DECP supports South Asian Federations of Employers (SAFE)

For the third consecutive time the Employers Federations of Afghanistan , Nepal , India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had their yearly meeting. This time on October 3 and 4 in New Delhi, India. These high level meetings -with the support of DECP and ITC/ILO- have as objective to discuss items of common interest, such as recruiting and keeping members, lobbying governments for a better business environment and the provision of services for members. The promotion of intra trade between the countries is one of the regular subjects for discussion.

This year an important part of the meeting was devoted to labour issues and their impact on international trade, the main topic being recent developments in the garment and textile industry in Bangladesh. Participants tackled questions such as: What can be done to prevent these disasters ? What are the links between trade and labour ? What should be the positions of government , the trade unions and the employers’ organisations? And what is the reaction of customers?

Introductions on the subject were given by representatives of the International Organisation of Employers ( IOE) , the ILO and the Bangladesh Employers Federation. The meeting was felt to be very useful. The group intends to meet again in October of 2014. Communication between the members will be facilitated by the use of a common website which is being serviced by the Employers Organisation of Ceylon .