ILC: FG charges delegates to be good ambassadors of Nigeria

Ukpono Ukpong, Abuja

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. William Alo, has charged all the Nigerian delegates to the 108th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC), Geneva, Switzerland, to be good ambassadors of Nigeria at the Conference.

Mr. Alo gave the charge at the preparatory meeting of the government delegation to the 2019 ILC held in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Abuja.

Represented by the Director, Productivity Measurement and Labour Standards, Mr. Eyewuni Dan Neburagho, the Permanent Secretary said the Conference is an annual meeting of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and this year’s conference is scheduled to hold from 10th-21st June 2019 with the theme: Work for a Brighter Future.

“The purpose of the preparatory meeting therefore is to acquaint you with what is expected of you as Delegates and Advisers and also to keep you abreast of the various committees in which each of you have been selected to participate.

“I want you to know that participation in the conference as Government Delegation is a call to duty. You are therefore expected to exhibit the highest level of professionalism and dedication to duty.

“As you are aware, this will be my first experience at participating and leading the delegation to the Conference. It is expected that all issues bordering on Labour administration and international Labour diplomacy have been duly trashed out by all the professional departments for effective intervention at the various committees”, Alo stated.

He then enjoined the delegates to deliberate fully and exhaustively on the technical items of the various established committees to adequately equip every delegate and adviser with skills to participate optimally at the conference.

The Director, Productivity Measurement and Labour Standards, Mr. Eyewuni Neburagho in his opening remarks stated that the International Labour Conference is composed of Plenary and Technical Sessions, disclosing that the Plenary would take place in the Assembly Hall of the Palais de Nations, Geneva.

He further stated that the Technical Session consists of six Committees namely: Finance, Application of Standards, Committee of the Whole, Standards Setting Committee: Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, Selective Committee, and Credential Committee.

He said that the Nigerian Delegation to the Conference would be tripartite in composition and the African meeting would be held from 9.00am to 10.30am daily.

“The African group of the Governing Body is made up of representatives of all the African member States participating in the Conference.

The purpose of the group meetings is to review the programme and agenda of the session, reaffirm the assignments of Representatives/Agenda items to various member States and seek to reach agreements/consensus on the position of the group on the Agenda items”, Neburagho added.

He also disclosed that the current coordinator of the African group is Ethiopia and urged all delegates to fully participate in the meeting of the African Group.