Articles

February 2006

1. Sharing profit, knowledge and power: Worker-owned businesses

   21 February 2006

   The number of employee-owned businesses such as John Lewis in the United Kingdom where the share capital is held for the benefit of the workforce remains relatively small. However, a recent ILO publication ( Note 1), suggests that this form of company structure is both successful in business terms and more widely applicable. Andrew Bibby reports for ILO Online from London.

2. 

   Skill is power: broadening partnerships to promote youth employment

   13 February 2006

   According to ILO estimates, nearly half of the world's more than 190 million unemployed people are under the age of 24. A target of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to give young people a chance to find decent and productive work. ILO Online reports from Jamaica where the National Training Agency and the Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) promote learning opportunities and skills young people can use when they get out of school.

3. 

   Maritime Session of the International Labour Conference (7-23 February 2006): A new standard for the global shipping industry

   02 February 2006

   Nearly 1.2 million seafarers work for the world's shipping industry. The ILO now heads for a new Maritime Labour Convention reflecting the needs of a globalized shipping industry. If adopted, the standard will consolidate and update more than 65 international labour standards adopted over the last 80 years. ILO Online spoke with Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, Director of the ILO's International Labour Standards Department, about the new Convention.

January 2006

1. Environmentally sustainable development: the WILL is there

   30 January 2006

   NAIROBI (ILO Online) - The Workers Initiative for a Lasting Legacy (WILL 2006), organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in cooperation with the ILO, SustainLabour and the UN Global Compact, held here the first ever trade union assembly on labour and the environment last week. ILO Online spoke with Lene Olsen from the ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities who participated in the assembly.

2. Maritime Session of the International Labour Conference (7-23 February 2006): The global seafarer: mixed fortunes mirror global trends

   29 January 2006

   Nearly 1.2 million seafarers work for the world's shipping industry. Aboard the world's cruise ships, crews often represent 20 nationalities or more. While the current shipbuilding boom has created strong demand for officers worldwide, the trend towards increasingly automated vessels also reduces the need for ratings. The ILO now heads for a new Maritime Labour Convention reflecting the needs of a globalized shipping industry. If adopted, the standard will consolidate and update more than 65 international labour standards adopted since the 1920s. Journalist Ian Gill reports from the Philippines.

3. Is there a decent way to break ships?

   26 January 2006

   GENEVA (ILO Online) - The dispatch of the asbestos-laden aircraft carrier 'Clemenceau' from France to the world's largest ship graveyard on India's west coast for scrapping has focused new attention on the human and environmental dangers inherent in ship breaking. While breaking ships and selling of the scrap and hardware from retired vessels provides work and income for tens of thousands of persons in Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan, the work is dangerous and can cause deaths due to work accidents as well as serious acute and chronic health problems, especially due to exposure to hazardous substances such as asbestos. ILO Online spoke with ILO shipbreaking expert Paul Bailey.

4. Which is best for the economy: employment stability or employment flexibility?

   20 January 2006

   A recent article in the ILO's International Labour Review analyzes the relationship between employment stability and productivity in six major sectors in 13 European countries. According to the authors, both, extensive and short job tenure can produce adverse affects on productivity. They propose a policy of "protected mobility" on the labour market, together with active labour market policies seeking to combine both flexibility and security. ILO online spoke with Peter Auer, co-author of the article.

5. 

   The Lego experience: "Putting flexibility and security together"

   13 January 2006

   Workers who are facing layoffs may want to know why employees at Danish toymaker Lego don't worry too much if their jobs are outsourced. It has to do with what the International Labour Office and others call "flexicurity". ILO Online reports from the Lego toy factory in Denmark.

6. 

   Asbestos: the iron grip of latency

   10 January 2006

   The ILO estimates that 100,000 people die each year from work-related asbestos exposure. Asbestos-caused cancers will kill at least 15,000 people in Japan in the next five years, and up to 100,000 people in France over the next 20 to 25 years. In the United States, hundreds of thousands of injury claims have been filed since the 1970s for deaths, cancers and other health problems related to asbestos exposure, bankrupting dozens of U.S. companies. ILO online spoke with Jukka Takala, Director of the ILO InFocus Programme SafeWork.

7. 

   Working out of Disaster: Tsunami, one year after

   06 January 2006

   On the morning of 26 December 2004 a massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia triggered a series of tsunami waves that struck the coastal regions of Asia and Africa. In Asia, the coastal areas of India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand bore the brunt of the damage. The ILO, together with the governments, employers' and workers' organizations in these four countries has been engaged in its largest-ever income generation and employment creation effort, helping to restore the livelihoods of people affected. To mark the first year after the disaster the ILO has documented the lives of those people affected by the disaster and their efforts to get back to work quickly and rebuild their lives