Minister Abdullah during the 109th session of the International Labor Conference: Continuing the implementation of national programs related to work

Damascus (ST): The work of the first phase of the 109th session of the International Labor Conference, organized annually by the International Labor Organization, which is held this year virtually in Geneva, continues until the 19th of this month.

In a speech during the plenary session of the conference, the head of the Syrian delegation, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, Dr. Salwa Abdullah, confirmed that Syria had implemented  its commitment to the ILO constitution by ratifying the eight labor agreements included in the Organization’s declaration and its adoption of decent work standards.

Minister Abdullah pointed out that despite the consequences of the terrorist war on Syria and the challenges it imposed and the Western coercive economic measures imposed on it, it continues to implement national programs related to work and has not stopped paying the wages of workers and public sector employees who lost their jobs as a result of the destruction of their institutions and factories and their stay without work and production.

Minister Abdullah explained that work is underway to expand the umbrella of protection and social security, organize the labor sector, and prepare for the launch of a national information system for the labor market.

In a similar speech during the conference, the President of the General Federation of Trade Unions, Jamal Al-Qaderi, stressed the need to include in the new legislation of the International Labor Organization the regulation of new forms of work that arose after the Corona pandemic, represented by teleworking, and emphasizing the responsibility of employers to improve worksites and defend the rights of workers who work remotely.

Al-Qaderi referred to the report presented by the Director-General of the Conference, especially his condemnation of the discriminatory practices of the Israeli occupation authorities against the workers of Palestine, the occupied Syrian Arab Golan and the rest of the occupied Arab territories, which contravene the relevant agreements of the Organization.

K.Q.