Tripartite partners work on mid-term review of employment strategy |24 July 2013

This is according to the director of International Labour Organisation’s country office, Christian Ntsay, who was speaking at the opening ceremony of a three-day workshop to assess the progress made thus far towards achieving the goals outlined in the Seychelles DWCP, which was signed in 2011.

“The government of Seychelles is considering decent work as a priority in its National Employment Strategy, and the DWCP has been fully mainstreamed into the strategy as a relevant tool to promote decent work,” said Mr Ntsay. “More decent jobs for the men and women of Seychelles: this is the main goal of the DWCP and I hope that this will be achieved upon the end of the programme.”

The participants, who represented government organisations, employers and workers unions, have come together as tripartite partners with the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development to assess their achievements, the lessons learnt and to give recommendations for the final two years of the programme.

Work on the DWCP first started in 2008 with the drafting committee, comprised of representatives from government, social partners and NGOs. The programme was then signed in November 2011 by then-minister for Education, Employment and Human Resources, Macsuzy Mondon and the ILO.

The principal secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development, Veronique Bresson said the review of the programme was important in order to guide the stakeholders in terms of its future implementation.

“I wish to reiterate that the DWCP is of great relevance to the country and there have been a lot of achievements under that programme,” said Ms Bresson. “For instance, the review of the employment act, the employment policy and the HIV/Aids workplace policy have all been supported under the DWCP.”

Ms Bresson added that the programme had also funded the training of some officials from the Ministry of Labour. A number of technical research projects were also undertaken as part of the activities to advance the decent work agenda.

She added that the organisations present needed to be aware of the programme so that employment priorities could be considered in their future plans and policies.
The workshop is being held at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Resort and Casino.