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News in brief
Media
Increasingly, the new media is freelance, female and inundated by e-mail
A new ILO study says the online revolution in the media and entertainment industries is changing the way journalists work, and overhauling the employment patterns and gender distribution of the world's media workforce.
GENEVA - Along with the new media, comes a new workforce. That's the conclusion of a new ILO report * which says newsroom innovations in information and communications technology (ICT) are levelling the playing field between fixed staff and freelancers and creating increased career opportunities for women.
In the United Kingdom, the report says, "more women are becoming journalists than ever before", while at daily newspapers in Spain, the number of women among editorial staff rose from 27 per cent to nearly 30 per cent, despite a general decline in overall employment in the sector.
The ILO report also notes that the vast majority of journalists in major industrialized countries now access the Internet, a medium which scarcely existed a decade ago. Some 80 per cent of these business and financial journalists use the Internet at least once a day for research, and 80 per cent have their work published in both online and offline publications.
Many are freelancers, the report says, who have been using and exploiting ICT for both the longest time and the greatest gain.
New media, new jobs
The report notes that while the growth in the Internet and the overall proliferation of ICT is eliminating many traditional media jobs and altering the structure of remaining jobs - particularly on daily newspapers - it is fuelling demand for workers who can provide editorial and creative input in an ever-increasing array of technical formats.
Yet despite of the many new opportunities, overall employment in print media is clearly declining, the report says, adding, "Technology has eliminated many jobs in newspapers over the past 25 years, largely among composing room and clerical workers." Compared to these workers, "journalists have been fortunate". While the ILO report notes that the number of staff required in a newsroom has declined slightly, "journalists are not being replaced by computers".
Older workers in traditional crafts (typesetting, paste-up) appear to have suffered the greatest job losses, and job descriptions have blurred for remaining workers as technology alters established routines. The report says that "a major challenge for printing workers is to adapt themselves to new equipment, unaccustomed ways of working and sometimes moving away from print into new media."
"You've got (too much) mail"
There's one big downside to the new technology. That's what the report calls the danger of "information overload", or journalists being inundated by e-mailed data, press releases, electronic newsletters, internal memos and readers' responses.
Journalists face similar challenges, and they are increasingly called upon to file stories or prepare scripts for a number of different formats, for example, radio, television and the Web, and for an increasing number of outlets.
Broadcasting is seeing a similar pattern, with declines in permanent employment due to the restructuring of state-owned media outlets and to consolidation in the wake of mergers and acquisitions among private firms. But here again the bulk of job losses have been in technical and administrative areas, whereas production and "content" jobs have been created by new technologies.
The ILO report notes that "traditional labour-management relations have problems coping with technology and other developments in media and entertainment, because the workforce is more fragmented than before and enterprises are subcontracting work that used to be core business".
New forms of social dialogue, such as the promotion of voluntary initiatives, incorporation of gender issues, and involvement of transnational corporations as dialogue partners, will be necessary. International labour standards, including those on freedom of association, collective bargaining, home work and discrimination, are thought to be relevant in a sector in which issues of ICT training, social protection, independent workers and freelancers, as well as issues of informal sector workers, are increasingly predominant.
Widening the "digital divide"
Still, the main impact of the Internet is being felt in the industrialized world. And while the Internet's reach seems global, its benefits are hardly so. Poverty, skills shortages and a paucity of infrastructure mean that some developing countries risk lagging behind in the new information age. Data shows that in the late 1990s, between one in six people in North America and Europe used the Internet, while in Africa, it was one in 5,000.
Still, while this "digital divide" has prompted concern, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia says that "improving Internet access is probably one of the most cost-effective way of spreading the benefits of globalization to developing countries."
* Background document to the Symposium on information technologies in the media and entertainment industries: Their impact on employment, working conditions and labour-management relations, ILO, Geneva, 2000, ISBN 92-2-111254-4, Swiss francs 17.50.
Global agreements on
workers' rights
Two major German companies sign an agreement on globally valid labour standards with the international trade union movement
The German group HOCHTIEF, one of the world's biggest construction groups, signed an agreement on 15 March 2000, committing it to observe the international labour standards of the ILO in its building activities anywhere in the world. On 3 March, the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW) had already signed a similar framework agreement on workers' rights with the German Faber Castell company, one of the world's leading pencil makers.
The agreement between HOCHTIEF and the IFBWW imposes the same obligations on all of HOCHTIEF's subcontractors, whose combined workforces total many times the group's own 37,000 employees. At the signing ceremony, Friedel Abel, member of the Executive Board and Human Resources Director at HOCHTIEF, said that by signing the agreement "we seek to do more than just set the standards for our own behaviour. As one of the world's leading construction companies, we want to play a part in the long-term process of improving the rules that govern conduct in our industry."
HOCHTIEF is the first international construction company to conclude an agreement of this kind with the international labour union movement. It requires that in future, HOCHTIEF and its contractual partners will comply with what is called a social charter which imposes certain minimum standards in the world of work. These include freely chosen employment, no discrimination, a ban on child labour, the right to freedom of association and free collective bargaining, adequate wages, reasonable working time and decent working conditions.
On 3 March, Faber-Castell, based near Nuremberg in Germany, signed with the German Metal Workers Union IG Metall and the IFBWW a framework agreement committing itself to achieve in its production and sales companies employment and working conditions which respect those Conventions and Recommendations of the ILO which apply to their business. It means, for example, the prohibition of child labour and the right of workers to join trade unions and to take part in free collective bargaining.
Faber-Castell employs 5500 employees worldwide in 14 production and 18 sales companies in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru and the United States.
In May 1998, the IFBWW signed a similar agreement with IKEA.
Social reinsurance
An ILO/World Bank/University of Lyon
team wins major award
With a study entitled "Social Re: re-insurance for community-based health insurance schemes", an ILO/World Bank/University of Lyon team won the most important prize at the World Bank's Development Marketplace, a fair for innovative ideas to reduce poverty, which took place on 8-9 February in Washington.
Most of the world's poor are not protected against the financial risk of illness. Although many countries set up central health insurance systems, these usually restrict coverage to people who are in formal employment. Some community-based schemes attempt to fill the gap among excluded groups, by offering voluntary microinsurance schemes financed mainly by members' contributions.
With often less than 1,000 members, microinsurance groups are small and quite different from other groups in terms of income, risks, demography, illnesses, occupation and life styles. Due to insufficient resources, each microinsurance must limit its benefit package to cover only the most pressing needs. Small group size and fluctuations in risk levels render microinsurance particularly vulnerable to financial risks.
A new form of reinsurance for micro-insurance schemes (SOCIAL RE) could stabilize these schemes by sheltering them from the excess risk. This idea was presented at the World Bank's Development Marketplace by experts from the ILO, the University of Lyon (France) and the World Bank. SOCIAL RE can be considered as the missing link between the macro and micro levels in health insurance financing since it passes on some of the risk to the "Social Re" scheme, against a premium. In return, Social Re will pay excess expenditure above an agreed global floor, or alternatively share the cost of every claim and/or reimburse the cost of claims above a certain number.
The World Bank, the ILO and other development agencies are constantly faced with the challenge of assisting governments to establish viable health insurance systems for the poor in many countries which do not currently - nor in the foreseeable future - have functioning taxation systems. Setting-up SOCIAL RE would provide an instrument during the period when many of the poor remain unprotected.
The aggregate flows of funds transiting "pro-poor" schemes can reach very high volumes, as has been demonstrated by the experience of microcredit schemes which helped globalization's "have-nots" gain access to financial services. Furthermore, the large numbers of the target population largely compensate for the low contributory capacity of each individual. There is every reason to assume that SOCIAL RE can interest both public and private reinsurance bodies once the development stage is completed. World Bank President James Wolfensohn congratulated the authors of the project idea, who excelled among 1,200 competitors and won the US$380,000 award at the closing of the fair, which took place on 8-9 February in Washington.
UNV and the ILO
ILO to collaborate with UNV on
International Year of Volunteers in 2001
GENEVA - The International Labour Office (ILO) is to collaborate with the UN Volunteers Programme (UNV) on the International Year of Volunteers, to be held throughout 2001. The Bonn-based UNV is to be the focal point for the year, and will act in close collaboration with other organizations of the UN system.
The year "is an excellent opportunity to join the institutional efforts at the international, national and local levels, with the initiative, enthusiasm and competence of individuals in taking up the major challenges this world is facing at the turn of the century," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in a letter to Ms. Sharon Capeling-Alakija, UNV Executive Director. "All this is in line with the emphasis laid by the World Summit for Social Development on the importance of new players, particularly individuals and organizations of civil society, acting in partnership with governments."
"Volunteer service has been a part of virtually every civilization and society," says a guidance note prepared by the United Nations regarding the International Year. "Defined in the broadest terms as the contribution that individuals make as non-profit, non-wage and non-
career action for the well-being of their neighbour, community or society at large, it takes many forms, from traditional customs of mutual self-help to community coping responses in times of crisis, and spearheading efforts for relief, conflict resolution and the eradication of poverty.
"The scope of the year would extend beyond local and national volunteers to include bilateral and multilateral volunteer programmes extending beyond national frontiers," the note said.
The need for volunteers is apparently rising due to the need to mitigate the impact of such issues as environmental degradation, drug abuse or HIV/AIDS, on the more vulnerable sectors of society; concern of the international community to focus on addressing such problems, with special attention to developing countries in general and poverty eradication in particular; and, given the contemporary trend for civil society - in partnership with Government and the private sector - to assume every greater responsibilities in the development process.
The United Nations General Assembly designated 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers during its 52nd session on 20 November 1997, in Resolution 52/17, co-sponsored by 123 countries.
The objectives of the year are to achieve increased recognition of the efforts of individuals and groups engaged in volunteers activities; increase facilitation of volunteer work by building on factors which encourage, and addressing issues which inhibit, volunteer service; enhanced networking, whereby volunteer achievements can be disseminated and shared; and promotion of volunteering, with a view to more requests for the deployment of volunteers and to offers of volunteer service from even more individuals.
In 1999, 4,383 UN Volunteers - the largest number ever served in 139 countries. They represented 149 nationalities, with about 36 per cent coming from industrialized countries and 64 per cent from developing countries. UN Volunteers contribute to protecting human rights, assisting in humanitarian relief, reconstruction and electoral activities, combatting desertification and working on other environmental issues, and helping to alleviate poverty, as well as other social and technical issues.
Further information on the International Year of Volunteers is available from UNV in Bonn, Germany (tel: +49-228/815-2220, fax: +49-228/815-2953, or the UNV Web site at: http://www.iyv2001.org).