KEY POINTS:
Anne Knowles has the job of helping employers get organised and get smart in Eastern Europe.
Just a few weeks ago, Anne Knowles would have struggled to find Moldova on a map. But to her ever-so-slight astonishment, she is now intimately acquainted with its internal politics.
Moldova is - in case you don't know - one of the former Soviet republics, located just below Ukraine. It is currently grappling with a major crisis, as Russia has slapped an embargo on Moldovan wine - one of its main exports.
"It's almost similar to when I was in the meat industry and the UK joined the EU," says Knowles. "Not that I was there when that actually happened, but the flow-on effects mean you've now got to reposition an entire economy."
Yes, that Anne Knowles. The woman with the scary hair, and the even more scary demeanour, has moved on from battling freezing workers, and being the face of the Employers Federation and Business New Zealand, to overseeing employer issues in Eastern Europe for the International Labour Organisation.
She started her new job just a few weeks ago and admits she is not yet fully acquainted with all the countries she is responsible for. There are 18 in all, including Moldova, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
It's an interesting mix, to say the least. Some are not yet members of the European Union, while others have been industrialised longer than New Zealand has been colonised.
Her job is to help employers get organised and get smart. And also to make sure they are complying with various ILO conventions, like not employing children, nor working their employees to death.
But you can't help wonder if the ILO practises what it preaches, given Knowles' schedule. She has already visited Moldova, and after a quick trip back to New Zealand for her son's 21st birthday, she plans to visit quite a few more countries, to get acquainted with the local issues.
"On Saturday, I left Budapest, then went to Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, and then I turn around and do the same thing in reverse this weekend, so I can be at work again on Monday morning," she chirps. "On Tuesday, I take off and go to Montenegro and Macedonia for three days and, the week after that, I've got three days in Zagreb in Croatia."
That amount of travel would be most people's idea of hell, but Knowles is one tough cookie. "Fortunately, I travel well," is the way she prefers to put it. She has always travelled a lot, she notes, even when she was with the Meat Industry Association and the Business and Professional Women's Association. So what is her secret?
"I put myself in the time zone of where I happen to be. But I don't sleep very well. I don't do any exercise. I don't do anything, really, other than talking firmly to myself: 'Get over it, you're fine'. I haven't yet succumbed to any illness."
This last claim is remarkable, given that before shifting to Budapest, Knowles was based in Bangkok for 3 1/2 years, also with the ILO.
In that role, she had responsibility for employer issues in Southeast Asia, including Mongolia, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. "Last year, I was out of Thailand for 185 days. I know, because I counted them up."
The decision to leave New Zealand for the ILO job was a tricky one, as Knowles had two teenage sons at the time, both of whom were not far away from finishing secondary school. But she felt the time was right for a new challenge and she promised her sons that if they absolutely hated it, they could come back home.
"They're pretty accepting boys and we tend to look at the positive side of things," she says. "You only really hate things if you don't put effort into meeting people and becoming part of the community." Her husband, who like her trained as a lawyer, had no problem getting a job at the New Zealand Embassy in Bangkok, and the entire family ended up having a "wonderful time".
Obviously, employers in the well-developed countries didn't need much help. But working with bosses in China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos was more challenging.
In much of the region, employer organisations have only started to form as businesses have grown. Knowles helped organise training for them, taking them through issues such as getting input from members, strategic planning and lobbying. She also worked with many countries, such as Cambodia, to develop their labour laws.
"There were some interesting issues. I did quite a bit of work in China, as you would expect, and being so large, it was like having a variety of different countries within one country. We had to work to raise awareness, as much as anything, particularly with the Olympics coming up. It was important the companies knew what international expectations were, particularly for key areas in ILO labour standards."
That said, Knowles is concerned that the present backlash against Chinese-made goods has got out of hand. "Even with these relatively isolated incidents, you're going to get the reaction of consumers that they have a concern that the entire country is completely breaching any standards that might exist. That happened with the child labour issue in India, Pakistan and Nepal. As a result of the stories of children involved in making carpets, there was a woolmark or similar logo put on saying: 'This was made with child-free labour.'
"But the important thing is not to have knee-jerk reactions, and overreact, because, say, in the child labour case, what happens if you remove all these children? They mostly work with their fathers in the rug-making business. Do you put them into prostitution, or worse?
"Similarly, what we found working with the Chinese Confederation of Enterprise was that once companies were aware that they also had to have more control over their sub-contracting of smaller companies, then they would work very positively towards meeting the requirements."
Just because some Chinese companies are not getting it right, doesn't mean they're all getting it wrong, she notes. "There are always going to be those sort of incidents that need to be highlighted, but there should also be awareness that by far the majority of companies and employees are abiding by the law, and doing well, and getting on with business."
Most of the people she was dealing with were delighted to get any help they could. And they were also keen to show her and her colleagues the best of whatever country and culture they were in. Which led to many "interesting taste experiences", she admits.
Naturally, she was stoic throughout, telling herself that her hosts were still alive, so she would surely survive, too.
And she's collected a few good travellers' tales as well. Like one of the many times she had to go to Mongolia, and what should have been an eight-hour drive through the South Gobi Desert turned into 18 hours because the driver got lost, and got stuck in the sand twice. Once they arrived at their destination, they stayed the night with their hosts in their large circular tent and were farewelled with a party that went on until the wee hours, and involved many glasses of vodka.
On the way home, their very hungover driver crashed his old Russian van twice. On the second occasion, the van skidded over on its side, giving everyone quite a fright.
"There were six of us in the van - four Mongolians and a Belgian colleague who was doing this work with me at this particular time. So we had to sit in the middle of nowhere for three hours while two of our colleagues went off to try and find somebody. Fortunately, the road was not too far from the railway line because we had not seen any other vehicles in 18 hours of travelling. Eventually, they came back and righted it, and off we went again."
An hour later, the driver stopped and got out of the van and lay down on the ground and refused to continue driving. Knowles and her Belgian colleague tossed up who was going to drive the Russian van back along the dodgy road. "He did it, and I must say that trip took a bit longer than we anticipated."
Needless to say, moving overseas has reinforced her view that New Zealand has a lot to be proud of.
"It's still got a very good reputation almost at the leading edge as far as lifestyle is concerned, and the way we have a social conscience and all those sorts of things. But I have to say that after probably 20 years of needing to follow in absolutely minute detail the political comings and goings, I take a more big picture approach these days."
There are two other Kiwis in the ILO with whom she can bond if necessary. Her good friend and former colleague at the Employers Federation, Steve Marshall, has just been appointed as the ILO's envoy to Myanmar. And Greg Johnson is the organisation's treasurer.
However, it seems unlikely she'll be back here permanently any time soon. She has previously hinted she would like to end up at the ILO's headquarters in Geneva.
There is apparently some debate as to her real age. But according to Knowles, she is 53. The ILO retirement age is 62. You get the impression they might have to be very stern indeed to eventually persuade her to slow down.
