Waters, Moore Urge World Bank to Adopt International Labor Standards

Press Release

As a massive overhaul of the World Bank's long-standing social and environmental safeguard policies moves to its final stage, two leading House members on international development issues expressed concern over the Bank's proposed safeguards on worker rights.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, and Gwen Moore (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade, said they were concerned certain labor standards would only apply to countries that have already adopted such a standard in national law. The Treasury Department is the lead agency for U.S. participation in the international financial institutions, including the World Bank.

"With regard to freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, countries would only have to comply with these rights in World Bank projects to the extent required by national law, a proviso that would not apply to the other fundamental workers' rights," the Members wrote. "These rights are defined in the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998), to which all ILO member countries are required to adhere."

The lawmakers also expressed concern that the Bank's draft labor safeguard fails to explicitly reference the ILO's fundamental worker rights conventions or core labor standards, leaving it up to the Bank to define its own worker rights standards, despite near-universal recognition of the ILO as the international standard-setting body on labor.

"We urge the World Bank to ensure that the new environmental and social safeguards policy it will adopt in the coming months meets the highest international standards," the letter continues.

"If the Bank falls significantly short in this regard, we will be extremely disappointed, and we fear it may lead to a situation in Congress where it will become increasingly difficult to garner the votes necessary to continue robust U.S. support for the World Bank."

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