Bringing decent work - International Labour · PDF fileBringing decent work ... principle that “the labour of a human being ... World Day Against Child Labour goes global Business

Bringingdecent work

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Picking education, not tea Dispelling the migrant myth Business with a conscienceThe other India Decent working time

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No. 57, September 2006

WORLD OF WORK, NO. 57, SEPTEMBER 2006

World of Work magazine is published threetimes per year by the Department of Com-munication and Public Information of theILO in Geneva. Also published in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Finnish,French, Hindi, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanishand Swedish.

EDITOR

May Hofman ÖjermarkASSISTANT EDITOR

Katherine LomasneySPANISH EDITION

In collaboration with the ILO Office, MadridPRODUCTION MANAGER

Kiran Mehra-KerpelmanPRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Corine LuchiniPHOTO EDITOR

Marcel CrozetART DIRECTION

MDP, ILO TurinCOVER DESIGN

M. Montesano, ILO Turin,EDITORIAL BOARD

Thomas Netter (Chair), Rosemary Beattie,Charlotte Beauchamp, Lauren Elsaesser, MayHofman Öjermark, Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman,Corinne Perthuis

This magazine is not an official document ofthe International Labour Organization. Theopinions expressed do not necessarily reflectthe views of the ILO. The designationsemployed do not imply the expression of anyopinion whatsoever on the part of the ILOconcerning the legal status of any country, areaor territory, or of its authorities, or concerningthe delimitation of its frontiers.Reference to names of firms and commercialproducts and processes does not imply theirendorsement by the ILO, and any failure tomention a particular firm, commercial prod-uct or process is not a sign of disapproval.Texts and photographs may be freely repro-duced with mention of source (except photoagency photographs). Written notification isappreciated.

All correspondence should be addressed tothe ILO Department of Communication andPublic Information, CH-1211 Geneva 22,Switzerland.Tel: +4122/799-7912Fax: +4122/799-8577Email: [email protected]/communication

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Nearly 90 years after their first expres-sion in the ILO Constitution, the words“universal and lasting peace can be estab-lished only if it is based upon social justice”still ring true. The concept that “conditionsof labour exist involving such injustice,hardship and privation to large numbers ofpeople as to produce unrest” is as relevanttoday as it was then.

Central to these novel ideas was theprinciple that “the labour of a human beingshould not be treated as merchandise or anarticle of commerce”. This and severalother “labour clauses” had indeed beenproposed for insertion in the Treaty ofPeace that formally put an end to the FirstWorld War as a foundation for the newOrganization’s programme of work. Theyincluded the regulation of hours of work,an adequate living wage, social security,protection of children, equal pay and free-dom of association. Most of these prin-ciples found their way into the Preamble tothe Constitution – with one basic, but cru-cial exception.

The 1944 International Labour Confer-ence, meeting in Philadelphia, sought toremedy this, reaffirming the fundamentalprinciples on which the ILO was based. Thistime, the principle that “labour is not a com-

modity” was a priority, followed by ideas likefreedom of association and the concept that“poverty anywhere constitutes a danger toprosperity everywhere”. The eponymousDeclaration of Philadelphia concerning theAims and Purposes of the InternationalLabour Organization was annexed to theConstitution as a reminder of the timelessrelevance of the principles it enshrined. Thatallowed the ILO to survive the collapse ofthe League of Nations and become a special-ized agency of the United Nations.

Today, the ILO continues to embrace thevision of Philadelphia. Decent work hasbecome not only the organizing frameworkfor the ILO’s activities in today’s age ofglobalization – it embodies the principlethat “all human beings, irrespective of race,creed or sex, have the right to pursue boththeir material well-being and their spiritualdevelopment in conditions of freedom anddignity, of economic security and equalopportunity; … the attainment of the con-ditions in which this shall be possible mustconstitute the central aim of national andinternational policy”. Thus, from its rootsin the ILO’s past, decent work has flour-ished into the Organization’s future,becoming a global goal to be pursued byevery country today and tomorrow.

The roots of an enduring principle

17 May 1944: Edward J. Phelan, Director of the ILO, signing the Declaration of Philadelphia at a specialmeeting with President Roosevelt in the White House

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Picking education, not tea:Voices of change in Uganda

New Global Report on child labour

World Day Against Child Labour goes global

Business with a conscience:Why best practice is good practice

Dispelling the migrant myth

The other India

C O V E R S T O R Y

Bringing decent work into focus

Voices on decent work

Created in 1919, the International Labour Organization (ILO) brings together governments, employers and workers of its 179 member States in commonaction to improve social protection and conditions of life and work throughout the world. The International Labour Office, in Geneva, is the permanentSecretariat of the Organization.

G E N E R A L A R T I C L E SF E A T U R E S

Decent Work for All

Planet Work

• Coming clean:

Drug and alcohol testing in the workplace

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News

• 95th International Labour Conference

• 296th Session of the Governing Body

• A code on safety and health breaks new ground

for the world’s miners

• ILO American Regional Meeting sets new

“Hemispheric Agenda” for a decade of decent work

Around the Continents

Media Shelf

In early July, the High-level Segment of the UN’sEconomic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopt-ed a wide-ranging Ministerial Declaration on fulland productive employment and decent work,saying it would help strengthen efforts by the UNand the multilateral system to create jobs, reducepoverty and provide new hope for the world’s 1.4billion working poor during the next decade.World of Work reports in this issue on the impact.

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Decent working time: New trends, new issues

An honest day’s work? Considering the nebulous

notion of today’s work-life balance 29

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he High-level Segment of the UN Eco-nomic and Social Council (ECOSOC),meeting in early July, adopted a wide-ranging Ministerial Declaration on full

and productive employment and decent work,saying it would help strengthen efforts by the UNand the multilateral system to create jobs, cutpoverty and provide new hope for the world’s 1.4billion working poor during the next decade. TheDeclaration provides further support for the ILO’sDecent Work agenda and reinforces efforts tomake decent work for all a global goal and anational reality.

GENEVA – Faced with a growing “decent work”deficit that has seen an increase of more than 20per cent in official unemployment in the pastdecade and the need to create at least 40 millionnew jobs over each of the next 10 years to preventit rising still further, the UN Economic and Social

Council (ECOSOC) moved in July to strengthenglobal efforts to fight poverty and promote sustain-able development.

In a wide-ranging agreement on the urgencyof tackling what speakers at the ECOSOC meet-ing called a global jobs crisis, ministers reaf-firmed that “opportunities for men and womento obtain productive work in conditions of free-dom, equity, security and dignity are essential toensuring the eradication of hunger and poverty,the improvement of the economic and socialwell-being for all, the achievement of sustainedeconomic growth and sustainable developmentof all nations, and a fully inclusive and equitableglobalization.”

The Ministerial Declaration maps out a series ofinitiatives with governments and other institutionsto consider the employment impact of policies andto ensure greater policy coherence, inviting “all

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DECENT WORK FOR ALLUN moves to strengthen global efforts and sustainable development

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to promote Decent Work for poverty reduction

The decent work concept was formulatedby the ILO’s constituents – governments andemployers’ and workers’ organizations – as ameans to identify the Organization’s major pri-orities and to modernize its approach for thetwenty-first century. It is based on the under-standing that work is a source of personal dig-nity, family stability, peace in the community,democracies that deliver for people, and eco-nomic growth that expands opportunities forproductive jobs and enterprise development. Ina relatively short time this concept has led toan international consensus among govern-ments and civil society organizations that pro-ductive employment and decent work are keyelements to achieving poverty reduction.

Decent work reflects a number of priori-ties on the social, economic and politicalagenda of countries and the internationalsystem:

!! Fair globalization. Rather than drivingpeople into the informal economy or creatingmassive migration, global expansion mustfind ways to deliver opportunities for decentwork where people live. !! Poverty reduction. Employment creationand poverty reduction are inextricably linked.Work is the way out of poverty, and, as theILO’s Constitution states, “Poverty anywhereis a threat to prosperity everywhere.” !! Security. A community at work is a com-munity at peace. This holds true at local,national, regional and global levels. !! Social inclusion. Achieving equality ofopportunity and overcoming discrimination ofall types in employment are crucial to fullyrealizing people’s capabilities.!! Dignity. Labour is not a commodity.Labour costs reflect human beings for whomwork is a source of dignity and family well-being.

!! Diversity. Policies must be tailored to thespecific needs of a country – one size does notfit all.

The overall goal of decent work is to effectpositive change in people’s lives at the nation-al and local levels. The ILO provides supportthrough integrated decent work country pro-grammes developed in coordination with ILOconstituents. They define the priorities and thetargets within national development frame-works and aim to tackle major decent workdeficits through efficient programmes thatembrace each of the strategic objectives.

The ILO works with other partners withinand beyond the UN family to provide in-depthexpertise and key policy instruments for thedesign and implementation of these pro-grammes. It also provides support for buildingthe institutions needed to carry them forwardand for measuring progress. The balance with-in these programmes differs from country to

country, reflecting their needs, resources andpriorities.

Progress also requires action at the globallevel. The Decent Work Agenda offers a basisfor a more just and stable framework for glob-al development. The ILO works to developdecent work-oriented approaches to economicand social policy in partnership with the prin-cipal institutions and actors of the multilateralsystem and the global economy.

The Decent Work Agenda

Putting the Decent Work Agenda into prac-tice is achieved through the implementation ofits four strategic objectives, with genderequality as a cross-cutting objective:

Creating jobs – an economy that generatesopportunities for investment, entrepreneur-ship, job creation and sustainable livelihoods;

Guaranteeing rights at work – obtainrecognition and respect for the rights of work-ers. All workers, and in particular disadvan-taged or poor workers, need representation,participation, and good laws that are enforcedand work for, not against, their interests;

Extending social protection – promote bothinclusion and productivity by ensuring thatmen and women enjoy working conditionswhich are safe, allow adequate free time andrest, take into account family and social val-ues, provide for adequate compensation incase of lost or reduced income and permitaccess to adequate healthcare; and

Promoting dialogue and conflict resolution –people in poverty understand the need tonegotiate and know dialogue is the way tosolve problems peacefully. Social dialogue,involving strong and independent workers’ andemployers’organizations, is central to increas-ing productivity and avoiding disputes at work,and to building cohesive societies.

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relevant actors, including theBretton Woods Institutions andother multilateral banks, to joinour efforts” to implement theDeclaration.

“This move presents anextraordinary opportunity tomainstream the goal of full andproductive employment anddecent work for all into the reg-ular activities of all relevant UNorganizations,” said ILO Direc-tor-General Juan Somavia.“This can set in motion aprocess of policy dialogue with-in the multilateral system –including the Bretton WoodsInstitutions – to stimulate thenecessary policy convergencebehind this global goal agreed toat the 2005 UN Summit.”

“Full and productive employ-ment and decent work for all”

The Declaration recognizes “the decent workagenda of the ILO as an important instrument toachieve the objective of full and productive employ-ment and decent work for all”. It also strongly sup-ports fair globalization and resolves to makes thegoals of full and productive employment and decentwork for all a central objective of national and inter-national policies and national development andpoverty reduction strategies.

“We call upon the International Labour Organi-zation to focus on the implementation of commit-ments regarding the promotion of full and produc-tive employment and decent work for all agreed atthe major United Nations conferences and summits. . . in order to achieve significant progress in bothpolicy and operational programmes,” the Declara-tion says, “and in this regard, we request the Inter-national Labour Organization to consider develop-ing time-bound action plans to 2015, incollaboration with all relevant parties, for theachievement of this goal.”

The Declaration marks a further important stepin the effort by the ILO to promote a decent workagenda for reducing poverty and obtaining equi-table, inclusive and sustainable development. Themeeting was the first major international gatheringto take up the recommendations of the 2005 WorldSummit to seek a fair globalization and make thegoals of full and productive employment and decent

work for all a central objective of national and inter-national macroeconomic policies.

Mr. Somavia said the agreement would helplaunch “practical operational contributions to createan economic, social and political environment thatgenerates enough decent work to make poverty his-tory. In the course of the next 10 years, we will haveto systematically implement the notion that ‘work-ing out of poverty’ is key to the realization of theMillennium Development Goals. They go hand inhand.”

The new Ministerial Declaration is also signifi-cant in that ECOSOC coordinates the work of all 14UN specialized agencies, 10 functional Commis-sions and five regional Commissions. It was identi-fied by the 2005 World Summit Outcome as havinga potentially key role in the revitalization of the UNsystem. Mr. Somavia said the decision of the 54-member panel would serve to “reconnect the UN tothe widespread democratic demand of people andfamilies everywhere – a fair chance at a decent job.”

For more information, see: www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/event/ecosoc/index.htm

Director-General’s address to the High-level Segmentof ECOSOC:www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/dgo/speeches/somavia/2006/ecosoc.pdf

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DECENT WORK DEFICITS

The world today is facing a numberof decent work “deficits” in the form ofunemployment and underemployment,poor quality and unproductive jobs,unsafe work and insecure income,rights that are denied, and genderinequality. Many migrant workers areparticularly vulnerable to exploitation,lack representation and voice, and haveinadequate protection from income lossduring sickness, disability and old age.

What are some of the indicatorsof decent work deficits?

!! Half of the world’s workers areunable to lift themselves and their fam-ilies above the US$2 per day per personpoverty line. !! Much of the world has a significant“gender gap” in both quantity and qual-ity of employment. Women are morelikely than men to work in the informaleconomy, with little or no social protec-tion and a high degree of insecurity.!! There are over 88 million unem-ployed youth (aged 15 to 24) around theworld, comprising nearly half of theworld’s total unemployment, althoughthis age group makes up only 25 percent of the working-age population. !! Labour migration is on the rise. Thereare more than 86 million migrant work-ers in the world, 34 million of them indeveloping regions.!! Global economic growth is increas-ingly failing to translate into new andbetter jobs that would lead to a reduc-tion in poverty.

Key elements of the ECOSOCMinisterial Declaration

!! We strongly encourage multilateraland bilateral donor and inter-agencycooperation and coordination, in thepursuit of the goals of full and produc-tive employment and decent work forall. To this end, we invite all the rele-

vant international organiza-tions, at the request ofnational Governments andrelevant stakeholders, tocontribute, through theirprogrammes, policies andactivities, to the goals offull and productive employ-ment and decent work forall in accordance withnational developmentstrategies.

!! We request the UnitedNations funds, programmesand agencies and invitefinancial institutions to sup-port efforts to mainstreamthe goals of full and produc-tive employment and decentwork for all in their policies,programmes and activities.In this regard, we invitestakeholders to duly take account of theInternational Labour Organization decentwork country programmes in order toachieve a more coherent and pragmaticUnited Nations approach to developmentat the national level on a voluntary basis.

!! We also request the functional andregional commissions to consider howtheir activities contribute, or could con-tribute, to the goals of full employmentand decent work for all.

!! We also encourage all relevantagencies to collaborate actively in thedevelopment of the toolkit to promotedecent work that is currently beingdeveloped by the International LabourOrganization at the request of the Unit-ed Nations System Chief ExecutivesBoard for Coordination.

!!We call upon the International LabourOrganization to focus on the implemen-tation of commitments regarding thepromotion of full and productive employ-

ment and decent work for all at themajor United Nations conferences andsummits, including those contained inthe outcomes of the 2005 World Summitand the World Summit for Social Devel-opment, in order to achieve significantprogress in both policy and operationalprogrammes, and in this regard werequest the International Labour Organi-zation to consider developing time-bound action plans to 2015, in collabora-tion with all relevant parties, for theachievement of this goal.

!! We commit ourselves to the imple-mentation of the present declarationand invite all relevant actors, includingthe Bretton Woods Institutions andother multilateral banks, to join ourefforts in this regard.

Ministerial Declaration of the High-level Segment of ECOSOC (text asadopted), paras. 33-38.http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/event/ecosoc/declaration.pdf

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DECENT WORK

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Voices on “I believe that decent work means thatjobs should be rewarding. The workshould give an added value to theworker’s life, with personal and profes-sional fulfilment.”

Evelin Toth MucciacciaroHead of International Department,UATUCCroatia

“To achieve decent work, one musthave the right environment for workersto acquire both professional and per-sonal skills. This will provide a type ofstructure to drive their skills through-out their entire careers, enabling themto lead a balanced life.”

Andrew MooreDirector, Brussels Office, Confederationof British Industry (CBI)United Kingdom

“In my part of the world, women carrythe burdens of the family. They have anold saying in Africa: ‘You train awoman, you train a whole nation.’ Weneed to support women’s entrepreneur-ship. When women work, not only dothey support themselves and their fam-ilies, but they support society.”

Rose Karikari AnangExecutive Director, Ghana EmployersAssociation (GEA)Ghana

“Pour moi c’est surtout un état d’espritpolitique, l’idée de vivre dans unesociété où un homme est en mesure deprendre soin de soi et de sa famillecomme il faut, de survivre dans ladignité.”

Moulomba NzienguiConseiller du Ministre du Travail et del’EmploiGabon

“Decent work means jobs that allow forfundamental rights; the right to associ-ate, the right to collective bargaining,the right to decent wages and a securejob. Workers need jobs where they canprovide long-term for their familiesand their future.”

Jan SitholeSecretary-General, SFTUSwaziland

“Decent work is about the capacity todetermine our own skills, growth, pros-perity and future. It’s not just aboutwhat you earn; it’s about your ownwellbeing and success. Friendship,belonging and being part of a team giveone a sense of pride.”

Phil O’ReillyChief Executive, Business New ZealandNew Zealand


decent work“Decent work is about the same oppor-tunities for both sexes, and this has for-tunately improved a lot.”

Iok Cheong LamActing Head of Occupational Safety andHealth Department, Labour AffairsBureau,Macao Special Administrative Region,China

“As a working man in the Philip-pines, I take the concept of decentwork very seriously because it isthere for my protection as well asthe protection of all workers,despite race, gender and status.Decent work gives awareness tohuman capabilities.”

Ranulfo PayosVice-President, Employers’ Confed-eration of the PhilippinesPhilippines

“Decent work is work that providesdignity and respect for working people.Fundamental rights, such as wages andsafe working conditions, must be guar-anteed if you want to achieve decentworking conditions. Decent work pro-vides optimism for working people andtheir families, helping to guarantee eco-nomic growth and sustainability.”

Sharan BurrowPresident, Australian Council of TradeUnionsAustralia

“I think it is necessary to havesocial security rights, employmentrights, and good social dialogue.Decent work is a product of decentfundamentals, enabling the gov-ernments, workers and employersto come together.”

Juan Carlos Zúñiga RojasSindicato Industrial de Trabajadoresde Electricidad y Telecomunica-ciones (SITET) Costa Rica

“Le travail décent est un emploi qui per-met de bénéficier des normes interna-tionales comme le respect de la légalité,de la sécurité mais c’est aussi un travaildans lequel on se réalise au-delà desbesoins quotidiens, un travail dont onest fier.”

Marc BlondelMembre du Conseil d’administration du BITEx-secrétaire général de la ConfédérationGénérale du Travail-Force OuvrièreFrance

“Le travail décent, c’est celui quipermet la fin de l’exclusion soustoutes ses formes. C’est celui quigarantit à l’homme non seulementun minimum vital mais aussi uneprotection.”

Guillaume AttigbeConfédération des syndicatsautonomes du BéninBenin

“Le travail décent peut être une solu-tion aux problèmes que rencontrent lesfemmes : l’accès à l’emploi toutd’abord, mais aussi à la formation etaux postes de responsabilité.”

Rahmani MessaoudaUnion générale des travailleurs algériensAlgeria ©

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Picking education, not tea:

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he new ILO report The end of childlabour: Within reach paints a mixed pic-ture of child labour worldwide. While theglobal total of child labourers is on the

decline, there remain some 50 million workingchildren in sub-Saharan Africa. But the unprece-dented international movement to end childlabour, including an innovative awareness-raisingcampaign using local radio shows, is opening awindow of opportunity for Africa’s fight againstthe practice. The ILO’s Kevin Cassidy reports froma tea plantation in Uganda.

TORO – Under a warm sun, in the lush greenrolling hills of Toro in western Uganda, 15-year-oldAnnet is picking tea alongside hundreds of otherchildren for about US$0.30 a day.

This sea of young faces, scattered throughoutthe tea plantations of Fort Portal, look sadlytowards a bleak future.

“Yes, I want to go to Kyebambe Girls’ SecondarySchool. But my parents are poor and cannot sup-

port me,” Annet says quietly. “I need to go andpluck tea to get money and then buy books andpens, but sometimes I can’t manage.”

Although the Ugandan Constitution 1995(Chapter 1, Article 34 (4)) provides for the protec-tion of a child from hazardous and exploitativework, it is estimated that there are 7.9 million chil-dren, aged 5 to 17 years old, working as childlabourers. Simply put, 1 in 3 children in Ugandaare child labourers.

The majority of these children trapped in childlabour are in rural areas where poverty affectsaround 60 per cent of the population. These direcircumstances are further compounded by the factthat 1 in 5 children are orphaned, mainly byHIV/AIDS, with many heading households andsupporting brothers and sisters with back-breakingand poorly paid work.

These children, very early in life, must make thedifficult decision to help their families survivewhile sacrificing their right to an education andpossibly a better future.

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Changing perceptions through dialogueIn support of the ILO’s technical cooperation

project “Strengthening Labour Relations in EastAfrica” (SLAREA), a communications campaignwas developed to promote rights at work in EastAfrica. In Uganda, this campaign started work withsix national broadcasters in as many different locallanguages, to help raise awareness on the criticalissues of freedom of association, child labour,forced labour and discrimination promoted in theILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles andRights at Work. These radio stations included Voiceof Teso, Voice of Toro, Radio Paidha, CBS, RadioUganda and Radio Kigezi.

In Fort Portal, Voice of Toro became a willingand active champion of the working people ofUganda. The station broadcast a weekly radio pro-gramme focusing on the Declaration issues andprovided a platform for government officials andworkers’ and employers’ representatives to discussthese issues and engage in dialogue with the localcommunity.

For Paddy Twesigiromwe, representative for theNational Union of Plantation and Agriculturalworkers of Uganda (NUPAU), this provided theaccess to people that was sorely needed. “The ILOradio campaign was actually very good and is stillvery good. It assisted us a lot because it’s the bestmedium to reach the farmers,” said Mr. Twesi-giromwe.

The combination of active union involvementwith the workers and farmers and the awareness-raising campaign and assistance from a large busi-ness there, Mabale Tea Growers Factory, has provento be quite a successful formula in eliminatingchild labour on their estates.

At the Mabale Tea Growers Factory, located inKyenjojo district about 20 kilometres from FortPortal, anyone seeking employment must producea graduated tax ticket. This is an annual tax paid byeveryone above the age of 18 years irrespective ofwhether they are employed or not. Ironically, thegovernment had abolished the tax, which leaves thefactory management with the option of requiring aletter from the local village authorities to ensurethat the jobseeker is of age.

There are supervisors on the estates who go into

the field whenever there are workers picking tea. Inaddition to ensuring that labourers who have notbeen contracted don’t go onto the farms, they alsosee to it that parents don’t carry children along tohelp them pick more tea after a day’s work.

The Mabale Tea Growers Factory has been activein ensuring that its activities complement the sys-tem of universal primary education (UPE), institut-ed by the Ugandan government in 1997. The goal ofUPE is to increase enrolment and retention of chil-dren in primary schools. The Mabale Tea Factoryhas helped poorer parents with scholastic materialssuch as books, pens and teaching aids. As a result ofthis initiative, 90 children formerly working on thetea estates go to the nearby Kabaranga PrimarySchool with the assistance of the factory.

“We are trying to help eliminate child labour bysupporting education. We are helping to brightenthe children’s future development,” says KennethKyamulesire, general manager for the factory.

When visited by the ILO’s national project coor-dinator, Joseph Katende, Mr. Kyamulesire creditedthe radio programmes, and the discussions he hadwith his family and friends on the issue, for chan-ging his mind about child labour.

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In cooperation with the local leaders and thetrade union representative, the company has com-mitted to providing school materials to ensure thatthe children remain in school and don’t go out towork to pay for these essentials.

After discussion with local leaders in this region,it has been shown that the radio programmes havegreatly assisted in the process of removing 365 chil-dren from the plantations of Butit, Mukunyu,Kyarusozi and Mabale tea farms over the past year.

Avoiding a backslide into child labourOne of the main problems that poor agricultur-

al communities face is keeping students in schooland preventing them from falling back into childlabour situations. At times, parents may not valueor see the long-term benefits of education – espe-cially if it comes at the expense of immediateincome for poor families.

The Headmistress of the Kabaranga PrimarySchool, a small local school that recently received alarge number of children formerly working on thetea plantations, was concerned about keeping thechildren in school and focused on their education.

“We are very happy to have these children herewith us; they are eager to learn. But our biggestchallenge is what will happen to the children afterprimary seven? Will the children go back to the teaestates because they don’t have money to continuewith education?” said the Headmistress, known asMs. Alice to the students.

With the sounds of song and dance in the back-ground, many of these children said that althoughthey are happy to be back in school, poverty willforce many over the weekend to go work on the teaestates to make a few thousand shillings (aboutUS$1 to US$2) to help support their family andbuy school materials. Many of these children areorphans and live with their elderly grandparentswho are too weak to work and need the children’ssupport to buy food.

The parents and guardians all expressed a needfor income-generating activities to help improvetheir financial situation. The lack of employmentopportunities as well as the advanced age of manyof the guardians means that there are serious trade-offs between survival of the whole family and theeducation of a few.

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EVERY CHILD NEEDS A TEACHER

he right to education is a fundamental human right, yet at least 100 million childrenare still not enrolled in primary school – 55 per cent of them girls. Fewer than two

thirds of primary school pupils reach the last grade, an indicator of basic literacy, in morethan 40 countries. Almost 800 million people aged 15 and above live without basic literacyskills.

One reason why many countries fail to educate their children and adults is the lack ofqualified teachers. The ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers,adopted 40 years ago, is still the world’s only comprehensive international standard on theteaching profession. More recently, the Pretoria Declaration on Teachers (2005) and theUNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2005) said large numbers of countriesstill need to focus on creating sufficient numbers of well-qualified, adequately remuner-ated and highly motivated teachers to realize the Education for All (EFA) and MDG goals.Although the deficit of qualified teachers worldwide is not known, it is estimated thatroughly 35 million new teachers are needed to meet the 2015 EFA goals – with an increasein many countries by 20 per cent a year in order to reduce pupil/teacher ratios to 40:1.

Countries that are unable to meet EFA targets generally invest only half of this figurein education, and some say more than 20 countries are at risk of not achieving universalprimary education (UPE) by 2015.

The ILO approach

The ILO recommends that countries should invest at least 6 per cent of their GDP ineducation and training. Since 2004, it has assisted more than 20 countries in Africa, theAmericas and Eastern Europe to address information gaps, assess teacher needs anddevelop and apply policy solutions with governments, teacher unions and private schools– a critical tool in the fight against child labour. For this reason, ILO-IPEC (InternationalProgramme on the Elimination of Child Labour) has lent its full support to the campaign“Every Child Needs a Teacher”.

For more information, visit http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/themes/education/index.htm

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hild labour is a violation of fundamental humanrights and has been shown to hinder children’s

development, potentially leading to lifelong psycho-logical and physical damage. Child labour can bedivided into three categories:

! work done by a child who is younger than theminimum age for work (Convention No. 138);

! hazardous work that poses a risk to the physical,mental or moral well-being of a child under 18(16 under certain strict conditions); and

! the worst forms of child labour (Convention No. 182).

MMaajjoorr rreelleevvaanntt IILLOO CCoonnvveennttiioonnss::

* Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)* Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999

(No. 182)

For more information, visit http://www.ilo.org/ipec

CCHILD LABOUR IS…

>>

But to Jane Rose Nasuna, it was clear. “Someparents care about their children’s education. Oth-ers think they are wasting money on education. Butme, I am doing all I can to see that my child goes tohigher [learning] institutions. Maybe in the future,I can also leave this kind of work when my childgets a better job and I can finally rest,” said Jane asshe stroked her child’s hair.

As the scores of children emptied from theirclassrooms, they seemed to be enjoying learningand playing with friends, instead of working underthe sweltering sun on the tea plantations. “It feltgood to find myself back at school and to studybecause in the future it will benefit me more,” saidyoung Benjamin Kisembo, smiling widely.

As the community continues to work together,the ILO will continue to combat child labour aswell as to support awareness-raising through theinteractive radio programmes. Joseph Kasimbazi,the show’s producer for Voice of Toro, feels that“there is a great need for people here to knowabout how these children are losing their child-hood and their future”.

Kash, as he is known on the air, believes thatwith “the radio programmes we can reach manymore people. I feel proud that I am part of thischange. But we cannot do this alone; we need assis-tance to help the dreams of these children becomea reality.”

More than 200 million children in the worldtoday are child labourers. The ILO is committedto getting them out of work and into school.The ILO's new flash movie shows you why:http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/wdacl/index.htm

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N E W G L O B A L R E P O R T

n 4 May 2006, the ILO

released its new Global

Report on child labour enti-

tled The end of child labour:

Within reach. The Report stat-

ed that child labour, especially

in its worst forms, is in decline

for the first time across the

globe.

Launched concurrently by 25 ILOoffices, the Report shows that the num-ber of child labourers has fallen global-ly by 11 per cent over the last four years– from 246 million in 2000 down to 218million in 2004 – while the number ofchildren in hazardous work decreasedby 26 per cent – 171 million in 2000down to 126 million in 2004.

According to the Report, Latin Amer-ica and the Caribbean have seen themost rapid decline over the four-yearperiod. The number of children at workin the region has fallen by two thirdsduring that time, with just 5 per cent ofchildren now engaged in work.

The Asia and the Pacific region alsoregistered a significant decline in thenumber of economically active children.However, as the child population alsodeclined, the percentage of workingchildren was not as large. The ILO esti-mates that the region still has thelargest number of child workers in the5-14 age group – some 122 million.

With 26 per cent of the child popula-tion, or almost 50 million, childrenengaged in work, the sub-SaharanAfrican region has the highest propor-tion of children engaged in economicactivities of any region in the world.

According to the Global Report, theconvergence of high population growth,grinding poverty and the epidemic ofHIV/AIDS has hindered progress in thefight against child labour. However,there are signs of progress. For exam-ple, primary school enrolments in theregion increased by 38 per centbetween 1990 and 2000.

Although the ILO and its tripartitepartners have been at the forefront ofinternational efforts to eliminate childlabour, there is now a growing diversityof actors making important contribu-tions to this process. Political commit-ment, through the adoption of coherentpolicies in the areas of poverty reduc-tion, basic education and human rights,is central to the progress made. Povertyreduction and greater availability ofeducation are important prerequisitesfor moving countries to the transitionpoint in tackling child labour.

The rapid ratification of ILO Conven-tions (No. 182 and No. 138), together

with advances in other internationaltreaties relating to children’s rights,have contributed significantly to therecent progress. 160 countries have rat-ified the Worst Forms of Child LabourConvention, 1999 (No. 182), out of theILO’s 178 member States.

This widely supported legislative andpolicy framework, combined with con-crete action and awareness-raising,has given the global movement a strongfocus. Progress has been achievedlargely through the ILO’s largest techni-cal cooperation programme, the Inter-national Programme on the Eliminationof Child Labour (IPEC), which has beenactive for the past 14 years.

Many organizations, UN agencies,NGOs and other civil society groupshave joined the ILO’s call for reinvigo-rated action. All of these elementstogether have worked to reduce childlabour. The mass media and the aca-demic community have both respondedto the rising international profile ofchild labour and are becoming strongpartners in its elimination.

The challenge over the coming yearswill be for the ILO to work in a morefocused and strategic manner to act asthe catalyst for a re-energized globalalliance in support of national action toabolish child labour. This transforma-tion in approach to global leadershipwill ensure that the ILO will contributemore effectively to consigning childlabour to history.

For more information, please visitwww.ilo.org/declaration

NEW GLOBAL REPORT ON CHILD LABOUR

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W O R L D D AY A G A I N S T C H I L D L A B O U R

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR GOES GLOBAL

ith World Cup fever in full

swing, the ILO waved a

“Red Card” against child work

as part of a series of global

events in early June to mark

the World Day Against Child

Labour. The slogan calling for

the elimination of child labour

was “Together we can do it”.

And in scores of countries and

in hundreds of towns, the

global movement against

child labour showed that they

intend to do just that.

From Addis to Albania, from Brazil toBurkina Faso, the World Day AgainstChild Labour on 12 June marked a newhigh point in the global mobilizationagainst child work. Events took placearound the world, in more than 70 coun-tries and involving at least 100 projects.The ILO International Programme on theElimination of Child Labour considers

this year’s world day as an unqualifiedsuccess.

“This year marks the most eventswe’ve ever seen on the World Day,”said IPEC Director Guy Thijs. “The num-ber of activities was very impressiveand shows the extent to which our part-ners at the country and local level arejoining forces to eliminate child labour.”

If the “Red Card” campaign activityin Geneva was symbolic, the impact ofthe last decade of IPEC work in mobiliz-ing action against child labour was any-thing but. Events in the field includednationwide round tables, TV debates,football games, theatre plays, artexhibits, street performances andmarches, after-school programmes,musical and cultural events, amongsthundreds of different activities.

The events of the day followed therelease in May of the ILO Global Reportentitled The end of child labour: Withinreach (see page 14). The report was dis-cussed by tripartite delegates to theInternational Labour Conference on 9June. Delegates reviewed progress andidentified challenges ahead on the wayto eliminating the hazardous forms ofchild labour over the next decade. Par-ticipating in the special round-tableevent were Brazilian Minister of LabourH.E. Mr. Luis Marinho, the TanzanianMinister of Labour H.E. Mr. JumanneMaghembe and the Turkish Minister ofLabour H.E. Mr. Murat Basesgioglutogether with the workers’ and employ-ers’ representatives. In addition, Minis-ters of eight Portuguese-speaking coun-tries in all regions of the worldgathered on 8 June to announce to theInternational Labour Conference theadoption of a joint declaration againstchild labour and its worst forms.

In Geneva, the ILO marked the daywith an event featuring football WorldCup legend Roger Milla who came to“Kick the Ball” against child labour in afriendly match with local schools and

clubs. Joining the ceremony prior to thematch were ILO Director-General JuanSomavia, Mr. Federico Addiechi, headof Corporate Social Responsibility ofthe International Federation of FootballAssociations FIFA, Dr. Eduardo Missoni,Secretary General, World Organizationof the Scout Movement, Ms. NicolePetignat, a renowned female refereequalified for international matches andMr. Carlos Xavier, a football player fromPortugal and creator of a football club pro-moting child development. Ms. Petignatasked the girls there present to addtheir voices to her “whistle” againstchild labour, and to kick the ball forgirls’ and boys’ rights, with a focus ongiving children, and especially girls, analternative to work, such as schooling,sports activities and leisure.

An important activity also took placein Sialkot, Pakistan, a town where IPEChas been eradicating child labour in thefootball-stitching sector with supportfrom, among others, FIFA. Children whoused to stitch footballs now playedfootball in a break from their schooling,as part of a new programme thatincludes sport as part of the rehabilita-tion of former child labourers world-wide.

“The World Day is not just anotherevent,” said Mr. Thijs. “It serves as acatalyst for the growing worldwidemovement against child labour.”

W

Football World Cup legend Roger Milla

came to the ILO to “Kick the Ball” against

child labour in a friendly match with local

schools and clubs.

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B U S I N E S S

s global business continues to diversifyand grow, social dialogue plays a crucialrole in encouraging the adoption andimplementation of corporate social

responsibility policies.

GENEVA – The 1993 factory fire that took thelives of 188 workers and injured 469 at the KaderIndustrial toy factory on the outskirts of Bangkokcaused inordinate grief and terror – but it alsofuelled international debate about what has sincecome to be known as corporate social responsibility(CSR). The majority of Kader shares were owned byforeign interests, and the factory products wereintended primarily for export to the United Statesand other industrialized countries. The event of thefire was particularly gruesome because the workers,

most of them young women from rural impover-ished areas, had no means of escape. Hundreds ofworkers were packed into each of the three buildingsthat collapsed, and there were no fire extinguishers,alarms, sprinkler systems or emergency exits.

Trade unions have targeted multinational enter-prises (MNEs) for contracting with suppliers thatviolate the rights of their workers, while publiccampaigns have been organized against some of themost well-known brands. Only recently, the ICFTUannual report cited serious workers’ rights viola-tions in a number of well-known MNEs. In the last15 years many MNEs have not only adopted codesof conduct to ensure that certain minimum stan-dards are met by suppliers; they are making theimplementation of codes central to their opera-tions (see diagram).

At the 2001 Davos World Economic Forum,business leaders said that “it would be difficult tooverstate the consensus, almost the passion, amongthese CEOs of the leading global companies thatthe time is at hand for transparency”. And in 2003the International Organisation of Employers tookup the debate, stating that “CSR is not just an issuefor large multinational corporations... its volun-tariness, diversity and flexibility are vital to allow-ing all businesses, regardless of size or location, toconsider how best they can respond to the realitiesof their marketplace” (IOE 2003). From an IOEperspective, CSR is a voluntary, enterprise-driveninitiative and refers to activities that look to gobeyond legal compliance in a diverse range ofsocial, economic and environmental areas. It’simportant to recognize that many corporate codesof conduct have evolved in response to a lack ofnational schemes to regulate global corporatebehaviour.

Businesswith a conscience

A

Why best practice is good practice

The 1993 Kader Indus-trial toy factory firefuelled internationaldebate about what hassince come to be knownas corporate socialresponsibility.

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According to a global survey of business execu-tives published by McKinsey in January 2006, CEOsaround the world overwhelmingly believe that theirrole in society goes beyond simply meeting obliga-tions to shareholders and includes explicit contri-butions to the broader public good, such as provid-ing decent jobs, making philanthropic donationsand going beyond legal requirements to minimizepollution and other negative effects of business.Many initiatives have focused on the business case,or the “triple bottom line” approach that empha-sizes financial, environmental and labour responsi-bility.

Shareholders and financial analysts have alsoawoken to the importance of evaluating the socialactivities of corporations. Major global indicessuch as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index andFTSE4Good track the financial performance of theleading sustainability-driven companies world-wide, reinforcing the commitment of many MNEsto comply with the principles of internationallabour standards in their supply chains.

However, workers’ representatives are soundinga note of caution. Speaking at the 95th Internation-al Labour Conference in June 2006, the Chairmanof the ILO Workers’ Group Sir Leroy Trotman drewattention to the fact that although CSRs are gener-

ally well intentioned, they are sometimes “deter-mined for the express purpose of avoiding the col-lective bargaining exercise and full recognition ofthe fundamental principles and rights at work, asdetailed by the ILO”. He suggested that the ILOought to examine the text and import of CSRs and“guide where necessary regarding how they couldbe made compatible with our global standards”.

The ILO and CSRThe ILO’s unique tripartite structure lends a

viable framework for CSR. For instance, the ILOTripartite Declaration of Principles concerningMultinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNEDeclaration, adopted in 1977 and revised in 2000)precedes the era of codes of conduct, but in manyways remains a cutting-edge instrument for CSRguidance.

The principles therein were originally intendedto guide governments, multinationals and employ-ers’ and workers’ organizations. Today, the ILO’sInFocus Initiative helps to ensure that the prin-ciples of its MNE Declaration are incorporatedaccurately and more frequently in voluntary pri-vate CSR initiatives. Its work focuses on improvedinformation collection, analysis and dissemination,coherent action which brings together contribu-


>>

CSR GOES GLOBAL: AN EXAMPLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE IN A FOOTWEAR MULTINATIONAL

Source: Mamic 2004, p.106.


B U S I N E S S


>> tions from all parts of the ILO and promotionaland technical advisory services.

A notable example is the ILO’s Better FactoriesCambodia programme, which has been workingsince 2001 with government, factory managers andtrade unions. Starting with a factory monitoringsystem that now covers 250 factories employingover 280,000 workers, the programme began train-ing management and workers last year and willcontinue until 2009. Says Dan Henkle, Gap’s vicepresident for social responsibility, “You’ve got allthe different players – unions, employers, govern-ment, buyers – sitting down at the table.” Andaccording to the ILO’s Christine Evans-Klock, “Yetagain Cambodia is leading the world in improvinglabour standards in its garment factories. Not withmonitoring this time, but with workers’ educa-tion.”

The joint ILO/USDOL “SHARE” programme(Strategic HIV/AIDS Responses by Enterprises) isanother example of a CSR initiative emphasizingsocial dialogue. SHARE has signed memoranda ofcooperation with some 300 enterprises and nowreaches 300,000 workers in 23 countries.

Global Compact for the greater goodThe global community has also developed a

multifaceted approach to enhancing CSR. In 1999,the United Nations launched the Global Compact,an initiative that brings companies together withUN agencies, labour organizations and civil societyto support universal environmental and social

principles. Today, more than 2,500 enterprises from70 countries have engaged in the Global Compact,working to advance 10 universal principles in theareas of human rights, labour, the environmentand anti-corruption – principles which derive inpart from the ILO Declaration on FundamentalPrinciples and Rights at Work.

Rising interest in CSR from a range of institu-tions and actors has increased firms’ awareness ofthe potential positive role of labour standards inenterprise development. Increased attention hasalso stimulated small and medium-sized enterpris-es (SMEs) around the world to think about theirsocial responsibility; the majority of signatories tothe Global Compact are SMEs. The ILO’s “Sustain-able Development through the Global Compact”project funded by the Italian Government focusesmainly on SMEs in Italy, Albania, Morocco andTunisia.

Implementing codes of conductMany companies have adopted ethical standards

and guidelines, governing dimensions of their social,environmental and human rights practices. Corpo-rate codes of conduct can apply both to activities thatthe company owns and directly controls, and to thecompany’s offshore suppliers and subcontractors,usually in developing countries. But implementingcodes at a distance further down the chain can be dif-ficult. “If we stopped pushing the code tomorrowsome of our factories would continue doing it, fol-lowing labour practices that meet the code. And somewould stop the same day,” said one country managerof a garment multinational.

What happens when suppliers don’t see the com-pany code as being in their best interest? Some multi-nationals link the granting of orders to the supplierwith the commitment to adhere to the code: “Bottomline for us is if you don’t comply, we don’t do businesswith you,” said one manager of a footwear multina-tional. But if smaller suppliers don’t have the financialand human resources to implement the code or don’tunderstand the value of the code, leading to a closureof the factory, workers may find themselves in evenworse employment or unemployment.

There is therefore a new focus on education andtraining through all components of the supply chain,from senior management through the supplier man-agers and factory owners to the workers themselves.“The first thing you have to do is educate the share-holder or general manager at the factory of the bene-fits of the programme,” said one regional manager.

Another problem is the multiplicity of codes –

© K. Cassidy/ILO


RECOMMENDED READING

ILO. 2000. Tripartite Declaration of Principles con-cerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.

__. 2002. Codes of conduct and multinational enter-prises (CD-ROM). Contains 240 codes of conductfrom 209 organizations in nine industry groups.

International Organisation of Employers (IOE). 2003.Corporate social responsibility: An IOE approach.

Mamic, Ivanka. 2004. Implementing codes of con-duct: How businesses manage social performance inglobal supply chains.

ISO 26000: COMING SOON

The International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is in the process of developing an internationalstandard for social responsibility (ISO 26000), to becompleted in 2008. The standard will apply not only toenterprises but also government, not-for-profit andother organizations and will provide basic informationon human rights, the environment, labour rights, sus-

tainable development, CSR and other issues. The ILO has recently signed a memorandum of

understanding with ISO, in which it pledges to pro-vide technical assistance on international labourstandard principles and how best to apply them in anorganization. In return, ISO will involve the ILO in allphases of developing ISO 26000.

there are reported to be 10,000 in existence in the gar-ment industry alone. To address this, some multina-tionals are engaging with their competitors to devel-op industry-wide codes. For instance, HP, Dell andIBM released the Electronic Industry Code of Con-duct (EICC) in 2004 to ensure safe working condi-tions in the electronics industry supply chain, respect-ful treatment of workers and environmentallyresponsible manufacturing processes. Another initia-tive is the International Council of Toy Industries(ICTI), which promotes international toy safety stan-dards and a responsible attitude to advertising andmarketing to children.

In addition to industry codes of conduct, multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have been launched,whose principles are based on internationally recog-nized minimum standards such as minimum wages,

hours of work, health and safety and forced and childlabour. Such major initiatives are Social Accountabili-ty International (SAI), the Fair Labour Association(FLA), the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) and the Eth-ical Trading Initiative (ETI). And by 2008 there will bea new international standard: ISO 26000 (see sidebar).

Another interesting initiative is the proliferation ofinternational framework agreements (IFAs). Theseare agreements between a multinational and anorganization such as a global union federation(GUF). The ILO’s international labour standards,including those concerning safety and health in theworkplace, are cited more frequently within IFAs thanin any other initiatives on corporate social responsi-bility. IFAs include trade unions in their implementa-tion procedures which include follow-up for verifica-tion, dialogue and, if necessary, complaints. Some 40IFAs have been signed between 1999 and 2006.

Despite these recent improvements there is a lotmore to be done. Enterprise and independent moni-toring, regular factory inspections and reportingrequirements need to be strengthened. Training andeducation are beginning to show sustainable results.Companies need to take responsibility for theiractions and involve CSR strategies and internationallabour standards in their management objectives.And above all, the role of good government is cru-cial in regulating the employment relationship andprotecting all interests in society.

For more information, please visit www.ilo.org/pubIns or e-mail [email protected]

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L A B O U R M I G R AT I O N



Dispelling the migrant myth

ecent media buzz has sparked the latestglobal debate on migrant workers.Poverty and the decent work deficit arethe two main reasons these workers cross

borders in search of better lives, and most oftenthey will take any job they can find, no matterhow dirty or dangerous. But the crux of thedebate lies in the extent of their contributions –and as a result the level of responsibility to beundertaken by the host countries for their labourrights. ILO specialist on workers’ activities LucDemaret and senior migration specialist PatrickTaran weigh in on the current state of play formigrant workers, and in doing so separate factfrom fiction in the latest chapter of the migrantdebate.

It’s no surprise to learn that most industrializedeconomies would be significantly compromised ifnot crippled without the help of a strong migrantworkforce. But do these migrant workers and theirfamilies receive their fair share in return?

According to a January 2006 press agencyreport, some experts believe the British economyand its public services would collapse without theimmigrants who have entered the country illegal-ly. And in October 2005, a headline in the KoreaTimes read: “Foreigners contribute to the Koreaneconomy”. According to that daily, “they havebecome the spine of corporate Korea”. Morerecently, a Madrid correspondent of the FinancialTimes (26 April 2006) stated that new demand forhousing generated by immigrants has been deci-

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>>

sive in sustaining the construction industry boomin Spain. And last year in that country, a tripartiteagreement between government, employers andworkers enabled the regularization of nearly700,000 migrant workers.

It’s well known that immigrants have alwaysgiven a lot back to their countries of origin, oftenat considerable and sacrificial cost to themselves.There are roughly 86 million migrant workers inthe world today, with innumerable reports as tothe amounts they transfer “back home”. Latestestimates talk about US$160 billion a year. Onlyoil revenues do better in currency exchange; thatfigure, too, is three times the global amount ofdevelopment aid. But generally, the contributionof immigrants – including immigrants in irregu-lar situations – to the economy of the host coun-try is often overlooked or even denied.

Still, since it is known that migrant workerssend on average 13 per cent of their income backto their country of origin, that means they spend87 per cent in the host country. If you do thesums, starting with the total amount of transfers,the contribution of migrant workers to hostcountries worldwide has a value of more thanUS$1 trillion. The Organization for Security andCo-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Internation-al Organization for Migration (IOM) and the ILOstate in a recent publication: “Numerous studiesshow that migrants fill vital jobs unwanted bynatives, and that their presence, activity and initia-tive create additional employment” (see sidebar).1

Myth no. 1: Migrants are a burden to hosteconomies

“The perception that migrants represent afinancial burden on host countries is not sus-tained by research,” says Brunson McKinley, IOMDirector-General (International Herald Tribune,24 June 2005). For example, the UK Governmenthas calculated that in 1999 and 2000, migrantsestablished in the United Kingdom added US$4billion (£2.2.billion) net to the budget – that is,they paid more in tax and social security contri-butions than they received in benefits. And theInstitute for Public Policy Research found in arecent study that the contribution of immigrantsto the public purse, which represented 8.8 percent of the total in 1999 and 2000, is now up tomore than 10 per cent. In Germany, the averageimmigrant makes a positive net contribution ofover US$60,000 during his or her lifetime. InSpain this year, 25 per cent of construction rev-enues will come from migrant workers, for whomover 170,000 new houses have been built. In theUnited States, over the course of one year immi-gration generated extra national revenue of US$8billion (IOM, World Migration Report 2005).

If labour migration is so important to hostcountries today, it could well become indispens-able to some in future – to the point where manypeople are already sounding the alarm as to therisks of a “brain drain” that could damage devel-oping countries.

In a Green Paper published in January 2005,

1 Handbook on

establishing effective

labour migration

policies in countries of

origin and destination.

OSCE, IMO and ILO,

Geneva 2006.

he 2006 OSCE-IOM-ILO collaborative publica-tion, Handbook on establishing effective

labour migration policies in countries of origin anddestination, was created to assist member Statesin their efforts to develop policy solutions andapproaches for better management of labourmigration and labour migration flows.

It explores the issues affecting labour migrationpolicy today, such as the protection of migrantworkers, benefits of organized labour migration,effective administration of labour migration, for-eign worker admission policies, post-admissionpolicies, irregular labour migration and inter-statecooperation.

According to Ibrahim Awad, Director of theILO’s International Migration Programme, “Thebiggest challenge today is to ensure access toregular, legal channels for labour migration, andthus prevent abuse, exploitation and trafficking.”

The publication was launched at the 14th OSCE

Economic Forum in Prague this May and was pre-pared by decision-makers and labour migrationpractitioners in the OSCE area and in countriesserved by the IOM and ILO. It draws in part oninsights from the ILO’s new Multilateral Frame-work on Labour Migration included in its Plan ofAction adopted in 2005, which is comprised ofprinciples, guidelines and best practices to assistconstituents in developing and improving labourmigration policies. Listed in the Handbook are 30ILO Conventions of direct relevance to migrantworkers.

“Countries which have policies that prevent dis-crimination and allow for better integration ofmigrant workers are much more successful ingaining full and productive participation in thelabour market,” said Awad. “To protect migrantworkers’ rights and maximize the positive effectsof migration, the answer is not stricter policies butbetter policies.”

NEW LABOUR MIGRATION POLICY HANDBOOK

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L A B O U R M I G R AT I O N


>> the European Commission notes that, all thingsremaining equal, the European Union populationaged under 25 will diminish by 20 millionbetween 2010 and 2030. If present trends are con-firmed, by the year 2050 Italy will have seen itspopulation level diminish by 28 per cent, andSpain by 24 per cent. In order to maintain theirpresent population levels, the four largest Euro-pean countries (Germany, France, United King-dom and Italy) would need a total of 700,000immigrants each year rather than the230,000 they receive today. And if theywant to preserve their present levels ofactive population and pension age, theywill need to welcome altogether over amillion migrant workers every year. Asimulation exercise carried out by theILO indicates that without immigra-tion, European living standards in 2050will be only 78 per cent of what they aretoday

The Russian Federation, alreadyhome to the second largest number ofmigrants worldwide after the UnitedStates, faces a 750,000 fall in its work-force this year and a 6-million drop by2010. In the United States, the NationalBureau of Labor Statistics predicts thatby 2010 there will be 10 million unfilledjobs, particularly in low-wage serviceindustries. While migration flows ofsuch magnitude may be unlikely, it isclear that migration will be part of thesolution to maintaining and improvingliving standards in the industrializedworld. It will also remain a question of

survival for millions of people in the developingworld.

Myth no. 2: Migration is a choiceAs IOM’s Brunson McKinley points out, “An

end to the fruitless debate over whether or not tohave migration is long overdue. We have migra-tion. We will continue to have migration. Ourchoice lies in the policies we develop and pursueto channel migration into safe, orderly, humaneand productive avenues that benefit the individu-als and home and host societies” (InternationalHerald Tribune, 24 June 2005).

To underscore that sentiment, the President ofMexico Vicente Fox, on an official visit to theUnited States during May 2006, said, “It is a pri-ority today for governments to recognize theurgency of finding mechanisms and methodswhich guarantee an immigration that is safe, animmigration that respects human rights and theright to work” (Agence France Presse, 24 May2006).

Much remains to be done on these issues.Looking at the situation of workers in 137 coun-tries, the International Confederation of FreeTrade Unions (ICFTU) in a report published inGeneva in June 2006 notes that migrants are par-

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ticularly vulnerable to violations of union rightsand rights at work. A similar warning was sound-ed two years ago when the ILO reported to the2004 International Labour Conference that “foran unacceptably large proportion of migrants,working conditions are abusive and exploitative,and may be characterized by forced labour, lowwages, poor working environment, a virtualabsence of social protection, the denial of free-dom of association and union rights, discrimina-tion and xenophobia, as well as social exclusion –all of which rob workers of the potential benefitsof working in another country.”

Although research confirms that the industri-alized countries are going to have to look toimmigration for the sake of their own economies,this does not detract from the need to reduce thedecent work deficit in developing countries whereworkers often have no choice but to go into exileif they want their families to survive. But what isalso needed is that the human rights of migrantworkers, the principles of equality of opportunityand treatment and fundamental labour standardsshould be respected in the destination countries.Only this can maximize the potential that migra-tion holds for both the countries of origin and thedestination countries, as well as for the workersthemselves.

The multilateral framework on migrationrecently published by the ILO (see sidebar) can bea useful tool in helping government, employer

and worker organizations reach these goals. Asthe Swiss sociologist Max Frisch famously saidabout his country’s immigrants: “We called forworkers, and there came human beings.” Whetherpast or future, at the heart of migration lie thelegitimate aspirations of men and women forsocial justice.

priority issue for the Programme of Cooper-ation between the ILO and the Russian Fed-

eration, signed at this year’s International LabourConference and in effect from 2006 to 2009, ismigration management.

In the early 1990s, the Russian Federationbecame a major actor on the international labourmigration scene as a receiving, sending andtransit country. The Federal Migration Servicesestimates that there are now 500,000 migrants inregular situations and between 5 and 14 millionundocumented immigrants in Russia.

The Programme of Cooperation stresses theneed to further improve national legislation aswell as international and bilateral mechanismsaimed at regularizing and preventing abuse ofmigrant workers. In addition, the Programme willaddress internal migration in the Russian Feder-ation to promote labour force mobility and createa more flexible labour market.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION COMMITS TO MIGRATION POLICY OVERHAUL

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International Labour Organization (ILO). 2004.Towards a fair deal for migrant workers in the globaleconomy. Report VI, 92nd Session of the Internation-al Labour Conference, Geneva.

International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2005.World Migration Report 2005.

European Commission. 2005. Green Paper on an EUapproach to managing economic migration.Ec.europa.eu/comm./off/green/

ILO. 2002. Migrant workers. Labour Education 2002/4,no. 129. ISSN 0378-5467

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FURTHER READING:


T H E O T H E R I N D I A


The other Indiaelecommunications, IT, software – thegrowing muscle of India’s globalized work-force seems to know no bounds. But thereis another India hard at work for whom

globalization has had few rewards. A recent book byGopal Joshi and a team of researchers and photog-raphers sheds light on the job quality of the millionsof women and men who produce goods for globalmarkets.

NEW DELHI – In 2005 the ILO SubregionalOffice in New Delhi published The other India atwork, a book of photographs illustrating the work-ing conditions for much of northern India’s microand small enterprise (MSE) manufacturing andartisanal clusters. According to Gopal Joshi, seniorenterprise specialist, the idea stemmed from a 2000-2001 ILO survey in this region documenting busi-ness practices, skills development, working condi-tions and workers’ protection in traditionalbrassware, bone and hoof products, carpet weaving,chikan work or embroidery, engineering, hand-block printing and handlooms.

MSE clusters are an actively contributing part ofglobal supply chains, yet the workers don’t receivethe benefits of association to the larger, formalenterprises they supply. The survey indicated thatthe quality of employment was poor, particularly interms of conditions of employment, work environ-ment, income level and social protection. Womenand men working in these clusters mostly have tofend for themselves in times of injury, illness, retire-ment or crisis.

This selection of photos taken since 2000 fromMSE clusters throughout locations in northernIndia provides a snapshot of present-day life in theother India.

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Highly decorative trays carved from horn in Indiaare selling well to industrialized countries over theInternet. But making them is hot and dusty work. Theair is filled with bone dust from slicing and grinding.When the horn sections are heated to flatten them out,temperatures can become unbearable.

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For more information or to get a copy of the book,please contact:ILO Subregional Office for South Asia

Phone: +91 11 2460 2101Email: [email protected]/india

Artisans produce beautiful objectsin often difficult working conditions.Here, an engraver brings her baby towork, while ceramic producers inKhurja are exposed to dust and chem-icals. And skills are being lost as large-scale exports introduce assembly-linework processes.

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Employers in micro and small enterprises areworking long hours as they try to fulfil numerousroles simultaneously. Here, an employers’ associationin the Moradabad brass cluster meets to discuss com-mon concerns in a competitive market. Job qualityand working conditions remain low.

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MORADABAD’S OBJECT LESSON

Since World of Work last reported on the Moradabad Brassware cluster four years ago (No. 43, June2002) Moradabad brass products have become world-renowned, partly thanks to marketing on theWeb. More than 25,000 MSE units help to stoke the fires of the Moradabad brassware industry, whichsupplies its reputed brass crafts to manufacturers and retailers in an increasingly globalized market-place. Here is where the two Indias meet.

Between 2000 and 2004 the ILO implemented a programme of improvement in job quality in theMoradabad Brassware cluster, addressing the issues of working environment, working conditions andbusiness practices as they impact productivity and income.

Work is often parcelled out on an informal subcontracting basis. MSEs represent the far end of theglobal supply chain spectrum, with larger workshops, manufacturers, exporters and international buy-ing agencies at the other. “Conditions of work are very harsh, and if we don’t make the deadlines ormeet the quality requirements, we lose the order,” says Mohammad Shafiq, a retired master artisan.“We are also facing the challenge of better and cheaper products from other countries.”

In their efforts to beat the competition by providing low-cost, high-quality products, the temptationfor MSEs is to engage in a “race to the bottom”, resulting in low wages and poor working conditions.

The ILO’s programme, funded by the Dutch Government, aimed to promote closer cooperationbetween all players in the supply chain – state government agencies, workers’ and employers’ organ-izations, trade and export associations and local partners – and in essence to channel the benefits ofinternational trade down to the smallest contributor. In particular, it has demonstrated the possibilityof low-cost improvements such as chimneys to remove toxic fumes and reduce internal temperatures,and introduced basic safety equipment to reduce the occurrence of avoidable injuries. It has alsofocused on teaching business skills to managers, such as how to add value to products; raise profits;and improve on delivery times, price competitiveness, productivity, market linkages and technology.

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Safety and health hazards are ever-present. Very few work-ers or employers have access to protective gear, so that acci-dents from unguarded belts and pulleys are common. Dustand chemicals give rise to chronic illnesses.

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D E C E N T W O R K I N G T I M E: N E W T R E N D S, N E W I S S U E S


typical and unpredictable workschedules are on the rise worldwide,thanks to an ever-increasingly con-nected, responsive and demanding

global economy. Consequently, work-life bal-ance in industrialized countries is becoming athing of the past. A new ILO publication,Decent working time: New trends, new issues, isa collection of papers from some of the leadinginternational scholars in the field and consid-ers the profound changes in the nature ofworking time – and indeed the nature ofemployment itself. US writer Jennifer Monroereports.

Across the industrialized world, workinghours are becoming increasingly unpredictable,creating considerable tensions between workersand employers. Changes in the global economyto a knowledge- and service-based focus, con-sumer demand for access to goods and services24 hours a day, seven days a week and othereconomic and social factors are affecting thestandard employment relationship – and caus-ing concern about working time and the work-life balance.

To bring to light research on working time,the ILO co-sponsored the Ninth InternationalSymposium on Working Time in Paris in 2004,and subsequent publication Decent workingtime: New trends, new issues (2006).1 EditorsJean-Yves Boulin, Michel Lallement, Jon C.Messenger and François Michon have com-piled key papers presented at the symposiumto help with the development of policies andpractices that support decent working time.Focusing on industrialized countries, theresearch included in the book represents stud-ies of workers and working time in a numberof European Union Member States (particular-ly France, Germany and the Scandinavian

countries), Japan, the United Kingdom and theUnited States.

According to Messenger, for decent workingtime to exist the working time arrangementsmust be healthy and family-friendly, promotegender equality, advance productivity and allowemployees to have a true choice in the hours theywork. While these five dimensions are closelylinked, worker control over hours of work (andmore importantly the scheduling of those hours)is vital to the creation – or at least the perception– of a decent work-life balance.

Real vs. idealWithin the quest for decent working time

there exists what the ILO calls “decent workdeficits” – gaps between required working hoursand preferred working hours. As Messengerpoints out, three primary categories of workershave emerged for whom the decent work gapexists: people who are required to work exces-sively long hours who want to work less, part-time workers who are required to work less than20 hours a week who want to work more, andpeople who have odd work schedules but wantstable or standard hours.

Closing these decent work gaps, while main-taining decent working time, is no simple task.As Boulin, Lallement and Michon point out inthe opening chapter, “neither work-life balancepolicies nor life-course working time policies areautomatically rooted in the philosophy of decentworking time” and “many options offered toemployees lead to gender discrimination andsocial inequalities”. Thomas Haipeter’s study ofthe new working time regulation in Germanyfound that “flexi-time” and “time-banking pro-grammes” are promising, but only when wellmanaged and when there is strong employeeparticipation and autonomy.

Part-time work, it would seem, could workwell in closing the gaps for both those who

An honest day’s work?Considering the nebulous notion of today’s work-life balance

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1 Decent working time: New

trends, new issues, edited

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would prefer to work more and those who wouldprefer to work less. Messenger notes that in gen-eral, “short working hours…appears to be awidely employed strategy for balance-paidemployment with family responsibilities”. Infact, “substantial” hours of between 20 and 34hours per week are preferred to “marginal” hoursof less than 20 hours per week.

However, the majority of part-time workersare female, causing gender segregation of part-time work almost everywhere it exists. To takethis point further, Mara Yerkes and Jelle Visserfound “danger of marginalization” in the initialgrowth stages of part-time work in the Nether-lands, Germany and the UK because “part-timework developed as a ‘second-best’ option formany women, particularly working mothers,”and “part-time work was preferred to staying outof the labour market, or being unemployed – butnot to a full-time job with full rights, earningsand benefits”.

While the Netherlands has made some greatgains in normalizing part-time work (see sidebar)and Germany is taking a similar approach, part-time work in the UK historically has not been wellregulated and has “as a consequence, become heav-ily associated with marginal employment, low payand little skills training”.

Eliminating the decent work deficit for work-ers whose hours are not based on a regularschedule may prove the most difficult. Accordingto researchers Jill Rubery, Kevin Ward andDamian Grimshaw, scheduling of employee timeis increasingly being used strategically byemployers. In some cases, working time is nei-ther agreed nor specified; in others, agreed-upontime is “becoming fragmented into shorter, dis-continuous periods and is being scheduledacross the week or the year to match the require-ments of the employers”. Organizations are notlooking to return to a more regular time-basedapproach. In fact, “managers stressed that hoursschedules needed to fit with the interests of theemployer and/or the clients and customers. Toachieve this, a major objective was to regard allhours as equivalent, with no additional costsassociated with unsocial or extra hours”. PaulBouffartigue and Jacques Bouteiller's analysis of“temporal availability” among hospital nursesand bank managerial staff in France, Belgiumand Spain provides further examples of thegrowing diversity of types of employment statusand situations, while Isik Zeytinoglu and Gor-

don Cooke ask the question, “Who is working atweekends?” Their answer for Canada (althoughthis must surely be true for other industrializedcountries) is that in any society that some peoplehappily imagine is open 24 hours a day, 7 days aweek, weekend workers are often those with anumber of disadvantages: lower education andskill levels, temporary contracts and part-timework.

Where workers have a true choice in theirwork hours (where there are good options avail-able to choose from), there is an increasedopportunity for decent working time to exist.Despite the belief to the contrary, Didier Fouageand Christine Baaijens found that among Dutchfirms “it is plausible that employers will grantchanges in working hours if requested”, and that“although employees are reluctant to requestadjustment of working hours, their attempts arereasonably successful”.

What perpetuates overemployment?What keeps workers from requesting shorter

hours is simple: fear of refusal and fear of a neg-ative impact on their career. In other cases thereis the belief that working more, even unpaidhours, is valued as dedication to the company.

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Some workers “choose” overemployment tomeet preferred earning levels, while others see itas “part of the job”. In Jouko Nätti, Timo Antti-la and Mia Väisänen’s study of knowledge work-ers in Finland, half had trouble defining theirtotal working hours, with managers and profes-sionals struggling the most in this regard. Theyalso discovered an erosion of “agreed upon

weekly working time” and a “stretching” ofworking hours.

This is similar to Lonnie Golden’s study ofoveremployed workers in the US. Golden’s workindicates that overwork is higher among “long-work-week workers and selected occupationalclassifications such as managers, administrators,scientists, engineers and some technicians, and

BRIDGING THE DECENT WORK GAP: THE NETHERLANDS

he Netherlands has made the greatestgains in fostering a healthy work-life

balance through the normalization of part-time work. In Mara Yerkes’ and Jelle Viss-er’s comparison of the development ofpart-time work in the Netherlands, Ger-many and the UK, they share the secretsbehind the Dutch efforts to create decentworking time.

Although the Netherlands faced thesame initial dangers of marginalizationfound wherever part-time work exists, theacceptance of part-time work today hasled to the one-and-a-half earner householdbecoming the dominant model. Accordingto Yerkes, “involuntary part-time work islow in the Netherlands, with only a minorgap between women’s preferred and actu-al working time”.

What is behind this shift? Both the DutchGovernment and social partners supportedfamilies in choosing part-time work andshorter working hours as a way to achievea work-family balance. Policies were put inplace to create standards in terms of part-time workers’ rights, earnings and equality.

It did not happen quickly – growth ofpart-time work in the Netherlands laggedbehind other European countries until the1980s when it began to grow along with thenumber of women entering the workforce toboost household incomes. At first, womenchose part-time work due to the lack ofdaycare options; however, employers em-braced its flexibility and cost savings.

In the mid-1990s, legislation made it pos-sible for part-time workers to be covered byminimum wage laws, and to earn pensions.Employers still favoured part-time work, andtoday part-time positions are found in alleconomic sectors and across all occupa-tions.

However, more work needs to be done.Although part-time workers are affordedequal treatment and have a choice of quali-ty jobs, part-time work is dominated bywomen and they remain responsible for themajority of domestic responsibilities.

It does appear that women are, by andlarge, choosing part-time work. Nearly 60per cent of all jobs held by women in theNetherlands are part time, the highest in theEU. According to the researchers, “evenamong younger generations, mothers whohave chosen to work part time when raisingyoung children do not return to working fulltime when their children grow older”.

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D E C E N T W O R K I N G T I M E


in industries such as healthcare, utilities andtransportation”.

In both studies, the long hours seem to beaccepted as the norm for managers. This did not,

however, impact the number of Finnish workerswho would prefer a reduction of weekly workinghours. Those who work a long week (41 hours ormore) were more likely to prefer reduction ofhours compared to those working a shorter week(1 to 40 hours).

At the other end of the spectrum there arethose who desire to increase their hours butbecause overwork exists, there are few opportu-nities to do so. Again, the research suggests theelimination of the stigma often associated withpart-time work or shorter hours. It also suggeststhat the acceptance of part-time work across alllevels of work (hence, “normalizing” part-timework) would go a long way in closing this decentwork deficit and promoting healthy and family-friendly working time, as well as gender equali-ty.

Changes in the global economy have broughtabout a tremendous growth in part-time work,but often these are not career-building positions.Messenger stresses that working time policiescan only promote gender equality when they“enable women to be on an equal footing withmen in employment” and “enable both partnersto combine paid work, family responsibilitiesand lifelong learning”.

1. Working time around the worldEdited by Jon MessengerFocusing on developing and transition countries, Working time around the world looks at current law andpractice on working time and evaluates the current situation. It discerns trends not only in traditional con-cerns such as long hours, shift work and inadequate rest periods, but also newer issues associated withderegulation, more flexible working time arrangements, short hours, gender and the informal economy.Despite a century-long optimism about reduced working hours, the study shows that working-hour differ-ences between industrialized and developing countries remain substantial. It also offers some suggestionsabout how we can begin to close this gap.

2. Working for better times: Rethinking work for the 21st centuryEdited by Jean-Michel Servais, Patrick Bollé, Mark Lansky and Christine SmithThis selection of articles from the International Labour Review offers unique insights into current thinkingand policy options on the major challenges that have arisen not only in the lives of individual workers butalso for employers exposed to global competition, and for the makers of national and international policyand law. At the heart of the debate lies the challenge of reframing the concepts and rules whereby people’ssocio-economic security and the human dimensions of work can be reconciled with global competition andthe market’s growing need for labour flexibility. The book includes contributions by Amartya Sen, MarthaNussbaum, Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich, Sir Bob Hepple and Alain Supiot.

TWO MAJOR TITLES TO BE RELEASED SHORTLY

For more information, please visit www.ilo.org/pubIns or e-mail [email protected]

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A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S M E D I A S H E L FN E W SP L A N E T W O R K


P L A N E T W O R K A REVIEW OF TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN LABOUR ISSUES

■ Workplace drug testing (WDT) is arelatively new phenomenon world-wide, migrating through multination-als from industrialized to developingcountries. Some prescribe it as aneffective way of managing substanceabuse at work. But is it really? Contro-versy surrounds WDT. The issuesrange from questions of privacy tosocial responsibility and the role andpotential responsibility of employersand private enterprise. What’s more,the discussion is beset by questionssuch as whether test results are trulyindicative of substance abuse on thejob, or if they chiefly show activitiesundertaken outside of the workplace.

■ The first argument in favour ofWDT pertains most to “safety-critical”professions in industries such as medi-cine, transport and construction whereimpaired senses and judgement canhave extreme consequences; businesssafety in terms of productivity andproperty are also serious concerns. Inaddition, proponents of WDT arguethat employers have a “duty of care” toprovide a safe working environment.

■ The arguments for and against arevast. Opponents of the value of WDTargue that it can show only use ratherthan impact on performance, nor canit distinguish between use and abuse.

What’s more, WDT raises a range ofethical considerations, including theconfidentiality of personal informa-tion and whether an employer has aright to know what employees do out-side of working hours. Furthermore,WDT is not 100 per cent reliable, pro-ducing occasional “false positives”.

THE IMPACT OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE AT WORK

■ According to the 2005 AnnualReport of the United Nations Office ofDrugs and Crime, 200 million work-ing-age people between 15 and 64, or 5per cent of the global population, used

illicit drugs at least once during 2005.

■ Take a closer look, and we discoverthat cannabis use is most prevalent inthe islands of the Pacific, followed byNorth America and Africa. Almost twothirds of the amphetamine andmethamphetamine users of the worldreside in Asia. And two thirds of the 14million cocaine users worldwide live inthe Americas (UNODC, 2005).

■ Drug abuse costs the US economymore than US$250 billion each year,including about 500 million lost work-ing days. The US Department of Labor,which estimates that up to 9 million

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Coming clean: Drug and alcohol testing in the workplace


workers in the US use drugs, saysemployees who abuse drugs and alco-hol have 66 per cent more absencesand file more compensation claimsthan non-abusers. They are involved inabout half of all workplace accidentsand use 300 per cent more health ben-efits than other employees. What’smore, the US National Institute ofHealth reports that 44 per cent ofabusers have sold drugs to otheremployees, and 18 per cent have stolenfrom co-workers to support their habit(Personnel Today, 25 January 2006).

■ Meanwhile, in the UK between 11and 17 million working days are losteach year because of excessive drinkingalone, which costs the economy asmuch as £1.8 billion every year,according to Alcohol Concern. A sur-vey by the Portman Group revealedthat 63 per cent of employees phone insick after getting drunk the nightbefore, instead of coming into work(ibid).

■ When tallying the money lost to acountry’s economy, one must also con-sider the effects of increased risk ofinjury, depression, stress, reducedmorale, increased absenteeism andhigh workers’ compensation andinsurance costs. For instance, alcoholand drug misuse costs businesses inAlberta, Canada more than US$400million every year in lost productivity,says the Alberta Alcohol and DrugAddictions Commission.

TO TEST OR NOT TO TEST?

■ These serious factors have spurredincreased interest globally in WDT inrecent years. This has culminated innew legislation for some countries,increases in drug testing worldwideand a loud and clear call from employ-ers for more explicit guidelines on howto effectively deal with the issue.

■ But the debate opens up many sen-sitive, ethical arguments. Opponentsof WDT argue that the process of drugtesting amounts to an unwarrantedinvasion of a person’s private life andbody. To counter this argument, somelegislation has stipulated that WDTmay only be carried out with the con-sent of the person to be tested. Theopponents of WDT counter that “freeconsent” may be impossible to obtainif employees fear the consequences ofrefusing. And others argue thatemployees who refuse to take a drugtest might inadvertently raise suspi-cions that they’ve got something tohide.

■ Refusal to comply with a WDTrequirement which is included in anemployment agreement can be inter-preted as a disciplinary offence in theUnited Kingdom, while other coun-tries in Europe such as Belgium andFinland believe that fundamentalrights such as the right to privacy areindivisible and therefore an individualcannot consent to waive such rights. In2001, Finland passed a new law inorder to legalize workplace drug test-ing.

■ Despite the controversy, especiallyover random drug testing, laboratoriescarrying out tests in Ireland, theNetherlands, Norway and the UK havereported an increase in demand. InFrance, Norway and the Netherlands,only workers in “traditional” safety-sensitive positions are subjected totesting in any form. Pre-employment

testing for screening purposes is illegalin the Netherlands. In France, only theoccupational physician may decide toconduct drug tests, not the employer.Furthermore, in Finland, France, Bel-gium, Germany and Austria, the resultof the test is communicated to theoccupational physician, not theemployer. The occupational physicianis only allowed to inform the employerof whether or not the person is fit forwork. Meanwhile, employers in the UKand Sweden believe testing should beapplied to all workers in all job typesto ensure “business safety” (Ethicalissues in workplace drug testing inEurope, Geneva, ILO 2003).

■ Other global statistics include:! Approximately 5 per cent of compa-

nies in Ireland use some form ofemployee drug testing, and a recentsurvey indicated that another 10 percent of firms were expected to intro-duce testing during 2005 (Irish Inde-pendent, 28 June 2005).

! Typically, New Zealand employersonly require WDT for high-risk jobs.According to New Zealand’s Instituteof Environmental Science andResearch, which performs most ofthe drug tests, there has been anincrease from an annual figure of3,000 tests 10 years ago to a predicted28,000 tests in 2006. In occupationssuch as forestry, transport, and meatand poultry processing, the tests arecarried out on a company-wide basis(Dominion Post, 4 March 2006).

! A 2002 survey by the Alberta Alcoholand Drug Abuse Commission foundthat 8 per cent of the 755 employerssurveyed reported that their com-panies had alcohol or drug-testingprogrammes, up from 1 per cent in1992 (Calgary Herald, 11 June 2005).

! And in the US, there has been anincrease of more than 1,200 percent in WDT since 1987 when theFederal Drug-Free Workplace Actwas introduced, says the AmericanManagement Association. The Actrequires companies receiving fed-

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eral contracts or grants to providedrug-free workplaces, and encour-ages employers to create substanceabuse policies and offer workplacetraining (Personnel Today, 25 Jan-uary 2006).

ZERO-TOLERANCE OR A CULTURE OF TOLERANCE?

■ ILO policy over the last decade hasfocused on a shift toward preventionof workplace substance abuse anddefines alcohol- and drug-relatedproblems as health problems to bedealt with in the same manner as otherhealth issues. However, some enter-prise policies differ from their coun-try’s respective national view.Although drug dependency in Canadais considered a disability, and thereforeshould be accommodated in the work-place up to the point of undue hard-ship, many Canadian employers favoura zero-tolerance approach rather thanbeing saddled with lost productivityand added rehabilitation costs (OS&HCanada, 1 October 2005).

■ Some believe that introducing acompany-wide WDT policy ratherthan targeting individuals on the basisof reasonable suspicion is a viablesolution to the problem. For instance,British Airways recently introduced anew drug and alcohol testing policycovering all UK-based staff from bag-gage handlers to managers. The airlinesays the new policy is aimed at improv-ing efficiency and safety. Under thepolicy, new staff can be randomly test-ed in the first six months, and anyonereturning to work after drug or alcoholrehabilitation can also be tested (Per-sonnel Today, 29 June 2004).

■ Similarly, in the US, a NationalElectrical Contractors Association(NECA) chapter implemented a ran-dom drug-testing programme for itscontractors and all their employees,ranging from owners to secretaries.Random drug testing has long been a

goal for local leaders, but politically itwas a difficult programme to imple-ment. According to NECA, the US con-struction industry rates as the topoccupation in which substance abuseis a problem. With annual testing,employees knew the exact date theywould be tested, which obviously dis-credited any of the results. However,with random testing employees onlyhave 8 hours notice before being tested(Quad City Times, 5 January 2006).

■ An Adelaide, Australia testing labwhich regularly conducts urine drugtests for doctors is calling for the com-pulsory drug testing of all doctors andpilots. They’ve seen test results fordoctors with evidence of strong pain-killers, pethidine, morphine and ben-zodiazepines, and the results havemoved them to act. The Minister forHealth is currently awaiting a reportabout the compulsory drug testing ofdoctors before moving ahead with adecision (Sunday Mail, 22 January2006).

BEWARE THE “FALSE POSITIVE”

■ Say the individual consents to takethe drug test, be it on the basis of ran-dom drug testing or pre-employment

screening. The result returns from thelaboratory showing traces of the high-ly addictive narcotic, heroin. Whathappens next? Well, despite the firstconclusion, experts say that it is indeedpossible that the person could haveeaten copious amounts of poppy seeds,rather than taken heroin – since thetwo substances both derive fromopium poppies. For this reason, the USFederal Government has recentlyraised the threshold for opiates inWDT to 2,000 nanograms a millilitre,up from 300 (New York Times, 11 Jan-uary 2005).

■ Similarly, some say that the out-come of a drug test depends partly onthe colour of one’s hair. The hair drugtest is favoured by some employersbecause it can detect drug use up tothree months after use, while urinetests only go back one to three days. Yetstudies have shown that dark-hairedpeople are more likely to test positivefor drugs because they have higher lev-els of melanin, which allows drug com-pounds to bind more easily to hair(Associated Press, 31 August 2005).There is a need to validate test resultsand assess, through a medical profes-sional, if positive results are indicativeof substance abuse (OH&S Canada,2005).

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WDT good practiceIf employers do decide to test, it’s important to use good practice, suchas:! Policy: There must be a written policy document, the content of which

is known to all concerned. The policy should include prevention, iden-tification, counselling, treatment, rehabilitation, and details on atwhat stage disciplinary action will be taken.

! Confidentiality: Must be strictly observed.! Quality: Initial screening and confirmation methods must be based on

different principles of analytical chemistry or different chromatic sep-arations (first test immunoassay, confirmation gas chromatography).Tests should be carried out by an accredited laboratory using accept-ed guidelines for procedures.

! Consultation: Policy should be developed in consultation with work-ers and/or their representatives.

! Review: Procedures should be regularly reviewed to make continu-ous improvement.

What should an employer do instead of, or in conjunction with, testing?

! Have preventive policies and programmes in place guided by the ILOCode of Practice, 1996.

ILO Code of Practice, 1996The ILO Code of Practice, 1996 emphasizes the preventive approach, which:

! calls for joint assessment by employers and workers and their represen-tatives of the effects of alcohol and drug use on the workplace and theircooperation in developing a written policy for the enterprise;

! defines alcohol- and drug-related problems as health problems andestablishes the need to deal with them, without any discrimination, likeany other health problem at work;

! recommends that workplace drug and alcohol policies should cover allaspects of the prevention, reduction and management of alcohol- anddrug-related problems and that the relevant information, education andtraining programmes be integrated, where feasible, into broad-basedhuman resources development, working conditions or occupational safe-ty and health programmes; and

! goes a long way towards establishing the ethical principles vital to con-certed and effective action, such as the confidentiality of personal infor-mation and the authority of the employer to discipline workers for employ-ment-related misconduct, even where it is associated with the use ofalcohol and drugs.

■ Such examples indicate the poten-tial minefield faced by employers whodecide to implement a drug-testingpolicy. Yet it is apparent that employersin all sectors want clearer guidelines onhow to effectively deal with substanceabuse in the workplace. A BlakeLapthorn Linnell survey of UKemployers in 2004 revealed thatalthough most employers didn’t havedrug testing policies, they also didn’tknow where to start. About two thirdsof respondents said the Governmentshould introduce legislation on drugtesting, provided it maintained a bal-ance between the employer’s right toselect workers who were not illegaldrug users and the employee’s right toprivacy (Personnel Today, 7 September2004).

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95th International Labour ConferenceA new international standard on safety and health,changing patterns in the world of work

The 95th International Labour Con-ference devoted much of its session to aspirited debate on the profoundchanges buffeting the world of workand the need to promote decent work.The 4,000 participants also adopted anew Convention on occupational safe-ty and health, put a new face on “theemployment relationship” and dis-cussed standards issues.

GENEVA – At this year’s 95th InternationalLabour Conference, the watchwords were “rele-vance” and “renewal”. Speaking at the conclusionof the Conference, ILO Director-General JuanSomavia said it had “set standards for the 21stcentury which are relevant and applicable forcountries all over the world and at all stages ofdevelopment” and provided “a strong mandateto engage fully in the process of renewing ourmultilateral system, confident in the recognitionwe have as ‘the decent work agency’.”

Indeed, the concept of decent work was verymuch on the minds of the delegates to the ILC,which gathers government, worker and employ-er representatives from the ILO 178 memberStates. That included decent work in terms ofoccupational safety and health, decent work interms of the relations between employees andemployers, and decent work to ease concernsand uncertainty over rapid changes.

For example, the new ILO report Changingpatterns in the world of work had produced“extremely thoughtful and interesting contribu-tions” to help “inform and shape” the ILO’s futurework, Mr. Somavia said. These changes were con-tributing to a sense of unease among workers, andthe discussion on the findings of the changingpatterns report – a year in the making and anunprecedented overview of nearly every aspect ofthe working world – was destined to launch anongoing discussion of future ILO actions.

TWO HEADS OF STATE AND HIGH-LEVEL TRIPARTITE REPRESENTATIVES

n an address to the plenary, H.E. Pres-ident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia

called for urgent action for peace anddevelopment in her country. “Unemploy-ment has risen to an unbelievable andunbearable estimated 85 per cent,” Ms.Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first electedfemale Head of State, told a special ses-sion of the International Labour Confer-ence, adding that youth facing “unem-ployment and idleness . . . have apropensity for social disenchantment.For us, employment is synonymous withpeace.”

H.E. President Oscar Arias Sánchez ofCosta Rica urged the adoption of con-crete measures to ensure a fairer global-

ization. “There exists a fundamental linkbetween decent employment and peace,between work and the defence of humandignity. The right to work is a fundamen-tal right, and without respect for funda-mental rights, peace can be no morethan a dream,” the President told theConference.

The Conference was presided over byMr. Cestmir Sajda, Deputy Minister ofLabour and Social Affairs of the CzechRepublic. Conference Vice-Presidentswere Mrs. Aisha Abdel Hady (Govern-ments), Minister of Manpower andMigration of Egypt, Mr. Jorge de Regil(Employers) of Mexico and Mr. N.M.Adyanthaya (Workers) of India.

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President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia President Oscar Arias Sánchez of Costa Rica

Mr. Jorge de RegilMr. Cestmir Sajda Mrs. Aisha Abdel Hady Mr. N.M. Adyanthaya

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A working agenda

Delegates adopted new standards and meas-ures addressing health and safety issues, givingoverwhelming approval to a new PromotionalFramework Convention on Occupational Safetyand Health and an accompanying Recommen-dation addressing the development of a “preven-tative safety and health culture” through nation-al occupational safety and health programmes.

Faced with a daily death toll of some 6,000workers owing to work-related accidents or ill-ness, the new measures will promote develop-ment of a “preventative safety and health cul-ture” through the elevation of occupationalsafety and health high on national agendas bylaunching national occupational safety andhealth programmes, as well as the promotion ofsafer and healthier working environmentsthrough preventive measures.

The Convention passed by a vote of 455 forand 2 against, with 5 abstentions. The accompa-nying Recommendation was adopted by a voteof 458 for and 3 against and 6 abstentions. Themeasures are based on the ILO’s Global Strategyon Occupational Safety and Health adopted bythe 2003 International Labour Conference

which emphasized the importance of buildingand maintenance of a national preventative safe-ty and health culture, and a systems approach tosafety and health.

A majority of delegates also adopted a Resolu-tion concerning exposure to asbestos, whichcauses some 100,000 deaths worldwide per year.The Resolution declares that the elimination ofthe future use of asbestos and the identificationand proper management of asbestos currently inplace are the most effective means to protectworkers from asbestos exposure and to preventfuture asbestos-related diseases and deaths. Italso resolves that the ILO’s Asbestos Convention,1986 (No. 162) should not be used to provide ajustification for, or endorsement of, the contin-ued use of asbestos.

Many delegates also supported a new Recom-mendation on the “Employment Relationship”,proposing to member States the formulationand adoption, in consultation with workers andemployers, of national policies on effectivelyestablishing the existence of an employmentrelationship and on the distinction betweenemployed and self-employed workers; combat-


ing disguised employment relationships andensuring standards applicable to all forms ofcontractual arrangements.

Delegates also reviewed the ILO’s technicalcooperation programme, taking account of sig-nificant changes that have taken place in theapproach and modalities of ILO programmesand activities since the last time the issue wasdiscussed at the Conference in 1999, includingDecent Work Country Programmes and part-nerships within the United Nations system andelsewhere. They emphasized the importance ofstrengthening the tripartite constituents of theILO and their participation in technical cooper-ation.

Noting that “full and productive employmentand decent work are a central driver of develop-ment and therefore a priority objective of inter-

national cooperation”, the Committee reviewedall aspects of technical cooperation extensively.The Committee’s work will usefully feed into theforthcoming High-Level Segment of ECOSOC,which will debate Decent Work and SustainableDevelopment as its special theme this year.

The Conference also discussed the ILO’sannual report on the situation of workers in theoccupied Arab territories saying that povertyand unemployment continue to worsen despitea moderate economic upturn last year. While theeconomy rebounded moderately in 2005 follow-ing a very sharp dip, four out of every ten Pales-tinians in the territories were living under theofficial poverty line of less than US$2.10 a day,while the absolute number of the poor rose from600,000 in 1999 to 1.6 million in 2005, the newreport says.

STANDARDS ISSUES

he situation of forced labour in Myanmar andrights at work in other countries were also dis-

cussed. The Conference noted that progress couldbe made on the issue of forced labour in Myanmaronly if there was a real commitment from the Gov-ernment. The Conference set out two areas thatrequired “tangible and verifiable” action: therelease of any person who had been imprisoned fol-lowing contacts with the ILO and stopping prosecu-tions that were currently underway, by the end ofJuly, and agreement between Myanmar and the ILOby the end of October on a credible mechanism fordealing with complaints of forced labour with all nec-essary guarantees for the protection of complainants.

At its November 2006 session, the ILO GoverningBody would examine whether this action had beentaken and would have full authority to decide on themost appropriate course of action. During the Con-ference, Myanmar had expressed a willingness tocooperate with the ILO and had released Su Su Nwefrom detention. Her release had been called for bythe ILO since her imprisonment last year, a fewmonths after she had successfully brought a caseagainst government officials for imposing forcedlabour.

The Conference adopted a report by Committeeon the Application of Standards, which covered 25individual cases on the way ILO member States haveapplied Conventions on freedom of association,forced and child labour, discrimination, employmentpolicy, labour inspection, wages, etc. (For moredetails see the relevant ILO press releases).

The Committee also recorded a historic tripartiteagreement by the government, employers and work-ers of Colombia. The agreement foresees a perma-nent representation of the ILO in the country to pro-vide technical assistance in the framework of aNational Decent Work Country Programme. Thisprogramme will include the defence and promotionof fundamental workers’ rights, in particular free-dom of association and expression, collective bar-gaining rights, and the freedom of enterprise foremployers.

The annual General Survey discussed by theCommittee was on labour inspection. The Commit-tee highlighted the crucial importance of labourinspection for ensuring the protection of workersand compliance at national level of labour laws,and its key role for good governance in the worldof work.

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A code on safety and health breaks newground for the world’s miners

Experts representing workers,employers and governments, meetingat the ILO in May, adopted a new Codeof Practice on Safety and Health inUnderground Coalmines designed toimprove the safety and health of work-ers in one of the world’s most danger-ous sectors.

GENEVA – Coalmining is a significant activi-ty in some 50 countries, providing fuel to alloweconomies to industrialize and permit energyand steel production. But it is also one of the

world’s most dangerous and dirtiest jobs, andevery year thousands of miners die in the dark-ness of deep underground mines.

But things are changing. Significant sustainedimprovements in coalmining safety and healthhave resulted from new technologies, more capi-tal investment and training and changes in atti-tudes among competent authorities, employers,workers and their representatives. Now, the ILOand its constituents have crafted a new Code ofPractice that puts potentially life-saving words topaper and in practice for the first time

The new Code, adopted here at a tripartitemeeting, will replace an existing Code adopted in1986 to reflect the many changes in the industry

The ILO’s Governing Bo-dy elected Mr. MembathisiMphumzi Shepherd Mdlad-lana, Minister of Labour of theRepublic of South Africa, asChairman for its 2006-07 Ses-sion. Mr. Mdladlana replacesCarlos Tomada, who served theexecutive council of the ILO asChairman during the 2005-06Session. Mr. Mdladlana hasheld his current position asMinister of Labour since 1998.

Daniel Funes de Rioja, Presi-dent of the Social PolicyDepartment of the ArgentineIndustrial Union and Chair-man of the Employers’ Groupof the Organization of Ameri-can States from 1995 to 1998,

was re-elected as Employer Vice-chairperson. SirLeroy Trotman, General Secretary, BarbadosWorkers’ Union and spokesperson of the Work-ers’ Group in the Governing Body, was re-elect-ed Workers’ Vice-chairperson. The three willserve as Officers of the Governing Body duringits 2006-07 Session.

The Governing Body also approved the 342ndReport of the ILOCommittee on Free-dom of Association,examining 31 cases.Altogether there arecurrently 102 casesbefore the Committee.(For further informa-tion, see press releaseILO/06/32.)

296th Session of the Governing Body

Mr. MembathisiMphumziShepherd

Mdladlana

Mr. Daniel Funesde Rioja Sir Leroy Trotman

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and its workforce, as well as the development ofnew ILO instruments on occupational safety andhealth. It sets out a national framework thatspecifies the roles of the competent authorities,employers, workers and their organizations. TheCode includes a methodology for identifyinghazards and preventing and minimizing risks, aswell as specific provisions for safe undergroundcoalmining operations. It also provides impor-tant practical guidance in support of the provi-sions of the ILO Convention No. 176 on Safetyand Health in Mines, 1995, and its accompany-ing Recommendation, No. 183.

The Code of Practice was adopted by 23 gov-ernment, employer and worker experts follow-ing a six-day meeting; it will be submitted to theILO’s Governing Body in November 2006 forendorsement. (For more information, see ILOPress release ILO/06/20.)

ILO American Regional Meeting sets new“Hemispheric Agenda” for a decade ofdecent work

The Sixteenth American RegionalMeeting of the ILO, held in Brasiliafrom 3-8 May, announced the start of a“Decade of promoting decent work inthe Americas”. The meeting cameamidst concerns over the need for mil-lions of new jobs to ease a massiveemployment deficit facing Latin Amer-ica.

BRASILIA – In an official address to theregional meeting, Brazilian President Luiz InácioLula da Silva put things into perspective.Democracies, he said, must evolve in order toensure that the “world of work can improve”.

The details of the situation facing the Ameri-cas were the subject of the ILO report Decent

work in the Americas: An agenda for the Hemi-sphere, 2006-2015, presented to the Conferenceby ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. Thereport contains recommendations for policiesdesigned to tackle the region’s employment chal-lenges, including the formal employment deficitaffecting 126 million people in Latin America.

“By committing ourselves now to a Decade ofpromoting decent work, we may hope for greatprogress in the region by 2015,” Mr. Somavia saidat the conclusion of the meeting, adding that thetripartite delegates had reached “extremely use-ful” conclusions at a “time of major change inthe region”.

Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Relations, CelsoAmorim, emphasized the importance of “theconcept of decent work” which “enables peopleto feel that they are part of a collective effort”,and of the real purpose of seeking to stimulate

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economic growth; he recalled that “growth is notan end in itself”. (For a more detailed report, seeILO Press Release ILO/06/18.)

A new decade of decent work

The conclusions of the Brasilia meeting affirmthat “as from this Meeting, a Decade of promotingdecent work in the Americas will begin”, addingthat “the countries of the Region stress theimportance of formulating and applying nationalpublic policies that incorporate social dialogue”.

“These policies should stimulate national andforeign investment, inclusive economic growthand the generation of decent work with qualityemployment, social protection and the effectiverespect of labour rights”, the conclusions state.

Delegates agreed on the importance of DecentWork Country Programmes referred to in the“agenda for the hemisphere” report, and on theneed to adapt policies to the specific circum-stances of each country, and considered thatthese Programmes could make an importantcontribution to promoting sustainable socialand economic development.

In order to develop the Programmes, it wasimportant to ensure “direct participation of theemployers’ and workers’ organizations at nation-al level”. The conclusions also call on the ILO tosupport tripartite mechanisms for following upthe results of the meeting.

“We leave here strengthened,” Mr. Somavia said,“with a very practical and concrete mandate.”

The Fourteenth Asian Regional Meeting will be held from29 August to 1 September in Busan, Republic of Korea.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

launches the ILO Global Report, The

end of child labour: Within reach.

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A REGULAR REVIEW OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOURORGANIZATION AND ILO-RELATED ACTIVITIES AND EVENTSTAKING PLACE AROUND THE WORLD

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(OSH) in Agriculture, which waslaunched in 2004, has benefited 600farmers in the country so far and ledto considerable improvements totheir homes and farms. The Ministryof Labour, Invalids and Social Affairsof Viet Nam now plans to carry out afeasibility study on the ratification ofthe ILO Convention on Safety andHealth in Agriculture, 2001 (No. 184).

For further information, please con-tact the ILO Regional Office for Asiaand the Pacific in Bangkok at tel: +66.2.228.2202; fax: +66.2.288.1076; e-mail: [email protected]

Prevention is key tosafety and health■ The latest Asian-Pacific Newslet-ter on Occupational Safety andHealth discusses how to build andmaintain a safety culture to preventoccupational accidents and work-related diseases. The ILO stronglyencourages the launching of nation-al safety and health programmes,one of the key elements of the ILOConvention and Recommendationon the Promotional Framework forSafety and Health at Work adoptedby the International Labour Confer-ence in June 2006. According toJukka Takala, director of the ILO’sSafeWork programme, the manage-ment of the enterprise or organiza-

Safer work in agriculture in Viet Nam■ Agriculture is one of the mostimportant sectors of the economy ofViet Nam, employing 58 per cent ofthe country’s total workforce. But, asin other developing countries, it isalso one of the most hazardousoccupations and farmers areexposed to many accidents andwork-related diseases. The Viet NamChapter of the ILO/Japan RegionalProgramme for Capacity Building ofOccupational Safety and Health

tion plays a central role in this, butnational support and targeted pro-grammes are essential in successfullybuilding and maintaining a preven-tive safety and health culture.

The electronic version of the Asian-Pacific Newsletter on OccupationalSafety and Health vol.13, no.1 (2006)can be accessed at the followingaddress: www.occuphealth.fi/Asian-Pacific-Newsletter

Football without child labour■ As the football World Cup inGermany approached, the ILO pub-lished a brochure on combatingchild labour in soccer ball factoriesin the Sialkot district of Pakistan. AnILO project running since 1997 hashelped significantly in changing theattitudes of parents, authorities andemployers in this district and mak-ing them realize how important edu-cation is to every child’s future. Over95 per cent of football productionlines in the area now operate with-out child labour and over 10,000young people have been supportedin their studies since the projectbegan. The brochure provides moreinformation about this successfulproject and offers suggestions forother actions to abolish child labourin other countries or sectors.

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The Buniyaad School scheme underan ILO project has helped provideeducation to hundreds of former childlabourers who were stitching soccerballs. Over 10,000 young people havebeen supported in their studies sincethe project began in 1997.

For more information, please visitwww.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/publ/download/2004_soccerball_en.pdf

Cooperative Facilityfor Africa■ The International CooperativeAlliance (ICA) and the ILO havejoined forces to enable poor peopleto cooperate out of poverty througha Global Cooperative Campaign.The Essential Research for aCooperative Facility for Africa proj-ect is one of the first initiatives ofthis campaign. Funded by the UKGovernment (DFID), it aims toassess the contribution and potentialof cooperatives and group-basedenterprises to create decent employ-ment, economic activities, basicsocial protection and voice and rep-resentation in the rural and informalsector of African economies.

In April, the ILO and ICA validatedthe design of the Cooperative Faci-lity for Africa during a workshop inNairobi, which was attended bysome 15 cooperative leaders from allsub-regions of Africa. In addition,the meeting enthusiastically adoptedthe strategy of using the CooperativeFacility for Africa as a coordinationmechanism to bring together co-operative centres of excellence, suchas colleges and training centres, onthe African continent to provideassistance and expertise to coopera-tive movements.

For further information, please visitwww.ica.coop/outofpoverty/

Turin training courseon rights ofindigenous peoples■ A training course, “Indigenousand tribal peoples: Rights and goodpractices”, will take place at the

International Training Centre of theILO in Turin from 25-29 September2006. The ILO has been workingwith indigenous and tribal peoplessince the 1920s. It is responsible forthe only international instrumentscurrently in force that dealexclusively with the rights of thesepeoples. ILO work in the field ofindigenous and tribal peoples fallsmainly into two categories: theadoption and supervision ofstandards, and assistance toindigenous and tribal peoples and tomember States.

The course is best suited for civilservants from ministries concernedwith tribal and indigenous affairs,representatives of indigenouspeoples, officials of bi- andmultilateral agencies concerned withindigenous issues, trade unionrepresentatives and NGOs.

For information on the course, or toregister, contact the Turin Centre attel: +39.011.693.6671;fax: +39.011.693.6767;e-mail: [email protected]

Maria and Sauda, members of Women Cooperative, Mtongani, Tanzania, a mushroomand hen house project supported by the ILO

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Balancing labourmarket flexibility andsecurity■ On 11-12 May, the ILO organ-ized a tripartite seminar for high-level representatives from labourministries and the social partners inBudapest to discuss the latest devel-opments and measures taken inCentral and South Eastern Europeancountries (CSEE) regarding the bal-ance between flexibility and securityin the labour market. In order tostimulate the discussion, interna-tional experts presented a compara-tive cross-country analysis of trendsin labour market indicators, institu-tions and policies and their genderimplications (to be published inbook form in late 2006). The overallobjective of the tripartite seminarwas to define follow-up activitieswithin the ILO’s Flexicurity projectlaunched in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hun-gary, Poland and Lithuania in 2003.

For more information,please contact the ILO’s Subregional Office for Central and Eastern Europein Budapest at tel: +36 (1) 301-4901; fax: +36 (1) 353-3683; e-mail: [email protected]

HIV/AIDS and workin Latin America■ As chair of the UNAIDS Commit-tee of Cosponsoring Organizations,the ILO organized a meeting on 6May for ministries and civil societyin conjunction with the ILO Region-al Meeting in Brazil. The purpose ofthe meeting, which was opened byILO Director-General Juan Somavia,was to share information on what isalready being done to addressHIV/AIDS in and through the work-place, and to move forward throughdialogue and partnership betweenministers, workers’ and employers’organizations, UN agencies and civilsociety, particularly people livingwith HIV/AIDS.

According to a recent ILO pressrelease, about 2 million people livewith the virus in Latin America andthe Caribbean, and some 600,000people have died from its effects inthe last 20 years. Delegates at themeeting on HIV/AIDS and theworld of work in Latin America andthe Caribbean heard that accordingto some estimates, about 500 peoplecontract the virus every day in theregion.

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■ Beyond the scoreboard: Youth

employment opportunities and

skills development in the sports

sector

Giovanni di Cola (ed.). ISBN 92-2-

117968-0. Geneva, 2006. US$21.95;

£13.95, €25; 30 Swiss francs.

Offering insightful research from leading

experts, this book examines the role of sport in the

social development and employability of young peo-

ple today. The many challenges confronting the sec-

tor are examined, such as women’s empowerment

in sport, the social insertion of athletes with disabil-

ity and the ensuring of a safe environment. Sport

can also be an innovative method of drawing atten-

tion to issues such as HIV/AIDS prevention and the

reduction of violence and poverty. The need for eth-

ically grounded sports management and physical

education in schools is highlighted, as well as

opportunities available for employment at the local,

regional and global levels.

■ Career guidance: A resource

handbook for low- and middle-

income countries

ISBN 92-2-118376-9. Geneva, 2006.

US$22.95; £12.95; €20; 30 Swiss

francs.

An essential guide to developing effective

career guidance systems, career information,

organizing service delivery, staff development and

improving governance and coordination, this hand-

book provides for the first time a comprehensive

roadmap to help professions navigate their way

through the rapid changes in the labour market and

growing youth unemployment. It includes the first

detailed users’ guide to career guidance sites on the

world wide web that will be invaluable to policy-

makers and professionals looking for interviewing

guides, vocational assessment tools, competency

standards for counsellors, and much more.

■ Changing patterns in the world

of work

International Labour Conference,

95th Session 2006, Report I(C).

Report of the Director-General.

ISBN 92-2-116623-6. Geneva, 2006.

US$15; £9; €13; 20 Swiss francs.

An inquiry into the knowledge base of the ILO to

address the increasing demand on its services, this

report describes a time of opportunity and uncer-

tainty in which some of the barriers that have pre-

vented women and men from fully realizing their

capabilities are coming down, but in which good

jobs that provide the foundation of security to build

better lives are increasingly difficult to find.

■ Decent working time: New

trends, new issues

Jean-Yves Boulin, Michel Lalle-

ment, Jon C. Messenger, François

Michon (eds.).

ISBN 978-92-2-117950-4. Geneva,

2006. US$39.95; £21.95; €35; 50 Swiss francs.

This collection of papers from some of the lead-

ing international scholars in the field reflects on the

profound changes in the nature of working time, and

indeed the nature of employment itself in the indus-

trialized world. See this book featured on page 29.

■ The end of child labour: Within

reach

Global Report under the Follow-up

to the ILO Declaration on Funda-

mental Principles and Rights and

Work 2006. Report of the Director-

General. ISBN 92-2-116603-1. Geneva, 2006.

US$29.95; £15.95; €25; 35 Swiss francs.

This second Global Report on child labour docu-

ments the fact that for the first time, there has been

a worldwide decline in child labour, with the worst

forms decreasing fastest . See this report featured

on p. 14.

■ HIV/AIDS and work in a global-

izing world 2005

ISBN 92-2-118114-6. Geneva, 2006.

US$22.95; £12.95; €20; 30 Swiss

francs.

Highlights the intrinsic links

between poverty, HIV/AIDS, movement for work,

and globalization. The negative impact of the epi-

demic on health and the quality of the labour force,

which deters foreign direct investment, is under-

scored and assessed. Estimates are provided of

populations at risk of HIV/AIDS because of the

impact of poverty in 34 countries in sub-Saharan

Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and

in the more developed regions. Finally, the report

discusses the changes needed to address and

manage the HIV/AIDS epidemic at enterprise,

national and global levels.

■ Meeting the employment chal-

lenge: Argentina, Brazil, and

Mexico in the global economy

Janine Berg, Christoph Ernst, and

Peter Auer

ISBN 92-2-117947-8. Geneva, 2006;

copublication Lynne Rienner. US$55; £30; €45; 70

Swiss francs.

Arguing that economic policies in Argentina,

Brazil, and Mexico favour markets over institutions

and the international economy over the domestic –

to the detriment of the workforce in those countries

– Meeting the Employment Challenge presents

extensive evidence in support of placing employ-

ment concerns at the centre of economic and

social policies.

■ Shipbreaking: What can be

done?

ISBN 978-92-2-018790-6 Geneva,

2006. DVD.

40 Swiss francs.

In this unique DVD the ILO

takes a candid look at the daily lives of those who

toil in this dangerous industry. The award-winning

documentary The Shipbreakers vividly illustrates

the occupational hazards and exposes the often

atrocious working conditions of those who disman-

tle ships. Includes the full text of the ILO’s Safety

and health in shipbreaking: Guidelines for Asian

countries and Turkey, in English, French, Spanish,

Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Turkish and Urdu.

■ Social dialogue and poverty

reduction strategies

Graeme J. Buckley and Guiseppe

Casale (eds.).

ISBN 92-2-117541-3. Geneva, 2006.

US$60; £35; €63; 80 Swiss francs.

This comprehensive volume provides a series of

M E D I A S H E L F


ILO publications for sale can be obtained through major booksellers or ILO local offices in many countries, or directly from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, 4 route des Morillons, CH-1211Geneva 22, Switzerland. Tel: +4122/799-7828, fax: +4122/799-6938, e-mail: [email protected], web site: http://www.ilo.org/publns. Catalogues or lists of new publications are available free of charge from theabove address. The ILO Publications Center in North America can be contacted by phone: +613/745 2665, fax: +613/745 7660, e-mail: [email protected]. Customers from developing countriescan benefit from special discounts on the regular prices indicated in this magazine and may be able to pay in local currency through an ILO field office. For more information, e-mail us at [email protected].

case studies drawing on the ILO’s experience with

national poverty reduction processes in Cambodia,

Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia and the United Republic

of Tanzania. As well as highlighting practical tools

for practitioners engaged in poverty reduction

activities, the book also illustrates in very practical

terms the challenges and opportunities facing the

ILO and its partners.

■ International Labour Review

Vol. 145 (2006), No. 1-2

SPECIAL ISSUE ON MIGRATION

This double issue of the International

Labour Review contains four leading arti-

cles on migration, two “perspectives”, one

on the internationalization of employment,

and one on the Maritime Labour Conven-

tion, 2006. It also contains reviews of a

selection of new books and ILO publica-

tions, several of them on migration ques-

tions.

Temporary migration programmes

Martin Ruhs explores the potential of temporary

migration programmes for helping high-income

countries meet their market needs; providing peo-

ple from low-income countries with better access

to labour markets in higher-income countries; max-

imizing migration’s developmental impact on coun-

tries of origin; and addressing high-income coun-

tries’ concerns about the permanent settlement of

migrants and the diversity of their societies. He also

identifies the core considerations and policies

needed to formulate and effectively implement

TMPs.

The globalization of the labour market for

health-care professionals

Paul F. Clark, James B. Stewart and Darlene A.

Clark study the factors encouraging nurses and

doctors to migrate, measure the costs and benefits

of such migration and analyse methods of foreign

recruitment. They then look at the theories that

explain this phenomenon, and conclude with a pol-

icy discussion of possible strategies, which include

addressing the “push” factors motivating migra-

tion, focusing training on local health-care needs,

signing bilateral agreements that limit migration,

etc.

China’s strategies to reverse the brain drain

David Zweig examines the policies adopted by

China to recover its expatriate brain power by

encouraging scholars living abroad to return. While

local government authorities compete to recruit

returnees, the central Government has introduced

various policies to facilitate repatriation and reset-

tlement, including preferential treatment, financial

benefits and better dissemination of information.

Labour market effects of immigration into Italy

Alessandra Venturini and Claudia Villosio seek

to determine how immigration affects the employ-

ment and unemployment of nationals in Italy. To this

end, they measure the extent to which the pres-

ence of migrant workers affects the probability that

national workers will find jobs or lose the ones they

have. They show that migrant labour tends to have

a complementary rather than a competitive effect

on the labour market.

The internationalization of employment

The author reports on a joint ILO/France sympo-

sium, which was concerned with the international-

ization of employment. Globalization is character-

ized by the internationalization of employment

along value chains, with the concomitant reloca-

tion of production and jobs, restructurings, and

winners and losers. According to the participants,

what was required was a permanent “adjustment

management system”.

The ILO’s new Convention on maritime labour

In February 2006, the Maritime Session of the

International Labour Conference adopted a

consolidated maritime labour Convention. This

instrument represents a major breakthrough in sev-

eral respects. The author presents the Maritime

Labour Convention, 2006 and explains its innovative

features: the consolidation of the provisions of

more than 60 earlier instruments, a new system of

enforcement that provides an incentive for ratifica-

tion, and simplified procedures for revision.

■ Social dialogue in the process

of structural adjustment and pri-

vate sector participation in ports:

A practical guidance manual

Peter Turnbull.

ISBN 92-2-117721-1. Geneva, 2006.

US$19.95; £11.95; €18; 27 Swiss francs.

This accessible manual provides instruments to

manage and facilitate processes of social dialogue

in the world’s ports, targeting particularly those

who are involved in, or are currently planning,

major programmes of structural adjustment and pri-

vate sector participation. It offers concrete exam-

ples of how the various processes and issues can

be handled as well as a series of checklists for self-

reflection.

SPECIAL ISSUE ON MIGRATION

the end of child labour

within reach

No

.57,

Sep

tem

ber

200

6

Documents

Bringing decent work - International Labour · PDF fileBringing decent work ... principle that “the labour of a human being ... World Day Against Child Labour goes global Business