Canadian-based Gabriel Resources has thrown its weight behind the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) ‘Decent Workforce Agenda’, which promotes opportunities for people to find decent and productive work conditions of freedom, equity, security, and human dignity.

At a meeting held by the Centre for American Progress Action Fund in Columbia, Gabriel CFO and Vice President Richard Young said the company "not only supports the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda but is committed to its implementation in its enterprises in Romania."

Gabriel’s Rosia Montana project is in one of the most impoverished regions in Romania. Rosia Montana village, designated a "disadvantaged zone" by the Romanian Government, has a 70% unemployment rate, which would be more than 90% in the absence of the Gabriel project.

The overarching objective of the ILO has been re-phrased as the promotion of opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

Decent work is the converging focus of the four strategic objectives – namely rights at work, employment, social protection and social dialogue. Decent work is an organising concept for the ILO in order to provide an overall framework for action in economic and social development.