Clair part of delegation to ILO conference.

NZNO's policy analyst Maori and Council of Trade Unions' vice president Maori Sharon Clair is part of the New Zealand delegation leaving at the end of this month for the annual conference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Held in Geneva over two weeks, the conference's main aims are to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity, and to check on progress made on these issues by the ILO member states.

The 12-member, tripartite New Zealand delegation will be headed by Minister of Labour Ruth Dyson and includes representatives from the Department of Labour, Business New Zealand and unions. Union representatives will be headed by CTU president Ross Wilson and includes national secretary of the Public Service Association Richard Wagstaff.

New Zealand delegates have attended the annual conference since 1935. One of their obligations is to bring the texts of newly adopted ILO labour standards before Parliament and to report on conventions New Zealand has and has not ratified. So far, New Zealand has ratified six of the ILO's eight core conventions.