The tasks ahead of the ILO at its centenary

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12164
• Published date: 01 March 2020
• Author: Alain SUPIOT
• Date: 01 March 2020

International Labour Review, Vol. 159 (2020), No. 1

Copyright © The author 2020

Journal tr anslation a nd compilation © Inte rnational L abour Organ ization 2020

The tasks ahead of the ILO

at its centenary

Alain SUPIOT *

Abstract. The principles that dene the normative missions of the ILO – as set

out in its Constitution and in the Declaration of Philadelphia – have lost none of

their value or relevance. The circumstances in which those missions are carried out

have, however, changed profoundly. The global organization of labour is currently

witnessing major technical, environmental and institutional upheavals which, in

turn, pose legal challenges for the ILO in each of these areas. The ILO’s answer

to these challenges should be based on three principles whose implementation is

encompassed by its constitutional mandate: the principles of solidarity, economic

democracy and social and environmental responsibility.

Keywords: ILO, future of work, ILO Constitution, Declaration of Philadelphia,

normative mission of the ILO.

The centenary of the ILO is a historical opportunity to rearm its founding prin-

ciples and provide guidance on their eective implementation in the twenty-

rst century.

The constitutional principles upon which the ILO is founded have lost none

of their value or relevance. Considering that “universal and lasting peace can

be established only if it is based upon social justice”, the Preamble to the ILO

Constitution gives the Organization the primary mission of preventing “the fail-

ure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour” (a literal translation of

the French version would be, “a truly humane labour regime”)1 from being “an

obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the conditions in

their own countries”. Its task is, therefore, not to impose the same conditions of

labour on all States, but to support the eorts of those wishing to improve their

* Emeritus Professor of the Collège de France. Emeritus member of the Institute for Advanced

Study of Nantes, email: alain.supiot@college-de-france.fr.

Responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles rests solely with their authors, and

publication does not constitute an endorsement by the ILO.

1 Given the nuance between the French and English versions of the ILO Constitution, the au-

thor wishes to refer to the literal translation of the wording used in the French: “La non-adoption

par une nation quelconque d’un régime de travail réellement humain fait obstacle aux eorts des

autres nations désireuses d’améliorer le sort des travailleurs dans leurs propres pays”.

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workers’ conditions, and prevent any resultant disadvantage compared with

countries that do not make such eorts.

In addition to this primary mission, the Declaration of Philadelphia also tasks

the ILO with ensuring that “all international policies and measures, in particu-

lar those of an economic and nancial character” are designed in such a way

as to “promote and not to hinder” the right of all human beings “to pursue both

their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of free-

dom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity”. The ILO is called

upon to make “any provisions which it considers appropriate” to ensure that

international economic and nancial policies and measures serve the “funda-

mental objective” of achieving greater social justice.

The stage upon which these two missions are acted out has undergone a

profound transformation since the end of the Second World War. In this light,

the rst section of this article seeks to identify the new questions raised by work

in the twenty-rst century, before turning to the potential answers to these in

the second section.

1. New challenges:

The future of work in the twenty-rst century

The global organization of labour is currently witnessing major technological,

environmental and institutional upheavals which, in turn, present challenges

for the ILO in these three areas.

1.1. A technological challenge

The means of achieving the “truly humane labour regime” sought by the ILO

Constitution vary according to the stage of technical development achieved (see

Musso and Supiot, 2018). Parallels tend to be drawn between human labour and

the other productive forces available at a given time, such that every techno-

logical revolution ushers in new forms of dehumanization. Before the industrial

era, this took the form of slavery and servitude, where workers were likened

to domestic animals. Since the eighteenth century, technoscientic thought has

matched humans to machines. In the second industrial revolution, the “scien-

tic management of labour” treated workers like mechanical pieces subject to

the inexible pace of production chains.2 Labour law made these comparisons

bearable. Although it made the employment contract contingent upon subor-

dination, it also guaranteed a certain level of physical and economic security,

and established freedom of association to allow workers to act and negotiate

collectively. As the expression of this trade-o between subordination and se-

curity, wage employment became the paradigm form of labour.

The digital revolution brought a new meaning to this equation of workers

with machines. Labour was no longer modelled on machines that mechanically

2 See “La rationalisation (23 février 1937)”, an excerpt from a conference given by Simon Weil

in 1937 (Weil, 1964 , pp. 289 –315). On the debate in the workers’ movement in reaction to this

“scientic” organization, see Trentin (1997).