ILO - BRUSSELS
NEWSLETTER N°. 9/2006
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Social consequences of new technologies in the retail trade
The introduction of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology as a replacement for barcodes on products will be one of the main factors
in boosting productivity in the retail trade sector, but it will also affect job quality, explains a new ILO report.
Radio frequency identification labels and electronic chips fitted with miniature antennas will gradually replace barcodes read by lasers
in the years ahead. They will enable better food safety, lower warehousing costs, fewer losses of merchandise and no doubt lower prices, but
they will also make thousands of jobs redundant. According to the ILO report, through extensive social dialogue and appropriate training,
workers and employers can achieve results that benefit everyone, with enhanced productivity, better customer satisfaction, improved working
conditions and greater benefits for workers.
Click
here for an ILO report on these issues and
here for a relevant ILO article.
European campaign on asbestos
On 1 September, the European Commission - in collaboration with the ILO - launched a new campaign on preventing asbestos-linked risk.
Every year, 100,000 people around the world die due to exposure to asbestos, sometimes 20 or 30 years after being exposed. A blanket ban
on the production and sale of asbestos or products that contain asbestos has been in effect since 2005 in the European Union. Handling
asbestos has been banned since April 2006. The only authorised work is demolition, maintenance and asbestos removal, under strictly regulated conditions.
The campaign includes conferences and demonstrations to raise awareness. The labour inspectors from the 25 EU member states will also carry
out more in-depth asbestos inspections during the campaign. To find out more, please consult the site of the European campaign
here, or the communique from the ILO's
International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre
here.
Montenegro joins ILO
The Republic of Montenegro became the 179th member state of the ILO after a letter was received, in Geneva, from the foreign minister of Montenegro
stating that his government formally accepts its obligations under the ILO Constitution.
Montenegro, which became a member of the United Nations on 22 June 2006, joined the ILO on 14 July 2006.
Enhanced collaboration between World Bank (IFC) and ILO
The ILO and IFC (International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group) signed a cooperation agreement on 21 August
for better compliance with labour standards in global supply chains. This initiative, which was inspired by the programme developed by the ILO
in the textile sector in Cambodia (for more information on that programme
click here), calls for the creation of tools to monitor labour standards and
for their improved enforcement, which includes supporting public labour inspection systems. Pilot projects will be developed in the countries
of the Middle East, Southern Africa and East Asia.
A press release (available
here) provides more details on the collaboration
agreement. It should be noted that as of 1 May 2006, loans granted by the IFC are subject to the condition that contracting companies comply
with core labour standards.
Social security to combat poverty
In recent years, some developing countries have managed to reduce poverty by adopting basic pension or child benefit schemes financed by the
general exchequer. This is the case with a wide range of countries, such as South Africa, Brazil, Mauritius, Namibia and Nepal. An ILO article (available
here) gives the example of Namibia, where a private-public
partnership is contributing to the payment of pensions and other social security benefits throughout the country.
The ILO has calculated that even in some of the poorer African countries, such a package of benefits consisting of basic pensions for the
elderly and disabled and child benefits would cost between 1 and 2 per cent of GDP, equating to roughly between 5 and 10% of national budgets.
In countries like Senegal and Tanzania, ILO estimates show that such basic social cash transfers could directly reduce extreme poverty rates
by 35-40%. For more information on this issue, please visit the website of the
ILO's Social Security Department.
Eight posters for safety and health
The ILO's Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV) has launched a campaign to ratify instruments on occupational health and safety (OHS).
The campaign, which aims to make OHS a leading national and international priority, was bolstered at the International Labour Conference in June 2006
by the adoption of a new convention, accompanied by a recommendation, aiming to establish a promotional framework for occupational safety and health (
click here to find out more about the promotional framework). It
encourages the member states to ratify conventions on OHS and to incorporate measures to improve OHS in their national policies and programmes.
Eight posters calling for ratification are available in three languages, either in electronic format (
click here) or by asking ILO to post them (please
send requests to Lene Olsen, olsen@ilo.org). It should be noted that the vast majority of EU countries have ratified very few of these 15 conventions.
How to measure social exclusion in central and eastern Europe
A new study published by the ILO reviews the concept of social exclusion in central and eastern Europe, the ways it can be measured and policies
designed to reduce it. It presents arguments for and against using income as a gauge of social wellbeing. One of its conclusions is that income
should be considered along with other, non-monetary indicators such as health, unemployment, crime rate, social isolation, etc. The study, available
here, is the result of the work done by the
ILO's STEP programme, which aims to combat social exclusion and poverty and to promote the expansion of social protection worldwide.
The programme is financed to a large extent by the Belgian government.
Click here for more information about STEP.
New publications
Of all the latest ILO publications, the following may be of special interest to our readers:
Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) - Fourth edition
2006; 1036 pp; ISBN 92-2-118551-6; 200 Euros
The fourth edition of Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) examines 20 indicators, including employment, unemployment, underemployment,
working time, labour productivity, types of economic activity and, the situation of young people and women on the labour market. It covers more
than 200 countries since the 1980s up to the most recently available statistics. This reference tool (which can be ordered
here) includes software which makes searching for information fast and simple.
Scheduled meetings
Please
click here for a list of ILO meetings scheduled for 2006 and 2007.
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
