May 2000

1. Press release

   ILO mission opens talks with Government in Myanmar (Burma)

   23 May 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) - A technical cooperation mission of the International Labour Office (ILO) is expected to begin discussions on Wednesday in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) with the Government of Myanmar on the implementation of the recommendations of a 1998 Commission of Inquiry *, which found the use of forced and compulsory labour in that country to be widespread.

2. Press release

   Globalization forges revolution in transport equipment manufacturing (TEM)

   05 May 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) - Globalization is forging a revolution in the US$ 1.7 trillion transport equipment manufacturing (TEM) sector, with fierce competition leading to unprecedented mergers and acquisitions, increasing downward pressure on wages and unionized jobs, and "the end of the factory as we know it," according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO).

3. Press release

   ILO Director-General, addressing May first workers' jubilee in presence of Pope John Paul II, calls for "global coalition for decent work"

   01 May 2000

   ROME (ILO News) - Speaking in the presence of Pope John Paul II, Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Office (ILO), today urged representatives of workers, employers and entrepreneurs attending a "Workers' Jubilee" here to unite in the pursuit of "a global coalition for decent work". Addressing an estimated 200,000 participants marking the 1 st of May, Mr. Somavia called for a re-examination of the "rules and policies that govern our global economy" in order to give it "the ethical backbone it lacks" and to ensure that it "benefits the many, not just the few".

April 2000

1. Press release

   Ninety per cent of world excluded from old age pension schemes. Many schemes badly managed. Problems foreseen in coping with ageing populations and diversifying risk

   28 April 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) – Some 90 per cent of the world’s working-age population is not covered by pension schemes capable of providing adequate retirement income, the International Labour Office (ILO) says in a new publication: Social Security Pensions: Development and Reform.

2. Press release

   Worker insecurities in Ukraine

   25 April 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) - Today the International Labour Office (ILO) is releasing the first results of a major survey of industrial enterprises in Ukraine covering over half a million workers. It tells a story of hardship and decline that has lasted throughout the first decade of the country's existence since the break-up of the Soviet Union. "The conventional statistics on employment and unemployment are distorting and misleading", says the Director of the ILO's InFocus programme on socio-economic security in the twenty-first century, Guy Standing, who designed the survey. "Most of the nominally employed do not have jobs, and many of those in jobs are not being paid."

3. Press release

   ILO study to highlight "widespread turbulence" in the world of pension schemes

   18 April 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Office (ILO) announces the publication of a major global study on pension funds, which finds, inter alia, that as much as 90 per cent of the world's workforce is unlikely to enjoy any sort of old age or retirement benefit due inadequate or nonexistent pension provisions and that pension funds in even the wealthiest countries are facing increasing financial shortfalls as populations age and the cost of retirement benefits increases.

4. Press release

   ILO to hold meeting on educational trends

   07 April 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) - The changing roles of educational personnel and school and workplace learning changes in the 21 st century will be examined at a Joint meeting on lifelong learning in the twenty-first century to be held at the ILO from 10-14 April 2000.

March 2000

1. Press release

   ILO Governing Body concludes 277 th Session

   31 March 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) - The Governing Body of the ILO concluded its 277 th session today after adopting conclusions on a wide range of subjects.

2. Press release

   Forced labour persists in Myanmar

   29 March 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) - In an action unprecedented in the ILO's 80-year history, the Organization's Governing Body has set in motion a discussion in its June 2000 Conference, which could result in an appeal to its other 174 member States to review their relationship with the Government of Myanmar (Burma) and to take appropriate measures to ensure that Myanmar "cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labour" practised against the country's citizens.

3. Press release

   ILO programme seeks to address labour market woes in West Bank and Gaza. Appeals to donors for funding

   23 March 2000

   GENEVA (ILO News) – The Geneva-based International Labour Organization in appealing to the international community to fund a three-year, US$ 20 million programme with the goal of strengthening the job- and income-generating capacity of small- and micro-enterprises in the West Bank and Gaza strip.