ILO - BRUSSELS
NEWSLETTER N° 4/2008
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World Day for Safety and Health at Work
As in previous years, 28 April will mark the World Day for Safety and Health at work. The aim is to draw international attention to the
promotion and creation of decent and safe work and to reducing the number of work-related deaths. The ILO estimates that some 6,000 workers
die each day across the world as a result of work-related accidents and occupational diseases, or one death every 15 seconds, and this figure
is rising. Furthermore, there are an estimated 270 million non-fatal work-related accidents (which result in at least three days of absence
from work) and 160 million new cases of occupational diseases. The total cost of such accidents and diseases is estimated by the ILO at 4%
of global GDP, or more than 20 times the global amount of official development assistance.
This year's theme is My life, my work, my safe work – Managing risk in the work environment. Click
here to visit the site listing the ILO's main
tools for this theme (handbook for managing risk in the work environment, poster, bookmark etc.) or
here to visit the ILO safety and health at work
site. A series of short guides on health and safety is also available. They succinctly explain a few actions that can be implemented to
improve health and safety at work, such as lighting, handling of materials and organisation of the workplace. This series is available
here.
ILO calls for a consensus to head off global economic slowdown
In a statement delivered to the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, ILO Director-General Mr Somavia said
growing links between the two organisations and the ILO were crucial to addressing social imbalances ranging from widening income gaps to a
global economic slowdown and climate change. Listing the threats posed by the instability of the financial markets to global stability and
social progress, Mr Somavia called for the development of a new multilateral consensus to head off a global slowdown. “The scale of the
financial restructuring now underway and the severity of the credit squeeze make the current financial crisis perhaps the most severe since
1945,” he added. The ILO believes that imbalances in financial markets are related to wider disequilibria in society and in the process of
globalisation.
Click
here to read
the press release about the ILO Director-General's call and the full statement.
ILO-EU cooperation against child labour in Pakistan
The European Commission, the ILO's International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and Pakistan’s government signed an
agreement to implement a project to combat child labour in Pakistan. The Commission's contribution (€4.75 million) will help Pakistan's
government and IPEC to tackle child labour in the formal and informal economies, for example domestic work, car repair workshops or recycling
of waste. The project, due run until 2011, aims to take children out of the worst forms of work immediately and rehabilitate them. It will
also involve prevention work.
Education and visits to health units as a condition for cash transfers
Programmes for the conditional transfer of social benefits constitute an important tool for reducing poverty and promoting social inclusion.
One of these programmes implemented by the Mexican government was the subject of a report which is available
here. It helps
25 million Mexicans, or nearly a fourth of the total population. The programme works very simply: in order to receive the cash transfers, low
income families have to visit health units regularly and send their children to school. A study carried out in August 2007 showed that children
whose families had joined this programme were on average taller and heavier than other children from poor families. The programme was also
effective in reducing child labour, even though it was not an explicit objective of the programme.
Although countries like Mexico and Brazil show the way with such programmes, lack of social protection still widely prevails. Only one in
five people in the world has adequate social security coverage. The ILO therefore continues its Global Campaign on Social Security and Coverage
for All to encourage the extension of social security coverage as a means for combating poverty and social exclusion. Click
here to read more about this campaign.
Thousands of children freed from cocoa plantations
The ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has published a series of four documents on its experience in the
fight against child labour in cocoa plantations. From 2002 to 2006, an IPEC programme tackled child labour deemed to be dangerous or connected
with exploitation in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria. This project raised public awareness and helped thousands of children
to leave dangerous work. It also showed that working with communities to help them resolve their own child labour problems is one of the
best strategies. The series of four IPEC publications is available
here.
Better attitudes to HIV
A new ILO report, available
here, reveals a significant increase in supportive
attitudes at the workplace towards co-workers living with HIV as a result of effective HIV policies and practices. The report summarises the
activities of the ILO SHARE project currently active in over 650 companies, covering almost one million workers. The report shows that employers’
and workers’ organisations are increasingly using the ILO’s Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS (available
here) to develop policies
and practices for the workplace.
In the six countries surveyed (Belize, Benin, Cambodia, Ghana, Guiana and Togo), the proportion of workers who reported supportive behaviour
towards co-workers living with HIV rose from 49% to 63% on average during the life of the programme. Attitudes towards condom use also improved
considerably in most countries. Another positive development was the fact that at the start of SHARE in 2003, only 14% of the participating
enterprises in the six pilot countries had written HIV policies. When the impact survey was conducted 76% of the participating enterprises had
written HIV policies in place.
A feature service article on this new report is available
here and an
interview with Dr Sophia Kisting, Director of ILO/AIDS is available
here. The
detailed report on HIV/AIDS and the world of work which will be discussed at the 2009 International Labour Conference is also already available
here.
Impact of the typhoons that hit the Philippines in 2006
In 2006, the Bicol region of the Philippines was hit by two typhoons affecting more than 200,000 families. A recent ILO mission to the country
revealed that 30% of the workers from families still in temporary accommodation were not looking for work because they did not believe there was
any available. Around 69% had jobs, but in most cases this was precarious employment keeping survivors in poverty. Last February, the ILO opened
its livelihood centre in Daraga, Albay. It helps women organise themselves, first in smaller groups, then in larger groups. Funds are thus
created and maximised to promote economic development. Entrepreneurship training was conducted while market linkages, equipment and start-up
capital were provided to typhoon survivors.
An article published
here contains an
update on the impact of the typhoons that struck in 2006 and on the support provided by the United Nations agencies since then.
Scheduled meetings
Click here for a list of meetings scheduled by the ILO for 2008.
Contact us
For more information on the ILO's activities, please contact the :
ILO Brussels
Rue Aimé Smekens 40
B -1030 Brussels
Belgium
Tel.: + 32 02 736 59 42
Fax: +32.02 735 48 25
E-mail: brussels@ilo.org
Website : www.ilo.org/brussels
