The ILO Industrial Relations Global Toolkit

Sound labour relations bring benefits in terms of productivity, reduced conflicts and disputes, improved job satisfaction, and improved decision-making on matters of mutual concern to management and workers.

Promotion of sound labour relations is a core part of ILO’s mandate to promote social justice, which is enshrined in the ILO Constitution and the Declaration of Philadelphia.

International labour standards provide guiding principles on sound labour relations, which include those on freedom of association and collective bargaining (ILO Freedom of Association and Protection of the right to organize,1948 (N°87), Right to organize and Collective bargaining Convention, 1949(n°98) and Collective bargaining Convention, 1981 (N°154) but also other instruments designed to facilitate cooperation, communication and conflict management at the workplace.

Translating those principles – and the body of knowledge developed by the ILO through its research – into practices in its member States is a key challenge for the ILO’s development cooperation activities.

This toolkit has been designed through a cross-office effort as a holistic package to support ILO efforts in the promotion of sound labour relations.

The toolkit incorporates a number training material that have been designed to build and strengthen the capacity on key issues of industrial relations. The toolkit has been expanding its scope so to cover new topics and make training activities available in different languages.

How to use the toolkit?

The toolkit is a modular toolkit. Modules are made of training units. Most of the training units can be used on a stand - alone basis or can be combined with others in order to better answer participants’ needs.

Who is it for?

The toolkit is aimed at being used by ILO officials; ILO consultants and ILO constituents. 

What topics does it cover?

The toolkit contains a series of modules on: 

• Collective Bargaining Policy
• Collective Bargaining Practice
• Negotiation Skills
• Workplace Cooperation
• Grievance Handling
• Conflict Dynamic
• Soft Skills Development
• Industrial Relations in Times of Crisis
• Gender, Non-discrimination, Violence and Harassment
• Statistics and Industrial Relations

How does it work?

The aim of the toolkit is to provide training facilitators (ILO staff as well as constituents) with a set of training activities that maximize the impact of the ILO message on labour relations. Particular attention has been placed during the development in the design of interactive training methodologies in line with the principles of adult learning.

These methodologies have been designed with a diversity of situations in mind and with the intention of providing the needed flexibility in order to accommodate the needs of both trainings of different length and audiences with different pre-existing knowledge. For most unit a “Tips” section will help trainers to contextualize the training unit and will provide some more guidance on how to use the methodology. 

What will you be able to do?

• Familiarize with ILO standard in the field of industrial relations
• Access up to date learning methodologies
• Access resources and background materials supporting you in the training
• Plan your training interventions and maximize the promotion of decent work through engaging methodologies 

Access the toolkit