Articles

April 2007

Corporate social responsibility in the IT sector: Is it responsible enough?

13 April 2007

Multinational companies played a key role in attracting foreign direct investment, generating employment, providing training and raising wages in the IT sector worldwide. But there are also considerable social and labour challenges arising from their operations.
Combining microinsurance and new technologies to protect the poor

05 April 2007

Microcredit can help the poor rise above poverty. Microinsurance can help them stay there. By providing protection against certain perils, microinsurance complements other financial and social services. Still, its development relies on significantly reducing operating expenses relative to premiums.
Employment and working conditions in Europe: How much can one work?

04 April 2007

Unemployment, growing competition and the shift of the European Union (EU) from 10 to soon 27 member states have had a deep impact on employment and working conditions in the EU, says a new study by the ILO and the European Commission. For the first time, the study provides information on employment and working conditions in the enlarged EU and identifies the workers most at risk in this process. ILO Online reports from Croatia.
Can the European social model survive? Is flexicurity the answer?

02 April 2007

The search for a better combination of flexibility and security is a major challenge within the European Union, and not only in the accession countries. Two major new studies from the ILO look at different aspects of employment and working conditions.
ILO Global Report Insidiousness and insecurity: The new face of discrimination and inequality in the world of work

01 April 2007

At workplaces where different people gather, one thing remains the same: despite major advances in addressing discrimination at work, inequalities between mainstream groups and those vulnerable to discrimination remain stubbornly persistent and continue to afflict millions of people worldwide.

March 2007

Bird flu: ILO and its constituents gear up for a response

26 March 2007

The recent outbreak of avian flu in the United Kingdom has prompted new calls for a coordinated response from the world of work. The ILO's tripartite structure is ideal for exchanging up-to-date information on risks and control measures and encouraging preparedness measures and preventive behaviour at the workplace. Coordinated by its , the ILO will assist countries to improve working conditions and protect workers against avian flu, drawing from ILO occupational safety and health standards and technical guidelines. To assess the impact of an epidemic on workers, ILO Online spoke with Susan Longley of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF).
Indigenous women overcome multiple obstacles

13 March 2007

Indigenous peoples around the world suffer from discrimination in the world of work, but indigenous women can be particularly hard hit by the double whammy of ethnicity and gender. Jessie Fredlund of the ILO Gender Bureau and INDISCO looks at the problem and finds some success stories in Bangladesh.
HIV/AIDS and the European workplace: Bringing the fight against AIDS to the shopfloor

12 March 2007

HIV/AIDS is a matter of growing concern across Europe as a whole, and in particular Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia. On 12-13 March, Ministers of Health from the European Union (EU), along with representatives of international agencies, multinational companies and civil society meet at the Conference "Responsibility and Partnership - together against HIV/AIDS" in Bremen to consider new initiatives for fighting AIDS in the European context.
Labour markets in Central and South Eastern Europe Positive trends, persisting problems and new challenges

09 March 2007

A new ILO study says that economic growth has accelerated in Central and South Eastern Europe after 2000, but it has not adequately translated into employment creation.
International Women's Day 2007 - Sweet success: How Tajik women are turning honey into economic development

02 March 2007

If honey can cure disease, reduce fever, improve the intellect and make cows give more milk, why not promote local development and female empowerment? That's just what is happening in remote Tajikistan, where honey has become a powerful new development tool. Olga Bogdanova of the ILO's Moscow office reports how honey has sweetened the prospects for local development, and in the process, empowered many of the local women and migrants.