Features

2012

1. 

   Article

   A green plumber for a greener economy

   21 June 2012

   The transition towards a greener economy is expected to affect about half of the global labour force or roughly 1.5 billion people. This means changes in terms of job types and workers’ skills – a topic that is high on the Rio+20 agenda.

2. 

   Article

   Rio+Social: social media must ‘defriend’ the waste of Earth’s resources

   20 June 2012

   A global online discussion highlighted the power social media can wield in the debate on our planet’s future. The daylong event was held as world leaders converged on Rio de Janeiro for the Rio+20 Summit.

3. Article

   Employers make the case for hiring people with disabilities

   19 June 2012

   101st session of the ILC held event on ILO Business and Disability Network to highlight the business case for hiring people with disabilities

4. 

   Article

   Green and fair: Cooperatives in Ethiopia

   19 June 2012

   By their very nature, cooperatives can balance economic, environmental, and social needs. The ILO will be showcasing some of its successful experiences in this field at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). One of them involves more than 200,000 coffee producers and almost 200 cooperatives in Ethiopia.

5. 

   Article

   Working a childhood away in Afghanistan’s kilns

   07 June 2012

   Children as young as five work as brick makers in Afghanistan’s kilns, as poverty and debt keep their families in low-wage bonded labour. Tackling the issue is far more complex than just banning child labour in the kilns, the ILO says.

6. 

   Article

   From a child’s eye: Working in the hot sharp salt fields of Cambodia

   07 June 2012

   This year, the world marks the tenth anniversary of the annual World Day Against Child Labour. But for many parents in Cambodia, sending their children to work is an economic necessity.

7. 

   Article

   Cape Verde: How social protection can help the elderly

   04 June 2012

   The International Labour Conference is considering adoption of a Recommendation on Social Protection Floors. The ILO is convinced every country can move towards social security for all, and cites the example of impoverished Cape Verde.

8. 

   Article

   Behind the figures: Faces of forced labour

   01 June 2012

   Forced labour affects all regions and many different sectors, thus taking different faces, including bonded labour, degrading working conditions, trafficking, abuse of vulnerability. However, with a sustained commitment and resources, it is possible to combat forced labour.

9. 

   Article

   Furthering social justice

   15 May 2012

   May 7 of this year marks the 80th anniversary of Albert Thomas’s death in 1932. After a devastating world war, the ILO’s first Director (1919–32) argued that “economic and social questions are indissolubly linked and economic reconstruction can only be sound and enduring if it is based on social justice”.

10. 

    Article

    Giving Indonesia’s new generation the skills and self-confidence to find decent work

    15 May 2012

    Indonesia’s new generation of young people are creative, connected, concerned and keen to succeed. But today, far too many can’t find decent jobs.