Tripartite Workshop on Employment, Social Dialogue and Labour-Management Relations in the Financial Services Sector in Selected Countries in Asia and the Pacific

The purpose of the Workshop was to enable governments, employers and workers in these countries to exchange country experiences on trends in their financial services sectors, with a view to informing the development and refinement of principles and strategies that safeguard employment and promote decent work in the sector in those countries, in the context of managing change or responding to future crises to stabilize their national financial systems. It will also provide an opportunity to consider action aimed at reinforcing social dialogue in the development and implementation of such measures. 

The workshop recommended practical measures to give effect, as appropriate in the context of the situation prevailing in each country, to the Conclusions of the ILO Global Dialogue Forum on the Impact of the Financial Crisis on Finance Workers (Geneva, 24-25 February 2009).

The Workshop programme included a presentation of the findings of rapid assessments of the financial services employment situation in all the participating countries, commissioned by the ILO, as well as participant presentations and discussions to ascertain the key trends in the financial services sector in each country and their impacts on decent work. 

The Workshop brought together representatives from Governments and financial sector employer and worker representatives from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines. On their return home, it was hoped that those attending the Workshop would be in a better position to initiate consultations, workshops and other actions in their own countries to better anticipate changes and the effects of such changes on the sector’s workers, with a view to harnessing the power of social dialogue to manage such effects in a proactive manner so as to safeguard harmonious industrial relations and the ability of the financial services sector to continue to play a positively supportive role to the national economy.

In order to enhance and facilitate these discussions, participants from each country were requested to prepare and present a brief report concerning developments in their respective country’s financial services sector, including any social dialogue based responses. These would supplement the findings of the rapid assessments commissioned by the ILO on each country.