Joint Communiqué BRICS Trade Union Forum. Ufa, January 26,2016
JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ
by the representatives of BRICS trade unions attending
the Meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Labour and Employment
(January 25-26, 2016 – Ufa, Russian Federation)
The Meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Labour and Employment under the Russian presidency in BRICS was held in the city of Ufa, Russian Federation, during January 25-26, 2016 and became the first such meeting in the history of that alliance. The Meeting was attended by the delegates of BRICS Trade Union Forum representing the largest federations in Brasil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as well as trade union observers.
• Invitation to take part in the Meeting extended to trade union and employer representatives indicates substantial progress made towards institutionalisation of the social dialogue within BRICS and provides foundation for further development of trilateral contacts aimed to improve coherence of action in the principal areas of cooperation between our countries.
• Trade unions note the relevance of items on the agenda relating to formalization of the labour market, trilateral interaction in the sphere of advanced training and professional education, enhancing efficiency of social protection of workers. A joint solution of these problems will help to significantly improve the socioeconomic situation of hundreds of millions of workers in BRICS countries.
• Trade unions are convinced that a more efficient solution of the workers’ problems calls for strengthening of the social dialogue within BRICS. They note, however, that the procedure and conditions of trilateral cooperation are not yet clear and require further discussion and coordination.
• Trade union representatives welcome participation of the ILO leaders in the Labour Ministerial Meeting which reaffirms mutual striving of the sides to seek effective solutions for the problems at hand.
• The trade union side believes that the platform and mechanism of the social dialogue, which would be based on a nearly century-long experience accumulated by the ILO, could be agreed upon by a Working Group consisting of the government, employer and trade union representatives of the BRICS countries.
• The Trade Union Forum is calling on the Business Council and Ministers of Labour and Employment of the BRICS countries to establish a Working Group on Social Dialogue which would include 1-2 representatives from the governments, employers and trade unions of each country so that the Group could take part in the preparation of the next Labour Ministerial Meeting under the Indian presidency.