International labor standards - Essay Example

The ILO is perhaps the only institution of its kind in the world which has the capability and credibility to ensure that international labor standards are implemented and this has lent credence to its continued existence. This agency’s recommendations tend to mainly provide guidance to its 183 member states but while this may be the case, its various conventions tend to be given the status of treaties, which are often binding on its members. Despite this being the case, it is a fact that these conventions do not go into force in the ILO member countries until such a time as they are ratified by individual governments.

It is through the establishment of labor standards among ILO member states that it is possible to promulgate and enforce those national laws that are in line with its conventions (Warnecke & De Ruyter, 2010). Thus, it is through these means that the ILO work towards ensuring that international labor standard are enforced in order to protect the labor resources of the world from abuse. The ILO was established in 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference, the aim of the latter being an attempt to ensure that there was a lessening of public support for communist ideals.

It is because of this that the allies chose to insert clauses into the peace treaty which would ensure that there would be the protection of labor unions as well as the rights of workers in the diverse industries of the world at the time. It was agreed that an international body, whose main purpose was to help in the guidance of international labor relations, would be established in the future. The first annual conference of the newly created organization was took place on October 1919 i Washington D.C. and it is during this conference that there was the adoption of the first six international labor conventions.

These conventions dealt with the working hours in industry, how to define and handle unemployment, maternity protection, the minimum age to work,