October 1999

1. Press release

   Trade Unions Seek to Organize Millions of Marginalised Workers in Burgeoning "Informal Sector"

   18 October 1999

   GENEVA (ILO News) - The "informal sector," a term which refers to the broad swathe of small, usually irregular and often makeshift jobs, now absorbs as much as 60% of the labour force in the cities and towns of the developing world and in many countries it is the only part of the economy creating any new jobs at all.

September 1999

1. Press release

   New ILO child labour Convention receives first ratification

   30 September 1999

   GENEVA (ILO News) - The Republic of Seychelles became the first country to formally ratify the ILO's newest international labour standard on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, Convention No. 182, which was adopted unanimously by the Organization's 174 member States at the International Labour Conference in Geneva last June.

2. Press release

   Americans work longest hours among industrialized countries, Japanese second longest. Europeans work less Time, but register faster productivity gains New ILO statistical volume highlights labour trends worldwide

   06 September 1999

   GENEVA (ILO News) - US workers put in the longest hours on the job in industrialized nations, clocking up nearly 2,000 hours per capita in 1997, the equivalent of almost two working weeks more than their counterparts in Japan where annual hours worked have been gradually declining since 1980, according to a new statistical study of global labour trends published by the International Labour Office (ILO).

August 1999

1. Press release

   International Labour Organization's XIV th American Regional Meeting concludes its work

   27 August 1999

   LIMA (ILO News) - After expressing their conviction "that economic policies must be harmonized with social justice policies," the representatives of governments, employers, and labour organizations from 35 American countries have reaffirmed their decision to promote concrete actions for the creation of decent work and the immediate elimination of the worst forms of child labour.

2. Press release

   The Director-General of the ILO warns of increasing "social insecurity" in Latin America

   24 August 1999

   LIMA (ILO News) - Warning of a prevailing feeling of "social insecurity" in Latin America as the century drew to a close, Mr Juan Somavia, the Director-General of the International Labour Office (ILO), called for the benefits of economic development to be translated into just and equitable social progress, and said that it was not possible to go on regarding social issues as something separate from economic issues.

3. Press release

   Despite decade-long reforms, social progress risks stalling in Latin America, Caribbean, warns ILO in new report

   23 August 1999

   LIMA (ILO News) - Unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean is rising fast and is expected to affect as many as 9.5% of the region's regular workforce this year, surpassing the peak jobless rates during the external debt crisis of the 1980s, despite a decade of economic reform and modernization, says the International Labour Office (ILO) in a new report on Latin American/Caribbean labour markets.

July 1999

1. Press release

   Juan Somavia calls on international organizations to join global campaign for the eradication of the worst forms of child labour

   05 July 1999

   GENEVA (ILO News) - The Director-General of the International Labour Office has called on multilateral organizations and people everywhere to join in a global campaign for the eradication of the worst forms of child labour.

June 1999

1. Press release

   Governing Body Elects New Officers

   18 June 1999

   GENEVA (ILO News) - Meeting in Geneva today, the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) elected as Chairman of its 1999-2000 Session, Mr. Jean-Jacques Elmiger, Ambassador, representative of the Government of Switzerland. He replaces Mr. Nobutoshi Akao, Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the Government of Japan in Geneva, who served as Chairman during the 1998-99 Session.

2. Press release

   ILO concludes 87 th Conference Adopts new instruments against child labour

   17 June 1999

   GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Conference today wrapped up its 87 th session which heard addresses by three heads of state and a Nobel laureate, and reached a unanimous decision to adopt a Convention and Recommendation banning the worst forms of child labour.

3. Press release

   ILO adopts Convention banning worst forms of child labour and starts a campaign for its ratification

   17 June 1999

   GENEVA (ILO News) - International Labour Organization (ILO) member States today took a decisive step towards liberating scores of millions of children from slavery and debt bondage, prostitution and pornography, dangerous work and forcible recruitment for armed conflict.