TITLE:
Decent Work, Social Justice, Status-Quo: The ILO as a World Organization
AUTHORS:
Emma Evered Koenig
KEYWORDS:
ILO, International Labour Organisation, World Organizations, Decent Work Agenda, Work and Labour
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.13 No.4,
October
31,
2023
ABSTRACT: From internal struggles to
ineffective international programming, the ILO has long been plagued with a
variety of issues that undermine its efficacy. This has resulted in
some scholars dismissing the organization as a relevant player in the world of international work and labour. However, this paper contends that these accusations fail to
consider the ILO as a complex and multifaceted organization with its own
mandate, agenda, and impact. Using the world organizations approach put forward
by Martin Koch, four aspects of the ILO are discussed: world semantics,
internal order, external relations, and contributions to world order. This
analysis finds that, though the ILO has often
failed to drive rapid progress in the world of work and labour, the incremental
changes it has made to international working conditions through the use
of small-scale programming has overall improved working conditions for many
workers around the world.