News

"As the working population in developed countries continues to age, there is a need to balance employment opportunities and create safe working environments in the commerce and retail industries," said Christopher Ng, Regional Secretary of UNI Apro, "the elderly should not be looked upon as cost but experienced labour."



Christopher was speaking at the UNI Apro Commerce forum held in conjunction with the UNI Apro Commerce Meeting held in Japan from 30 June 2012 to 2 July 2012. The workshop was a follow-up of the first Global Dialogue Forum on “Global Dialogue Forum on the needs of older workers in relation to changing work processes and the working environment in Retail Commerce” held at the International Labour Office in Geneva September 2011.



The relationship between the needs of older workers in the context of an ageing population and the labour requirements of the retail sector is of particular importance to the Commerce Industry, and the UNI Apro Commerce forum looked at good practices that would create opportunities for older workers and shared their experience to adopt appropriate measures for older workers.



Amongst the distinguish speakers were



- Ms Keiko Kamioka, Director of ILO Office for Japan with extensive background in the ILO. She is an ILO governing board member representing the Japanese government and has been with ILO HQ in Geneva for 13 years.



- Mr Takaaki Sakurada, the previous Chairperson of UNI-LCJapan and past President of JSD. He is an ILO governing board member representing Labor of Japan. 



- Mr. Akira Isawa, Director of Statistics and Information Department of Ministry of Welfare and Labor. He was vice chairperson of the above meeting held in Geneva. 



- Mr. Masanobu Tamura, Assistant General Secretary of UI ZENSEN in charge of labor and policy making. He has experience in organizing and policy making since 1972.



- Mr. Katsutoshi Matano, Assistant General Secretary of JSD in charge of international relations and others. He has experience in organizing and negotiating with management.



- Case Study Australia was presented by Ian Blandthorn, Assistant National Secretary SDA. The SDA is the largest trade union in Australia with more than 230,000 members. It has branches in every state and provides a comprehensive range of services which are available to all full-time, part-time or casual employees who are union members.



- Case Study Singapore presented by Joseph Chua, Assistant General Secretary SMMWU. SMMWU is the largest union affiliated to NTUC representing mainly commerce & service workers in the private sector.



Colleagues from Indonesia and Hong Kong also shared their experiences in their countries and supplementary questions about migration and child rearing in such situation were posed during the Q&A session.



In summarising the session, Christopher suggested a revisit at the technical advances where older workers require training. He said that trade unions have take these needs into consideration when making policies for the sector. Overall, Christopher believes that Japan has a large role to play in disseminating their findings and sharing their experience in this field and that a tripartite system and cooperation is required for effective implementation of better working standards for this group of workers.