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News in brief
Substance abuse at work
Private and public sectors team up
against drinks and drugs in the workplace
Today drug and alcohol abuse at work affects all countries, regardless of their development, costing enterprises and companies money and time and endangering workers and their colleagues. In an effort to address this problem, representatives of the private sector met with public sector agencies, including the ILO, in Sweden recently to discuss the issue.
From 9-12 May in Sundsvall, Sweden, 200 mostly-European business, government and labour representatives met to try to pierce the wall of silence enveloping the issue of substance abuse at work. They mapped out plans to integrate substance abuse prevention into quality and safety programmes in the workplace, increase support services for employers, launch networks among enterprises, improve cooperation between business and the community, and promote collaboration with schools.
The "Fourth International Private Sector Conference on Drugs in the Workplace and the Community," was part of a series launched six years ago and organized jointly by the ILO, the UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), the Swedish Council for Alcohol and Narcotic Matters (ALNA) and the public-private Sundsvall alliance in Sweden.
Studies show that 20 to 25 per cent of workplace accidents and up to 30 per cent of work-related deaths are linked to drugs and alcohol. Even small amounts taken hours earlier are dangerous. In one US study, airline pilots used a simulator under three different alcohol conditions. Before drinking, only 10 per cent failed to perform all operations correctly. After reaching a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10/100 ml, the figure shot up to 89 per cent. Fourteen hours later, after the alcohol had left their systems, 68 per cent still could not perform all the operations correctly.
Participants agreed that peer pressure is essential to reduce substance abuse at work and decided to launch a network of corporations to help share information and provide support. "The private sector can help us help them," said Behrouz Shahandeh, ILO Senior adviser on Drugs and Alcohol. "They know what resonates with top management in corporations. Peers can actually move things better than advisors."
By making their own contacts and keeping in touch after the meeting, businesses can develop the resources they need and avoid resorting to government help. Participants also agreed to help introduce training on abuse issues into management training programmes.
Drug and alcohol abuse at work is risky and leads to poor performance, absenteeism, accidents or even death. It also costs money. Studies have shown that in the United States, for example, alcohol-related incidents have cost the economy as much as some US$100 billion per year, including US$77 billion in lost productivity.
Substance abusers claim up to three times as many sickness benefits and file five times as many claims. Absenteeism is two to three times higher for drug and alcohol users. In addition, one study at General Motors found that drug-using employees average 40 days sick leave a year compared with 4.5 for non-users.
Added to the economic impact, are the human costs: loss of health or jobs, family problems, impact on children, or domestic violence. In poorer families, the burden can be even heavier since income desperately needed for food and shelter is diverted into paying for drink or drugs. In extreme cases, substance abuse can lead to child labour when children are forced to step in as breadwinners if their parents lose their jobs.
The meeting concentrated on substance abuse in Europe, where drinking is a deeply ingrained social habit and drug use, especially amphetamines, is on the rise. It concluded there was good and bad news: greater awareness, yes, but also much left to do.
On the positive side, nearly 80 per cent of companies in Denmark have a policy on alcohol. In Sundsvall, site of the conference, city, labour and industry have joined forces to prevent drug and alcohol abuse at work and to help rehabilitated workers return to their jobs. In the Netherlands, problems relating to alcohol, drugs and medication must be included in corporate risk inventories. Other countries, such as Spain and Belgium, have passed laws which involve workers and prevention services in assessing risks at work. In many countries, sale of alcohol in the workplace has been curtailed, though rarely banned.
On the down side, a recent study in Belgium showed that over 60 per cent of enterprises had no formal drug or alcohol policy. A survey of 400 French companies with more than 50 employees found that 70 per cent of firms had no specific policies for dealing with abuse of alcohol. In Portugal, a few companies have developed policies. None were found in Greece.
However serious, some companies still choose to ignore the issue. They deny it exists and continue to absorb the costs. "Often it is a question of image," said Mr Shahandeh. Companies with drug and alcohol programmes might be perceived as having a problem, he said, and their products or goods questioned. In some cases, decision-makers themselves use alcohol or drugs, making it difficult to take the necessary action.
Most experts agree the solution to substance abuse is early action. Prevention gets to the problem before it becomes one. In Ontario, Canada, a jump in employee assistance and health programmes across the workforce cut alcohol consumption by 19 per cent and liver cirrhosis and deaths by a third. Rehabilitation, too, shows impressive results. In a study in the US State of Ohio, treatment led to a 91 per cent decrease in absenteeism, an 88 per cent decrease in problems with supervisors, a 93 per cent decrease in mistakes at work, and a 97 per cent decrease in on-the-job injuries.
The framework for prevention and rehabilitation already exists. ILO's Code of Practice 1, adopted in 1995, contains practical advice for those who address drug- and alcohol-related problems in the workplace. It calls on employers and workers to develop policy together, defines substance abuse as a health problem which requires treatment like any other illness, recommends including substance issues in wider management practices, and outlines the ethics of disciplining substance abusers.
On a broader scale, the UN Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction 2, adopted in 1998, highlights the importance of bringing everyone concerned into the debate - the private sector, government, NGOs, employers' and workers' organizations, parents, teachers, health professionals and youth and community groups.
- Leyla Alyanak for World of Work
1 The ILO Code of Practice on the Management of Alcohol- and Drug-related issues in the Workplace. (ILO, 1996), ISBN 92-2-109455-3. (Also available in French and Spanish).
2 The Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction, adopted by the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly Devoted to Countering the World Drug Problem Together, 8-10 June 1998.
ILO launches new programme
The ILO is launching the first-ever national programme to combat child labour in Albania, where officials say years of economic decline, coupled with the recent crisis in the Balkans, are worsening an already dire situation for many children. The programme will be carried out by the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).
Since the early 1990s, Albania - Europe's poorest nation - has seen an explosion of child labour. Begging, resorting to prostitution for survival, crossing to Italy and Greece to sell paper handkerchiefs, gadgets, wash cars or perform other menial tasks, thousands of abandoned or unguided children are eking out a livelihood any way they can.
The collapse of Albanian civil authority means parents must no longer send their children to school. In some parts of the country, fear of vendettas or blood feuds keeps thousands of young boys in hiding and out of classrooms. Reports indicate that some children are being trafficked to other countries for sex and drug trafficking. According to one study, no more than 7 per cent of the children in some suburbs of Tirana populated by poor migrant squatters are in school.
Stepping into this situation, the ILO's child labour fighting arm initially aims at providing "direct support" to an estimated 10,000 children. Soon, officials say, there may be more. Although no systematic data have been collected on child labour in Albania, government officials believe the problem is growing. IPEC says reports of children obliged to take on full-time jobs rather than go to school are multiplying.
"The dramatic financial losses experienced by most Albanian families in recent years, combined with the current crisis in the Balkans, are inevitably pushing even larger numbers of children away from classrooms into fields, workshops and onto the streets," said IPEC Programme Manager Werner K. Blenk. "IPEC has found that up to now, there was no comprehensive effort to prevent the commercial exploitation of Albanian children. Only a few isolated associations, non-governmental organizations and individuals have implemented limited initiatives, with uneven levels of success."
With the collapse of the government in 1991, parents are no longer obliged to send their children to school, resulting in a drop in school enrollment. This, in turn, is an indicator of an increase in working children.
In rural areas, children are kept at home to help with field work and caring for domestic animals. In cities, an increasing number of children sell cigarettes, cassettes and other gadgets in the street. In northern parts of the country, the fear of vendettas deters children from attending school.
IPEC's Country Programme will include:
Although the new Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 was just adopted by ILO member States in June at the International Labour Conference, a number of its provisions are already relevant in Albania. IPEC officials say the new programme will see application of the Convention's definitions of the "worst forms" of child labour - including a ban on use of children under 18 for prostitution and drug trafficking, as well as work which harms their health and morals. And provisions of the new Convention calling for the rehabilitation of children - both physical and psychological - will be among the first to be applied.
Says Blenk: "National and local institutions are in especially dire conditions right now and are in need of important revitalization and retraining of staff. Experience shows that the current crisis will have long-term serious impacts on children."
- Robert SanGeorge, IPEC Geneva
Employment promotion within reconstruction programmes:
Field experiences
The devastating effects of natural disasters like El Niño and hurricane Mitch has left many Latin American countries with the difficult task of rebuilding their infrastructures. No matter how tedious and painful, a well-targeted reconstruction programme could accomplish both the required rebuilding, as well as renewed attention to employment policy and a change in attitude regarding contracting procedures with the private sector.
The ILO advocates an employment-intensive execution of public works often working through small-scale local contractors. This approach ensures better performance for the same investment, since it not only produces the work desired, but also provides job opportunities for many people.
The project, "Promotion of Employment-Intensive Methods in Public Investments" started in 1998 for a two-year period and is executed by the Andean Multidisciplinary Team (Lima, Peru) with technical backstopping from ILO's Development Policies Department (POLDEV), Geneva. Covering Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, this project allows the ILO to set foot in a region where the Employment-Intensive Programme (EIP) has not had a presence for many years. It looks as though its appearance has been right on time.
Although the three countries mentioned did witness quite acceptable economic growth rates during the first half of this decade, the under and unemployment percentages have not substantially declined. Their economies have not been able to convert the economic growth into a sufficient number of quality jobs.
Among the reasons for this: capital-intensive sectors were driving growth without creating many new jobs, and the growth pattern over the years was irregular and failed to produce a sustained period of growth higher than 5 per cent.
Besides that, the context of these countries is still marked by the effects of structural adjustment programmes, although these differ in intensity. Peru for example introduced the required reforms in the early 1990s and has already overcome the initial shocks, whereas Ecuador has just started. Although these reforms and adjustments were undoubtedly necessary, they should be implemented while accompanied by parallel programmes aimed at the alleviation of social problems resulting from them. This, however, has not always been the case.
To these structural difficulties, short-term problems have been added in the form of the El Niño current, the effects of the Asian and Russian crises, and the recent financial problem in Brazil. This combination of factors has diminished hopes for economic growth in the near future. The recent financial crisis in Ecuador is a signal of the seriousness of the situation and demonstrates the need, besides the required reforms, for active employment policies.
The EIP: A direct job-creation programme
Within the range of possible policy recommendations, the construction and infrastructure sectors offer a considerable potential for employment generation. This in view of the key importance of infrastructure for overall development, the relative weight of the sectors in the National Product, and the possibility in some works to adjust the capital-labour relation to a more favourable position for the latter of the two. This is exactly what the ILO project focuses on.
The project started its activities in January 1998, and concentrated initially on promoting the EIP concept, familiarizing potential counterparts in the countries concerned. The above-mentioned situation of structural and short-term problems has provoked an increasing interest in policies to absorb the vast group of under- and unemployed. There is an increasing awareness that a more rational utilization of funds for infrastructure work, contracting local, small entrepreneurs and using locally available resources, could have a positive impact on employment.
However, it became clear that the degree of awareness and application of employment-intensive interventions differed substantially between the three countries. Whereas in Peru an employment-intensive programme on rural road maintenance already existed (Programa Caminos Rurales, financed by IBRD, IADB and the Peruvian Government) with which the project could associate, in Bolivia and Ecuador there had not been similar activities so far. The second priority of the project has been to identify those areas of technical assistance where it could provide an added value. This has culminated in various national, as well as subregional projects.
Advantages of the employment-intensive approach
The main advantage of employment-intensive technologies is that planned investments in infrastructure have a higher rate of return; not only will the works be completed according to technical and budgetary norms, but in addition, the local private sector becomes involved in productive activities in areas where alternatives for job generation in general are scarce. Furthermore, the use of local human and material resources stimulates the local economy and creates self-reliance.
It is important to keep in mind that not all activities in construction or infrastructure work are suitable for an EIP approach. However, where feasible the concept fits in very well in an overall development strategy and contributes to a more equitable income distribution. Another issue emphasized by the project is that the country can save itself a lot of money through adequate maintenance of the infrastructure. Contracting small enterprises for roads maintenance to ensure their durability, is a lot cheaper than to have to reconstruct them in five years as a result of lack of conservation.
Reconstruction is extremely expensive and countries should be conscious of this vicious circle. It is more productive to spend on maintenance, providing incentives and employment opportunities to local workers and the local private sector. Equally important is to achieve a change in attitude of decision-makers and implementers, so that they will be able to make a fair judgement as to which technology, equipment- or labour-based, or a mixture of both, would be appropriate in all cases of investment. It might even be necessary to adjust legislation, because in some countries legal obstacles impede small contractors to have access to public works contracts.
The interest in EIP programmes, and the demand for assistance that stems from it, is on the rise. This trend is observed not only in the three countries of the ILO project, but also elsewhere on the continent. In the present economic situation, the EIP approach can certainly make a positive contribution to alleviating the poverty problem.
Another interesting fact is that one of the few Latin American countries in which the ILO has been involved in the past in this field, Colombia, has institutionalized the experience and its policy is to systematically contract local small enterprises for road maintenance. This model is often referred to by other countries in their search for practical solutions to the problems of under and unemployment. Important to note as well is an increasing tendency in the continent to launch EIP-type programmes backed by financing of international donors (besides Peru, also in Guatemala and Nicaragua). Although not involved from the start, the experience in Peru has shown that the ILO can play an important and appreciated role in providing technical assistance on issues related to its mandate. These programmes, and the ministries in charge of employment policies and labour issues as well as the ILO, have a mutual interest in the successful implementation and the subsequent institutionalization of the EIP concept.
- Source: The Employment-Intensive Programme (EIP), ILO/POLDEV
International Labour Office and Inter-Parliamentary Union
sign Cooperative Accord
The International Labour Office (ILO) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) have signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation between them, and take practical steps aimed at promoting social justice, democratic principles and human rights.
Under the terms of the accord, signed by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, and IPU Inter-Parliamentary Council President Miguel Angel Martinez and IPU Secretary-General Anders B. Johnsson, the two organizations agreed to work to promote ratification and implementation of international legal instruments adopted by the ILO's International Labour Conference, including a Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work approved by the Conference last year.
"The Inter-Parliamentary Union helps ensure that laws remain modern, dynamic instruments that lead to positive change by responding to the changing social needs of the people," Mr. Somavia said. "In political terms, this agreement gives us greater access to thousands of parliamentarians and millions of freely-expressed votes with a view to furthering the pursuit of social justice, improving the protection of workers and conditions of labour, and promoting democratic principles."
The agreement is designed to strengthen future joint action to promote legislative consideration of a host of ILO Conventions and Recommendations on such issues as abolishing child labour, assuring the right of workers to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and eliminating discrimination and all forms of forced or compulsory labour, among others. It will also forge new links between the two bodies in terms of consultations and the exchange of information, and mutual representation at conferences and meetings.
The IPU was established in 1889 and is the world organization of parliaments of sovereign States. The Union brings together the representatives of 138 parliaments for the study of political, legal, economic, social and cultural issues of international significance, and works for peace and cooperation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy.
- Source, press release ILO/99/14.
The challenge of industrial negotiations in new working conditions
The advent and large-scale uptake of information and communication technologies with the growing development of so-called teleworking is a challenge both for worker and management organizations. Internet expert Alan McCluskey says this challenge was recently taken up by the MIRTI (Models of Industrial Relations in Telework) consortium within the context of the European Union's Telematics Applications programme.
If one of your traditional roles in society is defending workers' interests in industrial negotiations, how are you going to handle the proliferation of new work forms?
If the workforce of your member companies has been located solely in-house at regular hours, how are you to going to handle the trend to individualization and flexibility in terms of times and place of work in negotiations with worker organizations?
The MIRTI consortium was led by the European Institute of Social Studies based in Rome. Other members of the consortium included industrial partners such as Saritel in Italy, IBM Austria and Telehaus Wetter in Germany, as well as worker organizations such as the Workers' Educational Association Telematics Centre based in Manchester and research centres like IUK Dortmund.
In response to the challenge, the MIRTI consortium opted for a form of knowledge management, replying to the proclaimed knowledge revolution with its own means. Between 1996 and 1998, the consortium studied what is already being done in terms of industrial negotiations about working conditions in teleworking, with a view to spreading the awareness of that experience and building on it.
In so doing they themselves explored the use of the Internet as a tool for discussion and awareness-raising. The consortium limited its work to the question of industrial negotiations about telework, although to do so they had to get a better understanding of telework itself.
Having identified teleworking experiments among the companies and cities studied so as to cover the multiple facets of the question, the consortium interviewed the pertinent people and obtained copies of their contractual agreements. On the basis of these interviews they drew up case studies.
To make their work coherent and communicable to others, the MIRTI consortium chose a number of categories of potential audiences for their work: employees, large companies, SMEs, freelancers, local initiatives, local authorities and public bodies. They identified subjects in the case studies likely to be of interest to the different audiences. These included working hours, data protection, software standards, management control and termination clauses.
For each type of audience, the material is presented in terms of types of telework, steps to telework including a check list, case studies and contracts. The material is cross-referenced using hypertext so that a couple of mouse clicks are enough for each user to find the pertinent data. The results are available in the form of a Handbook in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian on the World Wide Web (www.telework-mirti.org).
The nature of the MIRTI Handbook raises a number of questions. First of all, to what extent can the experience contained in the case studies be generalized to different circumstances? What is their relevance at a future date when technology and culture may well have changed? Such are the limitations of all knowledge systems which fix knowledge at a given moment on the basis of a particular context.
Secondly, the work of thinking out and writing the case studies was not necessarily carried out by the actors themselves. Thus, what is the relevance of such an outside perspective and the words used to express it? Such is the dilemma of creating expert knowledge and then trying to communicate it to lay actors rather than helping the actors develop their own knowledge.
For all these questions, the MIRTI Handbook remains a real achievement and should be of considerable use to those confronted with the development and management of teleworking.
- Alan McCluskey is the editor of "Connected", an on-line newsletter