MB-557
REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE
MANAGEMENT BOARD
GENEVA, 20-21 MARCH 2015
CHAIR, DANIEL FUNES DE RIOJA
Present:
Mr Daniel FUNES DE RIOJA
Mr Jørgen RØNNEST
Mr Alexandre FURLAN*
Ms Ronnie GOLDBERG
Ms Renate HORNUNG-DRAUS
Mr Mthunzi MDWABA
Mr Kamran RAHMAN
President
Vice-President for the ILO
Regional Vice-President (Latin America)
Regional Vice-President (North America)
Regional Vice-President (Europe)
Regional Vice-President (Africa)
Regional Vice-President (Asia)
Mr José Maria LACASA
Treasurer
Mr Alberto ECHAVARRÍA
Ms Lidija HORVATIC
Ms Penny LIU
Mr Hiroyuki MATSUI
Mr Khalifa MATTAR
Mr Blaise MATTHEY
Mr El-Mahfoud MEGATELI
Ms Marina MOSKVINA
Ms Jacqueline MUGO*
Ms Garance PINEAU
Mr Bülent PIRLER
Mr Chris SYDER
(Colombia)
Member (Croatia)
Representing board member CEC (China)
Member (Japan)
Member (United Arab Emirates)
Member (Switzerland)
Member (Algeria)
Member (Russian Federation
Member (Kenya)
Member (France)
Member (Turkey)
Member (United Kingdom)
From the IOE Secretariat:
Mr Brent WILTON
Ms Linda KROMJONG
Mr Roberto SUÁREZ SANTOS
Mr Matthias THORNS*
Ms Monique DEPIERRE
Secretary-General
Secretary-General Elect
Deputy Secretary-General
Senior Adviser
Assistant to the Secretary-General
Guests:
Ms Deborah France-Massin*
*Only present Friday 20 March
Director, ACT/EMP
IOE MANAGEMENT BOARD
REPORT OF THE 20 - 21 MARCH 2015 MEETING
Chair: Daniel Funes de Rioja President
Daniel Funes de Rioja welcomed the participants and opened the meeting.
In response to Mthunzi Mdwaba’s query regarding Agenda Item no 9: Communication of
Business Africa, it was decided that this item would be discussed under Item no 3:
Appointment of the new IOE Secretary-General.
1. ADOPTION OF THE RECORD OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD MEETING HELD ON 7 AND 8
NOVEMBER 2014 (MB-535)
There were no matters arising from the minutes of the meeting held on 7 and 8
November 2014 other than that Chris Syder had not been included in the participants
list.

The record of the 7 and 8 November 2014 session of the Board was adopted,
with the amendment regarding Chris Syder.
2. REPORTS OF THE PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY-GENERAL (MB-538)
Daniel Funes de Rioja informed the Board of his participation in G20/B20 meetings in
Turkey which now held the G20 Presidency.
The Turkish Employers had set up a Steering Committee to establish dialogue with the
L20 in order to have more impact on the G20 Declaration, as the B20’s concerns had in
the past not been fully taken into account. Meetings had also been held in Geneva with
the Workers on areas of common interest.
The Ibero-American Governments’ meeting would now be held every two years, but the
employers’ organisations concerned had decided to meet in Madrid on 11 and 12 June,
hosted by the CEOE, in order to share regional concerns and continue working on IOErelated issues.
Brent Wilton referred to his written report and thanked the Board for their support and
encouragement during his years in the IOE. He added that as IT problems had
prevented the Board members from receiving the email request for their input, the IOE
Missions and Meetings document was incomplete and he requested the Board to
provide any missing information.

The Management Board noted the reports of the President and SecretaryGeneral.
3. APPOINTMENT OF THE NEW IOE SECRETARY-GENERAL
Daniel Funes de Rioja reminded the Board that, after consultation with the Regional
Vice-Presidents, he had proposed the appointment of Linda Kromjong as the new IOE
Secretary-General. The meeting then continued in private session, following which
Linda Kromjong was invited to join.

The Management Board approved the appointment and welcomed the new
Secretary-General.
4. FINANCIAL AND BUDGETARY MATTERS
José Maria Lacasa presented the accounts for 2014, mentioning that non-payment of
subscriptions remained a problem.
Regarding approval of the Expenditure and Receipts budget, rather than asking the
General Council each year to postpone this decision until the November Session of the
Management Board to allow for a better overview of the financial year, the suggestion
was to propose to the General Council that approval of the budget at a later point in the
year become standard practice until decided otherwise.
On the matter of membership, the proposal was to postpone until the November
session any decision regarding the expulsion of the following countries: Uganda, Togo
and Zambia. Solutions had been found for the Bahamas, Portugal and Romania, but
the Finance Committee proposed to expel Eritrea, as all attempts to contact them had
been unsuccessful.
It was regrettable that a potential year-end surplus had ended in a deficit because of
the shortfall in subscription payments. Brent Wilton stressed that it was impossible to
plan staff development and performance reward. He also warned that the extraordinary
expenditures fund was limited, and that it was therefore important to insist on receiving
timely payment from the membership.
The extraordinary expenditures account had also been used to cover the increase in
rent, which was supposed to be for this year only as it had been anticipated that the
extra cost would be covered by the increase in the number of partner companies. The
partner company target had not been achieved and savings had been made by not
undertaking activities that needed to be done. Mr Wilton cautioned that such an
approach was unsustainable if the IOE were to continue being the global voice of
business.

The Management Board took note of the Report of the Finance Committee.

The Management Board approved the Accounts for the 2014 Financial Year
for the endorsement of the General Council on 31 May 2015.

The Management Board decided to propose a new standing procedure to
the 2015 General Council to the effect that the IOE budget for the following
year would be approved at the current year’s October/November
Management Board session and circulated for the (electronic) endorsement
of the member federations by end December.
5. IOE ACTIVITIES
(a) Work Plan 2015-2016 (MB-542)
Brent Wilton presented the 2015-2016 Work Plan, now covering the period between
two General Council meetings, and invited the Board to submit changes by 13 April in
order for the Plan to be finalised in time for the General Council.
Garance Pineau suggested to reflect on wider issues, by means of involving think tanks
in the work of the IOE, especially focusing on future topics in order to become more
influential within organisations. Brent Wilton reminded the Board that this was the role
of the Policy Working Groups. Renate Hornung-Draus expressed her preference for
focusing on specific topics that were relevant to member companies, rather than
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becoming too global, and allowing the ILO, and ACT/EMP in particular, to deal with
global issues.
Although the Working Groups were helping organisations to follow work place realities
in different countries, José Maria Lacasa suggested that it would also be useful to set
up a simple “early warning” system to help identify important developments in different
countries so that those interested could then seek more detailed information.
Mr Megateli stressed that human rights was an important topic to be worked on at the
level of cities where multinational enterprises were established, because it was there
that human rights were being criticized. Lobbying governments was also needed in
order for them to assist. On the occasion of the adoption of the “Ecuador Initiative”, the
Employers had lost the argument because of lack of explanation about human rights
and companies.
He added that the IOE website should have a public part with a lot of detailed
information so that it would serve as a reference on this topic.
Mthunzi Mdwaba informed the Board that he had been appointed Chairman of
Productivity SA by the South African Minister of Labour and requested that the IOE
explore possible areas for collaboration.
Instead of producing more factsheets and policy papers, Ronnie Goldberg suggested
that the existing robust and excellent set of policy papers be regarded as platforms and
that the network be requested to complement these platforms with examples of good
practices and developments at the national level.
Roberto Suarez said that anticipating topics was something the IOE was trained to do
but, to maximise the potential of its network, it needed the support of members in terms
of their expertise. For instance, for the activities of the Employment Policy Working
Group and in productivity discussions, harnessing this expertise would really make the
difference in the IOE’s output and help create relationships with think tanks.
Alberto Echavarría reiterated his support for the partner company network as this was
a useful source for information and investment protection. It would also be useful for
exchanging information between companies to help overcome common obstacles.

The Management Board took note that it was invited to provide feedback on
the draft 2015 – 2016 Work Plan by 13 April 2015 and thereafter to propose
the Plan for endorsement by the 2015 General Council.
(b) 2014-2015 Annual Report (draft) (MB-543)
The reporting period had been changed from January-December to the period from
General Council to General Council to be as up-to-date as possible.

The Management Board noted that it was invited to provide
comments/feedback on the draft Annual Report by Friday, 27 March to
allow sufficient time for translation and graphic design/layout.
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(c) 2015 General Council – Agenda proposal (MB-544)
The General Council meeting had been divided into the procedural part and the
“Leaders Forum” which would take place during the political week of the International
Labour Conference. There were no comments.

The Management Board approved the proposed agenda for the 2015 IOE
General Council.
(d) IOE Leaders’ Forum – update (MB-545)
This would be held in the ILO on 10 June from 14:00 to 17:00 and consist of a series of
panels as defined in the paper.
 The Management Board noted the preparations for the IOE Leaders’
Forum.
(e) Global Employers’ Summit Bahrain – update (MB-546)
The idea of the Bahrain Summit was to have a meeting of all members in one location,
rather than just regional groups, to talk about issues relevant to the IOE as the global
voice of business, independent of the ILO. The 2015 Summit was to be a first attempt
and repeating the exercise would be decided depending on its success. Wide media
coverage was expected, which would heighten the IOE’s visibility.
The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce was being very hospitable and there was no cost
involved for the IOE Secretariat. Spanish, French, English and possibly Chinese
interpretation would be provided.
A Bahrain Declaration was to be signed, in the form of a short paper bringing together
the general employer view on key topics impacting business, to help members with
their advocacy work at local level.
 The Management Board noted the preparations for the Global Employers’
Summit to be held in Bahrain on 6 – 7 October 2015, and agreed to the
proposal for the Management Board to be held on 5 October.
6. MEMBERSHIP MATTERS
This had already been covered under the report of the Finance Committee.
7. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION
(a) Report of the Vice-President for the ILO
The crisis in the work of the ILC committee on the application of standards (CAS),
namely the disagreement over the interpretation of the right to strike in Convention 87,
had been resolved through a series of bi-lateral meetings and consultations with the
trade unions. A joint statement had been presented to the Governments, who were at
first upset, but eventually happy that the problem had been solved, changing the
climate in the GB which now allowed to deal with substance.
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A crucial element for this agreement had been securing the involvement and
confidence of Sharan Burrow1, but also the solidarity of the Employers’ Group, which
had made her recognize that something needed to be done. It showed that when the
Group is united, it can effect fundamental change.
Another important item on the agenda was the ILO Programme & Budget discussion
where the Employers played a very active role and Mthunzi Mdwaba had been in close
contact with the Office in order to ensure satisfactory answers to the questions and
problems the Group raised.
(b) 2015 International Labour Conference
Discussions on the two-week Conference had been successful considering the
reservations previously expressed especially by the workers, who had now committed
to making it a success.
All were aware of the challenges with regard to time management and everything
needed to be prepared beforehand, including nominations for Committees. The IOE
would be informing members about the proceedings and, although the IOE had already
sent the information about the Employers’ Spokespersons on the various Committees
in February, Jørgen Rønnest read out their names.
Tensions were reported between the South African and German Governments with
regard to the Chairmanship of the CAS WP and the Standards Review Mechanism
(SRM). Renate Hornung-Draus mentioned that she did not like to see Germany
chairing either because of their unconstructive and regulation-focused approach.
Jørgen Rønnest agreed, but said that the Group had no influence on the nomination of
Government representatives. However, the Government Group had agreed on a
number of helpful statements which made it extremely difficult for the EU to maintain
their aggressive standpoints.
Blaise Matthey thanked the Secretariat for the information provided as it had equipped
him to provide precise answers when attacked by the trade union press over the
decisions that had been taken in the ILO regarding the right to strike. He requested
further information on the Employers’ position and agreement, as this was important for
Swiss national dialogue. Roberto Suárez mentioned that the IOE had elaborated
guidance, which would continue to be provided on an on-going basis.
Jørgen Rønnest said that Governments supported the view that the right to industrial
action was embedded at national level and recognised at the international level, but not
linked to Convention 87. Therefore, the Swiss discussion on how to deal with the issue
would be a national one.
 The Management Board noted the report of the IOE Vice-President for the
ILO and the information on the 2015 International Labour Conference.
8. OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
(a) IOE Engagement in the G20/B20 Process - update (MB-547)
Matthias Thorns presented an update on the G20/B20 process.
1
General Secretary of the ITUC
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Daniel Funes de Rioja thanked TISK for the extraordinarily cooperative and open way
in which it was working with the IOE.
 The Management Board noted the work of the IOE in the context of the
G20 process.
9. DATE AND PLACE OF NEXT MEETING
Next meeting: 5 October 2015 in Bahrain.
Following Board members’ tributes to outgoing Secretary-General Brent Wilton, for whom
this was his last Management Board session, the President closed the meeting.
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