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Antagonism and Accommodation: The Labor-IMF/World Bank Relationship

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Transformations in Global and Regional Social Policies

Abstract

The latest international salvo in the battle for a decent standard of living for a majority of the world’s population is the Social Protection Floor (SPF) initiative.1 In April 2009, the United Nations System Chief Executives’ Board adopted the SPF initiative as one of a series of priorities to respond to the 2008 financial crisis (ILO, 2010). The initiative is led by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), but an additional 17 international organizations (mostly UN agencies) have signed in as partners. The initiative is designed to encourage countries to implement a basic or minimum level of social policy. The SPF consists of a series of services and social transfers. Basic services that should be provided include water and sanitation, food and nutrition, health, education, and information about saving, and other social services. Social transfers require the allocation of cash or in-kind provisions to ensure a minimum income for vulnerable populations such as the poor, children, the sick, and the old (SPF, 2012).

The World Bank should apply the Hippocratic rule to ‘do no harm’ by ensuring that country-level policy advice or loan conditions do not constitute de facto recommendations to violate CLS [core labor standards]

Trade Union Official (Bakvis, 2002)

that part of the Hippocratic Oath that warns doctors that they should first do no harm […] should be heeded by those of us who seek to advise and support policymakers committed to reform.

First Deputy Managing Director, IMF (Kreuger, 2004)

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Authors
  1. Robert O’Brien
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bremen, Germany

    Alexandra Kaasch

  2. The Institute of Economics, Croatia

    Paul Stubbs

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© 2014 Robert O’Brien

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O’Brien, R. (2014). Antagonism and Accommodation: The Labor-IMF/World Bank Relationship. In: Kaasch, A., Stubbs, P. (eds) Transformations in Global and Regional Social Policies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137287311_8

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