostly for a rejection of labour standard WTO linkage, the representatives of the unorganised sector was not as clear in their position. They were more concerned about the blatant violations of labour rights in the informal sector. Some openly advocated the need for an external pressure to improve the working and living conditions of the workers in the informal sector.
Yet, towards the end, the participants of the Consultation agreed for a consensus statement. The Statement reflected the convergence as well as the divergence of positions of the participants regarding the Social Clause proposal, and also the fundamental concerns that brought them together and kept the consultation moving.
The statement outlined, in brief, an Action Plan, most important of which, was the decision to constitute three working groups - on Labour Standards, Environmental Standards and Human Rights.
D.Thankappan, Dinesh Abrol and Ashim Roy organised the working group on Labour Standards, while Minar Pimple and Anil Aggarwal, the working group on Environmental Standards.
The Bangalore Consultation discussed the three reports prepared by the respective working groups in detail. Subsequently, the participants agreed upon a statement which outlined a definite position on Social Clause in Multilateral Trade Agreements and a Plan of Action.
On Labour Standard, the consultation decided to set up a National Commission on Labour and to campaign for the enactment of a national law incorporating the ILO's Tripartite Declaration on TNCs. It also decided to frame a UN Convention on Labour Rights under the chairmanship of Prof.Muchkund Dubey. The Consultation decided, on the Enviromnental Front, to put an effort to set up a South Asian coalition and also to initiate a dialogue with Northern NGOs. The Human Rights group recommended to evolve a mechanism to monitor the human rights record of international financial institutios like IMF/WB and of Trade Policies of OECD countries like the export dumping of agricultural and toxic products.
A significant aspect of the Bangalore Consultation was the participation of delegates from the South Asian countries - Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. A separate meeting of these delegates, decided to concentrate on preparing a South Asian Charter on Labour Rights, incorporating the agenda of code of conduct for multinational companies. With this objective, a South Asian Consultation will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal, in February 1996.
A Committee consisting of Arun Daur, Thankappan D, Thomas Koeherry, Minar Pimple, Dinesh Abrol, Duarte Barreto, Anuradha Chenoy, Ashim Roy and J John as members and Prof Muchkund Dubey as the advisor has been organising the National campaign and consultations.
The programme is being organised from:
Centre for Education and Communication,
F20, Jungpura Extension, New Delhi-110014,
Phone: 011 4624874/4634206 Fax: 011 4646468