The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-12-28
ILO GROUP SUGGESTS PLAN TO
Benefit PLANTATION WORKERS

w dSlilS IOIl, ~. ". AlIANDJ'
A series of recommendations aim
ed at improving the living and
working conditions of plantation
workers throughout the world were
adopted at the first session of the
international Labor Organizations
Committee on Work and Planta-
tions, recently held at Bandoeng,
Indonesia.
The committees proposals, which
included organization Of plantation
workers, unions, were embodied in
series of resolutions which will
go before the Hos governing
body meeting in Geneva next Feb
ruary for necessary action.
10-Point Program Asked
In the resolutions, the commit
tee: (D Requested the ILO to un-
dertake a number of studies relat-
ing to the conditions of plantation
workers; (2) Recommended that
provision of medical foods free or
at concession rates to counteract
nutritional diseases; (3) Urged the
extension to plantation workers of
Legislation providing for maternity
protection and for compensation OF
employment injuries; (4) Urged
that food and clothing not be sold
by employers at profit, and that
cooperatives stores be extended;
90 Recommended national legisla-
ton to assure hygienic and COM
Portable houses; co. Urged that
employers should provide free
medical services where they are
not provided by the state; CD
Urged that workers should organ
ize themselves into independent
and democratically troll e d
unions, and that employers should
remove any existing hindrances to
trade union organization; (8) De-
clared that wages should provide
an adequate living standard for the
workers family; (9) Recommended
that professional recruiting should
be abolished as soon as practicable;
(1O) Proposed the abolishment OF
penal sanctions for breaches of
work contracts.
The committee meeting was at
tended by government, employer
and worker representatives from II
countries: Belgium, Ceylon, Cuba,
France, India, Indonesia, Liberia,
the Netherlands, Pakistan, the
Philippines, Portugal and h e
United Kingdom, with an observer
delegation from Wet Nam, as well
as from the United Nations and
UN agencies.
Betterment Held Urgent
Minister of Labor Suroso of In
donesia told the delegates that it
was "clear that standards of living
and working conditions dating back
to colonial times" were no longer
acceptable. He said his government
therefore "intended to complete
the revision of our old labor legis-
lation."
V. X. r. Menon, secretary of the
Indian Ministry of Labor and chair
man of the committee, said that
"betterment of life in the South
east Asia region, which employs
95 percent of the worlds total
plantation labor, is a matter of
particular urgency"
The committee examined basic
problems common to plantation
workers, and discussed methods of
securing, within the framework of
the ILO, consideration of the spec
ial problems of the different
branches of plantation workers. JEFF
Rens, assistant director-general of
the international Labor Office, said
that it was the Hos earnest
wish" that the committee would
contribute to reducing ''the still
excessive differences in social con-
ditions between the industrial
workers of Europe and the agri-
cultural workers of Asia and Latin
America"