ILO - BRUSSELS
NEWSLETTER N° 11/2007
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The future of green jobs
Climate change is widely seen as a threat to our health, our resources and our planet. However, it also provides a wealth of opportunities
to create new jobs aiming to reduce its negative impact through energy and industrial policies. In an interview available
here, Juan Somavia,
Director-General of the ILO, explains the ILO's role in this process and outlines a new plan for a “Green Jobs Initiative” and how it is linked
to the ILO's Decent Work Agenda. More specifically, he reveals that the market for renewable energy could be worth $1.9 trillion by the year 2020,
and that it has enormous potential to create productive and decent work.
In another interview published by the ILO, Peter Poschen, a specialist in sustainable development with the ILO, provides other reference points
and more promising figures as regards employment. For example, he points out that according to a 2006 report by the German Ministry of the
Environment, the expansion of renewable energies could double the number of jobs in the sector by the year 2020, bringing the total to more than
300,000. You can read this interview by
clicking here.
Also on the subject of green jobs, the ILO has published a report on recycling plastic waste in Burkina Faso. After completing a master's
degree in development management at the ILO Training Centre in Turin, an Italian specialist was awarded the funds to build a recycling centre
which currently employs 32 people and increases the incomes of 2,000 local waste collectors.
Click here to read the report.
ILO Governing Body
The ILO Governing Body completed its 300th session on 15 November 2007, after two weeks of discussions on topics ranging from the impact of
climate change on employment (see above) to fundamental rights at work around the world. Forced labour and the suppression of peaceful demonstrations
in Myanmar were discussed in depth, as was the issue of trade union rights in Belarus. As regards the violation of trade union rights, the situations
in Colombia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Indonesia also warranted special attention from the Governing Body. The delegates also looked at
the preparations for a new joint study by the ILO and the WTO on the connections between globalisation, trade and informal work. Among the topics
discussed, we wish to place particular emphasis on collective bargaining and its connection to decent work and also the ILO's new action plan for
gender equality for 2008-2009.
Click here to read a
press release giving more details of this session of the Governing Body, or here to access the Governing Body's website, where you can find all
the documents which were discussed over the two-week period.
South-Eastern Europe boosts its cooperation in employment matters
At a Meeting in October, high-level representatives of governments, workers and employers from nine South-Eastern European countries adopted
the 'Montenegro Conclusions', an agreement that puts employment at the heart of economic and social policies. The Ministers also acknowledged
the relevance of the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda in tackling the employment challenge in their countries and reaffirmed their commitment to
implementing an integrated approach that aims for full and productive employment, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue.
The Meeting discussed the work accomplished within the framework of regional cooperation on employment policy between 2003 and 2007, and
gave new directions to this cooperation under the Stability Pact whose term will end in 2008.
Click here for more details
on the Meeting.
Diabetes and the workplace
Diabetes is a disease that currently affects more than 180 million people in the world. According to the World Health Organisation, this number
could more than double by 2030. On 14 November, World Diabetes Day, the ILO published an interview on the relationship between this illness and
the world of work. Meredith Bullamore from the Geneva Social Observatory provided food for thought relating to increased absenteeism among workers
affected by diabetes, safety, discrimination linked to diabetes and the development of policy plan-of-action for outlining a fair way to address
diabetes and related chronic diseases in the workplace.
Click here to read
this interview.
ILO Decent Work Research Prize
The ILO is calling for nominations for the ILO Decent Work Research Prize 2008, which is awarded in recognition of a single important
publication or a professional career to improving knowledge in one of the ILO's main areas of activity: job creation, rights at work,
social protection and social dialogue. This prize, which was created by the ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies, will be awarded
in Geneva in June 2008. The deadline for nominations is 15 January 2008.
Click here to find
out more about this prize – last year, it was awarded to Nobel peace laureate and former South African President Nelson Mandela and to the
professor emeritus and specialist in social security Carmelo Mesa-Lago of the University of Pittsburgh (USA).
Reducing maternal mortality with projects in the workplace
Every minute, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth. According to a new report by ILO, the world of work is a promising entry point for
scaling up interventions aimed at improving maternal health and maternity protection: in 2006, almost 60% of the world's women of childbearing
age worked. For example, this report highlights the need to improve poor working conditions (chemical products, long working hours etc.)
that constitute a major threat to the health of pregnant and nursing women. Investing in decent work for healthcare workers is another key element
in improving maternal health, as is the application of the ILO's Maternity Convention of 2000 (No. 183), which sets out the basic
requirements of maternity protection at work, including the right to a period of leave before and after childbirth, entitlements to
breastfeeding breaks, and employment protection and non-discrimination. This Convention has only been ratified by 13 countries to date
(and none of the Benelux countries).
Click here to read this report, or
here to read an
article by the ILO on the subject.
Did you know?
For over twenty years, the ILO has been studying the development of export processing zones (EPZs), which have an important role in the context
of globalisation. There are several different types of EPZ: free zones, special economic zones, bonded warehouses, free ports and maquiladoras.
While activities in these zones were originally limited to initial assembly or processing, they now carry out scientific, high-tech, financial,
logistical and even tourist activities. An ILO database provides basic information on the zones, which are present in over one hundred countries
and territories: it gives the number of zones, the number of workers, the main industries and countries funding the zones, the main export
markets, the zones' websites, and so on. You can consult the database by
clicking here.
Job offer
Secretary half time – 5 days/week
Please
click here for the job description.
Scheduled meetings
Click here for a list of meetings scheduled by the ILO for the
rest of 2007 and 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
