Singapore and the International Labour Organization
A woman from Singapore’s trade union movement walks into a room full of global negotiators, and two years later she helps deliver the first-ever international convention protecting domestic workers. Something that the workers’ side had been trying to get done for over 40 years.
This is part of my retelling of “50 Years of Singapore and the United Nations” (Tommy Koh, Li Lin Chang, Joanna Koh, 2015, ISBN: 978-9814713030).
Chapter 19 is written by Halimah Yacob, who at the time of writing was Speaker of Parliament in Singapore. Before that, she spent decades with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). She’s the one who represented workers on the ILO Governing Body for 12 years. This chapter is her account of how Singapore worked with the ILO and her personal role in one of the organization’s biggest victories.
What Is the ILO and Why Does It Matter?
The International Labour Organization was set up in 1919 after the First World War. The idea was simple but powerful: universal peace through social justice. If workers are treated badly, if wages are crushed, if children are forced into factories, then the world becomes unstable.
What makes the ILO unique among all the UN agencies is its tripartite structure. That means three parties sit at the table: governments, employers, and workers. Every other UN body only has governments. The ILO gives ordinary working people a voice in global decision-making. That’s a pretty big deal.
Halimah puts it clearly. Capital can move freely across borders. Labour cannot. Without some kind of global standards, countries end up in a race to the bottom. She remembers seeing a brochure where one government actually advertised labour at just one US dollar per day to attract investors. Child labour, human trafficking, unsafe workplaces: these things are still happening even today.
Singapore’s Approach: Ratify Less, Enforce More
Singapore joined the ILO in 1965, right after independence. The relationship has been mostly good, with a few bumps along the way.
Here’s the interesting thing about Singapore’s approach. Out of 189 ILO conventions, Singapore has ratified only 27. That sounds low. But Halimah’s argument is convincing: Singapore takes those 27 seriously and actually enforces them. Some countries sign everything and then ignore it all.
Take workplace safety as an example. When Singapore planned to ratify Convention 187 on safety and health in 2012, they had already launched a comprehensive national strategy for workplace safety. They did the work before they signed the paper. That’s the Singapore way.
The ILO seems to agree. Singapore’s skills development programs are often quoted in ILO publications as a model. The government funds them with a statutory levy on employers, and they keep workers relevant as technology changes. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, the ILO invited Singapore’s tripartite partners to share how they managed the downturn so effectively.
The 1979 Bump
It wasn’t always smooth. In 1979, Singapore denounced Convention 105 on the Abolition of Forced Labour. The disagreement was about how the ILO interpreted Singapore’s domestic laws. After that, Singapore went cold on ratifying new conventions for over two decades.
Things thawed in 2003 when Singapore began ratifying again. Over the next several years, they signed on to conventions covering the worst forms of child labour (C138), equal pay for equal work (C100), and tripartite consultation (C144). These are not minor conventions. They cover core principles.
Halimah on the Governing Body
Halimah was the first Singaporean to sit on the ILO Governing Body. She got elected in 1999 as a Deputy Member of the Workers Group and served for 12 years, getting re-elected three more times.
That’s a long run. She represented workers on committees covering legal issues, international labour standards, and technical assistance. Singapore’s employers’ federation (SNEF) also got elected as a Deputy Member in 2005, and the government got its own seat starting in 2005 as well. So eventually, all three of Singapore’s tripartite partners had representation at the top level.
The Fight for Domestic Workers
This is the heart of the chapter.
For more than 40 years, the Workers’ Group at the ILO had been trying to get an international standard to protect domestic workers. Maids, nannies, housekeepers. The people who work in private homes, often with zero legal protection. For decades, that effort went nowhere.
Halimah was the spokesperson for the Workers’ Group in the negotiations for what became Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.
The negotiations ran from 2010 to 2011. Two full years.
The first year was the hardest. The Employers’ Group opposed the whole idea of a convention. They used every tactic they could think of to block it. Every procedural trick, every delay, every argument.
But the Workers’ Group had something important: support from the majority of governments, both from countries that send domestic workers and countries that receive them. That support was enough to get the initial report adopted by the ILO General Assembly, which opened the door to negotiate the actual convention text in year two.
Domestic workers’ organizations from around the world showed up to watch the proceedings. Many of the women there had personally worked as maids in terrible conditions. Their presence made a difference.
In the end, the Workers’ Group got two instruments: a Convention (which is binding once ratified) and a Recommendation (which gives detailed guidance). Halimah calls it one of the most fulfilling things she ever did at the ILO. And honestly, getting something done that people had been trying to do for four decades is not a small thing.
She also talks about what the negotiations taught her. You need thorough preparation, real facts and figures, persuasion skills, and the willingness to compromise. And representing workers from all over the world meant first getting workers’ organizations from vastly different countries to agree among themselves before you could even start negotiating with the other side.
Challenges Ahead for the ILO
Halimah doesn’t end on a victory lap. She’s worried about the future.
The biggest challenge she describes is a direct attack by the Employers’ Group on the ILO’s Committee of Experts. The issue: does Convention 87 on Freedom of Association include the right to strike? The convention doesn’t say it explicitly, but for decades the interpretation was that the right to strike is part of meaningful freedom of association. You can’t really have freedom of association if workers can’t actually do anything with it.
The Employers’ Group challenged that interpretation. The result was unprecedented. In 2012, the Committee on the Application of Standards couldn’t meet at all. In 2014, no conclusions were adopted for 19 cases involving the most serious violations of human and trade union rights.
That’s bad. When the body that monitors labour rights can’t function, everyone suffers. Halimah hoped the matter would be referred to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion, as the ILO constitution allows.
She also argues that governments need to be more active, not just neutral bystanders when core ILO principles are at stake. The ILO was created to make sure prosperity doesn’t come at the expense of the weakest workers. With globalization increasing, that mission is more important than ever.
About the Author
Halimah Yacob was elected Member of Parliament for Jurong GRC in 2001 and served as Speaker of Parliament from January 2013. She started her career with the National Trades Union Congress in 1978 and held roles including Director of the Women’s Development Secretariat, Director of Legal Services, and Deputy Secretary General. She sat on the ILO Governing Body and on boards including the Tripartite Alliance on Fair Employment Practices. Halimah graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Master of Laws.
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