While the ILO is an organization which indeed has its roots in the noble causes of promoting equality and balanced negotiations between states, employers and workers, its success rests almost entirely on the willingness of its most powerful members to agree upon, ratify and implement international labour policies. As well as this, while the ILOs members are in their own right powerful, they may be increasingly becoming alienated by Multinational Corporations which are ever growing in their size and in their scope of influence in the international policy arena. The emergence of MNCs as a strong force in the international policy process is steadily gaining momentum and the hegemony they will possess in the future is difficult to forecast. Despite this emerging power struggle between powerful member states of the ILO and Multinational Corporations, the ILO itself lies at the mercy of its greatest benefactors and is becoming less able to effectively 'bring to par' the labour legislation, working conditions and social equality it purports to achieve worldwide therefore rendering its decisions through conventions and recommendations more idealistic than realistic.
The research being undertaken is an evaluation of the International Labour Organisation and its relationship with multinational organisations. The study will examin the extent to which this relationship effects the design and implementation of ILO conventions, paying particular attention to child labour policy and the International Programme for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (IPEC).
Research Interests: Electoral Systems and Electioneering; Irish Politics; Coalition Governments; Immigration Policy; International Relations & Globalisation; International Organisations; International Labour Policy; International Public Policy; Global Political Economy