ILO - BRUSSELS
NEWSLETTER N° 3/2008
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Governing Body
The Governing Body of the ILO concluded its 301st session following wide-ranging discussions on basic labour rights in Myanmar, Colombia,
Belarus and other countries. It also moved to tackle the issue of decent work for domestic workers by placing the issue on the agenda of the
ILO’s International Labour Conference in 2010. The Conference is to discuss a new labour standard aimed at addressing the working conditions
of the estimated 100 million or more domestic workers worldwide.
Other notable issues discussed by the Governing Body included the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship, the latest trends in export-processing
zones and technical cooperation activities with respect to occupational safety and health and child labour. Strengthening cooperation with
the World Bank was also on the agenda (see below).
Click here to
read the ILO press release on this session of the Governing Body or
here to consult
the documents that were discussed during the session.
More women at work, but inequalities persist
According to a new ILO report published in connection with International Women’s Day, there are more women than ever before on the labour market.
However, they are more likely than men to be confined to less productive, low-paid and insecure jobs where they have no social protection, no
basic rights and no means of expressing themselves. The report also provides figures on employment trends for women. Although the number of women
working has increased by almost 200 million in the past ten years to 1.2 billion in 2007 (compared to 1.8 billion men), the number of unemployed
women also grew from 70.2 to 81.6 million (on a worldwide scale, the female unemployment rate stands at 6.4% compared to the male rate
of 5.7%). One lesson from this report is that the region with the highest levels of economic growth over the past decade, i.e. East Asia, is
also the region where the highest percentage of the female population works (65.2%). There are also relatively small gender gaps in terms of
sector of activity and status.
You can download this report on global employment trends for women by
clicking here. There is also a section
of the ILO website containing a range of documents on women’s employment - a press release summarising the main points of the report, a message
from the Director-General of the ILO on the occasion of International Women’s Day, an article and a brochure on women and microfinance, and so on.
Click here to enter this section.
Growing ties between the ILO and the World Bank
Against a backdrop of increasing global economic turbulence, the Governing Body of the ILO led an animated debate attended by Robert B. Zoellick,
President of the World Bank, on 17 March. Mr Zoellick cited increasing ties with the ILO in pursuit of “an inclusive and sustainable
globalisation” and a broad range of other issues of joint concern including job creation, rights at work and other elements of the ILO’s
Decent Work Agenda. He stressed that the World Bank, the ILO and other international agencies should intensify efforts to forge a globalisation
that can help overcome poverty, enhance growth while caring for the environment and create individual opportunity and hope for the future.
Click here to
enter a section of the ILO website with a video of Mr Zoellick’s speech, a video of the welcome speech given by the Director-General of
the ILO and a press release on the partnership between the ILO and the World Bank.
Convention on health and safety to come into force
The Republic of Korea has ratified a recent ILO Convention, Convention No. 187 on the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health.
It is the second country to ratify the convention (after Japan), which will therefore come into force there within the next 12 months, as
specified by Article 8 of the convention. Convention No.187 sets out a structure to encourage the development of a preventive safety and health
culture at national level. It was designed to provide for coherent and systematic treatment of occupational safety and health and promote
recognition of existing conventions in the field.
Click here for more
information on the convention, or
here to read it via ILOLEX.
How can working time be measured?
A meeting of experts on labour statistics will be held in Geneva from 1 to 10 April, focusing in particular on a report on measuring working
time. This report will serve as a guideline for the ILO when drafting new standards to submit to the next International Conference of Labour
Statisticians from 24 November to 5 December 2008. The ILO has long been concerned with the regulation of working time, which has a direct and
measurable impact on the health and well-being of working persons and their level of fatigue and stress, and also influences the productivity
and cost of the workforce. The social and economic transformations witnessed in recent decades could make it necessary to change the way
statistics are measured to reflect new realities. This is all covered in the report, which you can read by
clicking here.
Improving the representation of women in social dialogue
The under-representation of women in decision-making bodies marks a fundamental democratic deficit. In recent years, measurement of this
deficit has often focused on the participation of women in parliaments following the international commitments made at the Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. However, the same amount of attention has not been given to women’s involvement in social dialogue
bodies, an area in which they are also under-represented. This is a “decent work deficit” that needs to be addressed by governments and the
social partners. A new ILO study could help them do just that - it compares the involvement of women in various social dialogue bodies
around the world and suggests some approaches that could be adopted to improve the situation. This study is available
here.
New publications
Of all the latest ILO publications, the following may be of special interest to our readers:
International Medical Guide for Ships. Third Edition
2008; 488 pp; ISBN 978-92-415-4720-8.; 89 CHF
Seafarers are exposed to greater health risks and do not have access to traditional sources of first aid or healthcare, which are
readily available to people on land. The third edition of the International Medical Guide for Ships provides fully updated, practical
information for first-aid providers on assisting seafarers who are injured or ill on board a ship. The second edition, written in 1988,
was translated into more than 30 languages, and has been used in tens of thousands of ships. This, the third edition, contains fully
updated recommendations aiming to promote and protect the health of seafarers. You can order it by
clicking here.
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
