Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development

Press Release

Minister for Labour and Human Resource Development, Ms Idith Alexander attends the 105^th session of the International Labour Conference, Geneva

Thursday 9^th June 2016

A tripartite delegation from Seychelles headed by the Minister for Labour and Human Resource Development, Ms Idith Alexander is attending the 105^th session of the International Labour Conference, organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland from 30^th May to 11^th June 2016.

Minister Alexander delivered her speech to the Conference on Wednesday 8^th June 2016, which was in relation to the report of the Director General of the ILO, Mr Guy Ryder entitled “The End to Poverty Initiative – The ILO and the 2030 Agenda.”

In her intervention, Minister Alexander stated that living in poverty in Seychelles is not an option as the Government continuously places its people at the heart of development and it remains committed to uphold their standard of living “We are indeed a country where our people benefit from free education, free health care, generous social welfare programmes, guaranteed pension and low unemployment rate. We have since last year been ranked as a high income country by the World Bank. For those considered as vulnerable, the Government consults and listens to their concerns. Recently, the national minimum wage was increased by 25%, a mandatory thirteenth month pay will soon be regulated by law, a new wage subsidy programme is being implemented for the youths and a revised skills development programme was launched,” explained Minister Alexander.

Minister Alexander advised that ending poverty should be a shared responsibility of all actors involved in the economy and in this regard recommended for public and private partnerships. She also encouraged countries to conduct national dialogues on the “Future of work”, of which Seychelles was the first to implement in the region. Finally, the Minister called on the technical support of the ILO for better understanding of poverty: “in-depth research is required to effectively tackle poverty given the transformations in today’s world of work. Poverty is mainly known to occur as a result of war or political instability. But nowadays, it can also be a result of discouraged jobseekers and people’s unwillingness to use available opportunities,” explained the Minister.

Minister Alexander also met with the Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations, Employment and Training of Mauritius, Mr Soodesh Satkam.CALLICHURN and the Minister for Manpower of Singapore Mr Swee Say LIM, where they discussed potential areas of future technical cooperation. A meeting was equally held with the ILO Regional Director for Africa, Mr Aenaes Chapinga Chuma, in regards to the recommendations of the national conference on “Future of work” organized by Seychelles in April this year.

Minister Alexander is being accompanied to the ILO Conference by Ms Veronique Bresson, Principal Secretary for Labour and Human Resource Development, Ms Susan Morel, Director Policy Planning and Research, Mrs Michelle Labrosse, Executive Secretary of the Federation of the Employer’ Association of Seychelles and Mr Antoine Robinson, Secretary General of the Seychelles Federation of Workers’ Union.

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