Labour standards in public procurement

This paper discusses how requirements for complying with international labour standards can be incorporated into procurement practices of the UK government. It also looks at strategies for working on labour standards with suppliers that are outside a formal contract compliance model.

The authors restrict discussion of labour issues to the core International Labour Organisation (ILO) labour standards. These are the Core Labour Standards (CLS) covered in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998).

Based on Office of Government Commerce (OGC) guidance and on existing action by government departments and the private sector initiatives, a number of findings are presented on the opportunities to promote labour standards through public procurement. These include: 

• authorities may promote and indicate support for labour standards in general material provided for potential contractors since this is a government policy commitment 
  
• excluding contractors for labour standard violations 
  
• including labour standards performance in contract management conditions 
  
• procuring authorities can also consider working co-operatively with suppliers to address labour standard issues, or work with other multi-stakeholder forums working on intractable issues or can encourage suppliers to join existing initiatives.