Feature articles

July 2007 

• International Day of Cooperatives 2007 - Seeds of change: cooperatives in Ethiopia
  05 July 2007 - Celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July, the International Day of Cooperatives highlights this year how cooperatives can promote corporate social responsibility by their very nature as enterprises that balance economic, environmental, and social imperatives. ILO Online reports from Ethiopia where the ILO helped to organize more than 100,000 coffee producers in 115 cooperatives.
  • Message from Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Office, on the occasion of the International Cooperatives Day 2007

June 2007 

• Promoting sustainable enterprises: safe work is also good business
  21 June 2007 - “Sustainable enterprises cannot afford to have injuries and diseases at work, which would not only interrupt operations but may have strong economic and reputational consequences”. Eleven enterprises from the Leningrad region in Russia’s North-West had a chance to check this statement from an ILO report to the International Labour Conference against daily practice. ...
• “For fishers their ship is their home, and for many the crew is their only family”
  19 June 2007 - On the 14th of June, the ILO’s 96th International Labour Conference adopted a new Convention and Recommendation on work in the fishing sector. The new instruments are aimed to ensure decent living and working conditions for some 30 million workers in the global fishing industry. ILO Online reports from Ukraine where the fishing industry is currently in crisis.
• Feature story from the Philippines: Making future harvests without child labour
  11 June 2007 - Seventy per cent of the world’s working children are in agriculture. From tending cattle to harvesting crops, handling dangerous machinery and spraying pesticides, over 132 million children aged 5 to 14 help produce the food we eat and the clothes we wear. Minette Rimando who works for the ILO’s Subregional Office in Manila reports from the Philippines.
• Role Reversal: When it comes to who works the longest hours, many Philippine women are the global exception
  08 June 2007 - A new ILO study says men average longer working hours in paid work than women in almost every country around the world for which data are available. The sole exception to this pattern is the Philippines where employed women were two to three times more likely than men to work exceptionally long hours of over 64 hours per week. ...

May 2007 

• Improving living and working conditions in the fishing sector - 96th session of the International Labour Conference
  29 May 2007 - Delegates to the 96th International Labour Conference will consider a new international labour standard that revises the seven existing ILO standards on fishing adopted between 1920 and 1966. The discussions will focus on living and working conditions of some 30 million people who work in the global fishing sector, one of the world’s most dangerous. ...
• Small enterprise development in Uganda: Making markets work for the poor
  24 May 2007 - Information is critical in effective business operations and in the efficient operation of markets. An ILO project in Uganda empowers the poor to advocate for their own business interests and to expand their business as a result of putting into practice what they learned on the radio. ...
  • International Labour Conference (ILC)
• International Nurses Day (12 May 2007) - Positive practice in the health sector: Quality workplaces equal quality patient care
  10 May 2007 - In 2006, the World Health Organization identified the global health workforce crisis, including the critical shortage of nurses, as a priority item for action. The reasons for the health care and nursing crisis are varied and complex, but dangerous and unhealthy work environments are key among them.
• Equality at work: Tackling the challenges of disability
  09 May 2007 - The challenge for enhancing the employability of people with disabilities is significant. But according to a new ILO global report on discrimination in the world of work, there is growing evidence that people with disabilities are not only more productive, they may actually be more skilled in certain types of jobs than non-disabled people.
• Equality at work - Just a family medical history: genetic testing before getting a job?
  09 May 2007 - The new ILO Global report on discrimination in the world of work refers to a number of emerging practices which can result in unfavourable treatment of potential job candidates because of the perceived risks that have nothing to do with the requirements of the job or their competence or skills.