By Victor Ahiuma-Young
Safeguarding workers’ rights is a prerequisite for quality jobs, fair labour mobility, and sustained competitiveness.
The key challenge lies in ensuring that these rights are effectively realised in practice.
This was the central message of Peter van Rooij, ILO Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, at the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs (EPSCO).
Speaking during a plenary session on How the EU’s implementation and enforcement agendas support real protections for workers, van Rooij presented an ILO background paper prepared at the request of the Irish EU Presidency. The paper, titled: Effective enforcement of labour standards: governance, labour inspection and the protection of migrant workers, underscores the link between robust enforcement mechanisms and fair competition, productivity and cross-border labour mobility.
