Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1996, published 85th ILC session (1997)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Ratification: 1966)

Further to its previous observation, the Committee notes that the Government's report for the period ending May 1996 was received on 11 November. Comments of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) were received on 28 November, having been simultaneously transmitted to the Government.

The TUC has referred to the vital role of the public employment services in the achievement of full employment. Rather than being concerned with policing the benefits system, the employment service should be engaged in active labour market policies as advocated by the OECD, including helping individuals return quickly to work, thus maximizing the job impact of growth; improving flexibility of labour markets by providing free services and advice for unemployed people and employers; raising the quality of job opportunities by enforcing minimum standards, informing employers and workers also of training opportunities; and helping overcome discrimination by targeting particular groups. The United Kingdom's comparative record of spending on active labour market measures is said to be poor, and results of training undergone in terms of later employment are weak. Compulsion, says the TUC, forces unemployed people to waste their time on activities which do not help them to get work; and workfare-type schemes force the weakest into badly paid jobs, destroying the good ones.

The Committee hopes the Government will supply its comments.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 1997.]