During the proceedings BWI Asia-Pacific Regional Representative Apolinar (Dong) Tolentino appealed to the ADB President, demanding a commitment on integrating a labour safeguard mechanism and grievance procedure into the ADB's statutes.
The President responded that during the next safeguard policies review they will take up the labor safeguards mechanism similar to environment and social protection.
"We in BWI together with around 100 trade unionists present here, welcomed the ADB's commitment on having a Core Labour Standards (CLS) Specialist who will be in charge of monitoring the observance of ILO CLSs in all ADB projects. We are looking forward working with you on how this and the labour safeguard mechanism materialise," concluded Tolentino.
The ADB's motto is "Fighting poverty in Asia and the Pacific", however BWI affiliates organising workers in ADB-financed projects across the Asia-Pacific often report very poor working conditions.
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