ILO - BRUSSELS
NEWSLETTER N°. 7-8/2007
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A Green Jobs Initiative to support sustainable development
At the International Labour Organisation's annual International Labour Conference in June, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia urged government,
worker and employer delegates to develop strategic tools based around a global Green Jobs Initiative. These tools should aim to set in motion a
process of environmentally sustainable development within the framework of decent work.
"The inconvenient truth is that production and work consumes energy and other resources and leaves behind waste and greenhouse gases at a rate
dangerous for our planet and our health", Mr Somavia said. He then added that the ILO needs to assess the potential scale of changes affecting
technology, production and employment and come up with development strategies that will lower emissions without slowing down the progress made
in poverty reduction.
"I think that through social dialogue tripartism should begin developing the policy tools for an ILO Green Jobs Initiative to support workers
and enterprises through the transition to a much more environmentally sustainable process of development", Mr Somavia said.
To read a press release on the call for a Green Jobs Initiative,
click here.
New international labour standards for the fishing sector
On 14 June 2007, the International Labour Conference adopted the Work in Fishing Convention (No. 188) and the Work in Fishing Recommendation
(No. 199). An ILO website provides all the relevant details about these new international standards, which will take effect as soon as they have
been ratified by at least 10 ILO member states (including eight coastal nations). In addition to the text of these standards and the conference
reports prior to their adoption, the website contains two reports specifying how they can help people making a living out of fishing as well as
video interviews on this topic with government representatives, employers and workers attending the conference, plus ILO officials. To access
the site, please
click here.
Conference on decent work and occupational health and safety
On the sidelines of one of the biggest exhibitions on occupational health and safety that will be staged in Düsseldorf (Germany), the ILO will
be holding an international conference entitled Making Decent Work a Global Goal and a National Reality. This conference, which will take place
from 18 to 20 September 2007, will highlight the challenges of strengthening labour inspection systems, strategies and practices within the
context of the Decent Work agenda. The conference will focus on preventing occupational risks, on social security and on using the supply chain
to improve occupational health and safety standards. Please
click here to download the registration form and
find out more about this conference, organised by the ILO in conjunction with other institutions.
Preventing accidents costs 4 to 5 times less than dealing with their consequences
A report
published here shows
how an ILO project has enabled Russian companies to understand that it would cost them 4 to 5 times less to prevent occupational accidents than to
pay for the consequences. In this project, 11 pilot enterprises were selected to improve occupational health and safety (OHS) systems in north-western
Russia. The pilot enterprises tested a new ILO methodology for recording and reporting the economic costs of occupational accidents. As a result,
they realised that in some cases the actual cost of accidents was 4 to 5 times higher than they thought: their OHS experts had forgotten to take
account of the fact that on top of the cost of accidents, in terms of damage to equipment and medical costs, they also had to include indirect
costs relating to loss of production, the costs of investigations, additional measures taken to prevent future reoccurrences of similar accidents,
and so on.
The 11 pilot enterprises involved in the project are now introducing the ILO-OSH 2001 management system, which is based on a systematic approach
to occupational safety and health. The ILO hopes that the experience gained in the northwest of Russia will be replicated in other parts of the
country and maybe even neighbouring countries, like Kazakhstan and Armenia, which have already expressed an interest in such an approach.
International Day of the World's Indigenous People
In 2007, like every year, International Day of the World's Indigenous People will again take place on 9 August, providing a good opportunity to
draw attention to the ILO's many activities in support of indigenous and tribal peoples. In fact, it was the ILO that produced some of the only
existing international instruments exclusively devoted to the rights of these peoples: Convention No. 107 (1957) and Convention No. 169 concerning
indigenous and tribal peoples (1989). Convention No. 169 is a comprehensive instrument that covers a range of issues of relevance to such peoples,
including land rights, access to natural resources, health, education, vocational training, conditions of employment and cross-border contact.
However, so far the convention has only been ratified by 18 countries. Apart from adopting and monitoring compliance with standards, the ILO
focuses on assisting indigenous and tribal peoples and countries.
The ILO website has an entire section devoted to indigenous and tribal peoples. To access it, please
click here.
New member of the ILO
The Republic of the Marshall Islands has become the 181st ILO member state following the receipt in Geneva of a letter from its minister
of foreign affairs, notifying the ILO that his government had formally accepted the obligations arising from the ILO Constitution. This
Micronesian country (Oceania), has been a member of the United Nations since 17 September 1991 and officially joined the ILO on 3 July.
A new tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS
The ILO has written a new handbook to help micro and small enterprises take part in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This handbook is a practical
guide for people working in such enterprises or coming into contact with them, and focuses for the most part on lessons learned from specific
cases. One chapter also sums up the main effects of the pandemic on the workings of such micro and small businesses, their proprietors and their
staff, as well as on gender relations. To download the manual, which was produced by the ILO Programme on
HIV/AIDS and the World of Work and by the ILO Small Enterprises Development Programme,
click here.
Did you know?
The new ILO website has a section explaining in simple, readily understandable terms what the ILO is: its mission and objectives, its origins
and history, its areas of action, how it works: the International Labour Conference, Governing Body, the difference between the International
Labour Organisation and the International Labour Office (which share the same ILO acronym in English), what international labour standards
and decent work are all about, and so forth. Please
click here to access this informative presentation.
Scheduled meetings
For a list of ILO meetings scheduled in 2007, please
click here.
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
