By William Madouk
South Sudan national Minister of Labor, James Hoth Mai, has promised to broaden job opportunities for women, youth, and other vulnerable groups in the country.
Minister Mai was speaking to the media on Sunday at Juba Airport, after a trip to Geneva, Switzerland, where he led a tripartite delegation to the 111th International Labor Organization (ILO) conference.
The Summit, an annual event, draws together heads of states and governments, as well as representatives of the United Nations, other international organizations, and employers’ and workers’ organizations.
Various issues relating to social justice, including the proposal to forge a global coalition for social justice, were deliberated in the meeting held from June 14–15, under the theme “Social Justice for All”.
“The summit focuses on social justice for all and provides a high-level forum for global voices to address the need for increased coordination and coherent action to support social justice,” Mai said.
“As you may well know, achieving social justice for all remains the core of finding solutions for so many crises our world now faces,” he added.
Mr. Mai said that, as tripartite bodies (the government, employers, and workers’ organizations), they would work hard to make sure that social justice became a reality by offering equity job opportunities.
“For social justice to become a reality in South Sudan there is a need to expand social dialogue, skilling, re-skilling, up skilling for the youth, women, and vulnerable people for a peaceful coexistence,” he said.
He added that all member states have a unique opportunity to bend the arc of history in favor of social justice.
According to the minster, in the present world of work, there is no social justice without peace and work for domestic workers.
Mai said, application of Labour standards is one of the key pillars for tripartite bodies in achieving gender equality at work, as per Geneva Conventions 100 and 111, as well as the South Sudan Labor Act, 2017.
He also affirmed that the Ministry of Labor’s mandate is to establish an inclusive, impartial, responsive, and efficient regulatory system for the private sector in a manner consistent with national priorities and values and to ensure effective service delivery.
“We have learned lessons, particularly on labor protection, which aims at promoting the implementation of all the ratified fundamental conventions and international labor standards,” Mai noted.
Particular areas, the ministry is concerned include wages, working time, occupational safety and health, maternity, and ethical employment recruitment.
The national minister of labor also reiterated the government’s commitment to improving migration to ensure the social security of migrant workers providing services in different sectors of the economy.
“As a country, we have to engage in bilateral and regional cooperation between countries of transit and destination to guarantee the protection of migrant workers,” he added.
Ms. Meling Mary, a representative for the Workers’ Trade Union Federation, appreciated the minister for recognizing the 35 percent women’s quota in the recent ILO conference.
She added that the recognition of women has not been the case in previous meetings.
“We come with good knowledge; the lesson I learned in that session is that it was telling us a lot of what we are going to do in our country,” she noted.
Ms. Meling advised the women to apply the “copy and paste” style of what they have learned in Geneva in order for them to grow.
“We have to bring that knowledge and act on it, but when we copy and delete, then we remain nothing,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of Employers’ Association in South Sudan, Bol Andrew, said one of the achievements is that they have fully joined the International Organization for Employers.
“Now we are full members, starting this year,” he expressed.
Bol is expectant that through the membership, South Sudan will be able to get into ILO’s governing body, starting next year.
“With that, we can have a voice in all the policies that are being done within the ILO conference,” he added.
South Sudan tripartite delegation comprised of 9 government officials, 2 from the workers’ federation, 4 from employers’ organization, and 5 advisors to the ILO, a body that consists of 178 member countries.