History of International Labour Organization was created in 1919

The International Labour Organization was created in 1919, at the end of the First World War, at the time of the Peace Conference which convened first in Paris, then at Versailles. The need for such an organization had been advocated in the nineteenth century by two industrialists, Robert Owen (1771-1853) of Wales and Daniel Legrand (1783-1859) of France.

After having been put to the test within the International Association for Labour Legislation, founded in Basel in 1901, their ideas were incorporated into the Constitution of the International Labour Organization, adopted by the Peace Conference in April of 1919.

The initial motivation was humanitarian. The condition of workers, more and more numerous and exploited with no consideration for their health, their family lives and their advancement, was less and less acceptable. This preoccupation appears clearly in the Preamble of the Constitution of the ILO, where it is stated, "conditions of labour exist involving ... injustice, hardship and privation to large numbers of people. "

The second motivation was political. Without an improvement in their condition, the workers, whose numbers were ever increasing as a result of industrialization, would create social unrest, even revolution. The Preamble notes that injustice produces "unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled."

The third motivation was economic. Because of its inevitable effect on the cost of production, any industry or country adopting social reform would find itself at a disadvantage vis-à-vis its competitors. The Preamble states that "the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the conditions in their own countries."

Another reason for the creation of the International Labour Organization was added by the participants of the Peace Conference, linked to the end of the war to which workers had contributed significantly both on the battlefield and in industry. This idea appears at the very beginning of the Constitution: "universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice."

The ILO Constitution was written between January and April, 1919, by the Labour Commission set up by the Peace Conference. The Commission was composed of representatives from nine countries, Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, under the chairmanship of Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labour (AFL). It resulted in a tripartite organization, the only one of its kind bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive bodies. The ILO Constitution became Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles.

The first annual International Labour Conference, composed of two representatives from the government, and one each from employers' and workers' organizations from each member State, met in Washington beginning on 29 October 1919. It adopted the first six International Labour Conventions, which dealt with hours of work in industry, unemployment, maternity protection, night work for women, minimum age and night work for young persons in industry.

The Governing Body, the ILO executive council elected by the Conference, half of whose members are government representatives, one-fourth workers' representatives and one-fourth employers' representatives, chose Albert Thomas as the first Director of the International Labour Office, which is the permanent Secretariat of the Organization. He was a French politician with a deep interest in social questions and a member of the wartime government responsible for munitions. He gave the Organization a strong impetus from the very beginning. In less than two years, 16 International Labour Conventions and 18 Recommendations had been adopted.

The ILO was set up in Geneva in the summer of 1920. The zeal which drove the Organization was very quickly toned down. Certain governments felt that there were too many Conventions, the publications were too critical and the budget too high. Thus everything had to be reduced. Nevertheless, the International Court of Justice, under pressure from the Government of France, declared that the ILO's domain extended also to international regulation of conditions of work in the agricultural sector.

In 1926, an important innovation was introduced when the International Labour Conference set up a supervisory system on the application of its standards, which still exists today. It created the Committee of Experts composed of independent jurists responsible for examining government reports and presenting its own report each year to the Conference.

In 1932, after having assured the ILO's strong presence in the world for thirteen years, Albert Thomas suddenly died. His successor, Harold Butler of England, his deputy since the birth of the Organization, was soon confronted by the Great Depression with its resulting massive unemployment. During this period, workers' and employers' representatives confronted each other on the subject of the reduction of working hours, without any appreciable results. In 1934, under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United States, which did not belong to the League of Nations, became a Member of the ILO.

In 1939, John Winant, an American who was a former Governor of New Hampshire, the first head of the American Social Security System, then Deputy Director of the ILO, succeeded Harold Butler who had resigned. His main task was to prepare the Organization for the imminent war. In May,1940, the situation in Switzerland, isolated and threatened in the heart of a Europe at war, led the new Director to move the headquarters of the Organization temporarily to Montreal, Canada. In 1941, President Roosevelt named him Ambassador of the United States in London, where he replaced Joseph Kennedy.

Edward Phelan of Ireland was named Director in 1941. He knew the ILO in depth, having participated in the drafting of its Constitution. He played an important role once again during the Philadelphia meeting of the International Labour Conference, in the midst of the Second World War, attended by representatives of governments, employers and workers from 41 countries. The delegates adopted the Declaration of Philadelphia which, annexed to the Constitution, still constitutes the Charter of the aims and objectives of the ILO. In 1948, still during the period of his leadership of the ILO, the International Labour Conference adopted Convention No. 87 on freedom of association and the right to organize.

In 1948, an American, David Morse, who played an important role in the administration of President Harry Truman, was named to head the ILO, where he remained until 1970. During this long twenty-two year period, the number of member States doubled, the Organization took on its universal character, industrialized countries became a minority among developing countries, the budget grew five-fold and the number of officials quadrupled. In 1960, the ILO created the International Institute for Labour Studies at its Geneva headquarters, and the International Training Centre in Turin in 1965. And finally, in 1969, the ILO was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as it commemorated its 50th anniversary.



David Morse accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the ILO

The Englishman Wilfred Jenks, Director-General from 1970 until his death in 1973, was faced with a politicization of labour problems resulting from the East-West conflict. His profound knowledge of the Organization served him well in this task. In fact, he had been co-author with Edward Phelan of the Declaration of Philadelphia. A renowned jurist, he was a firm advocate of human rights, the rule of the law, tripartism and the moral authority of the ILO in international problems. He made a major contribution to the development of standards and the mechanisms for supervising their application, and particularly to the promotion of freedom of association and of the right to organize.

He was succeeded by Francis Blanchard, formerly a senior French Government official. Mr. Blanchard had spent the best part of his career with the ILO, where he played an active part in the large-scale development of technical cooperation. Both a diplomat and a man of conviction, he remained in that post for fifteen years, from 1974 to 1989. He succeeded in averting major damage to the ILO when a crisis triggered by the withdrawal of the United States from the Organization (1977 to 1980) resulted in the loss of one-fourth of its budget. The United States returned to the Organization at the beginning of the Reagan Administration. During this period, the ILO resolutely continued its work in defence of human rights. Thus, the ILO played a major role in the emancipation of Poland from dictatorship, by giving its full support to the legitimacy of the Solidarnosc Union based on respect for Convention No. 87 on freedom of association which Poland had ratified in 1957.



David Morse and President John F. Kennedy at the White House in 1963

In 1989, Michel Hansenne, former Belgian Minister of Employment and Labour and of the Civil Service, became the first Director-General of the post-Cold War period. Re-elected for a second term in 1993, he indicated that his primary responsibility was to lead the ILO into the 21st century with all the moral authority, professional competence and administrative efficiency which the Organization has demonstrated for 75 years. In the face of new challenges, he intends to give the ILO the means to play a full part in the major international councils on economic and social development, in order to place social justice at the heart of the debate. He has set the ILO on a course of greater decentralization of activities and resources away from Geneva under the ILO's Active Partnership Policy.

On 4 March 1999 Juan Somavia, an attorney by profession, took up office as the ILO's ninth Director-General. Mr. Somavia has had a long and distinguished career in civil and international affairs, serving, inter alia, as Chairman of the preparatory Council of the World Summit for Social Development (held in Copenhagen in 1995) and President of the UN Economic and Social Council (from 1993 to 1994). He has held the post of Ambassador of Chile and served as an Adviser to the Foreign Minister of Chile on Economic and Social Affairs. He was born on 21 April, 1941, and earned degrees in law and economics from the Catholic University of Chile and the University of Paris.