Factsheets and briefs

2024

  1. ILO Policy Brief

    From global care crisis to quality care at home: The case for including domestic workers in care policies and ensuring their rights at work

    08 March 2024

2023

  1. Factsheet

    Access to labour justice in collective labour disputes: Evidence from the updated IRLex database

    22 February 2023

    Collective labour disputes are an inevitable feature of the world of work and efficient, fair and accessible systems for the resolution of such disputes are an essential element of a well-functioning industrial relations system. The notion of access to labour justice encompasses judicial and non-judicial mechanisms and institutions dealing with the prevention and resolution of individual and collective labour disputes. This IRLex factsheets provides a comparative overview of legislation regulating mechanisms for the resolution of collective labour disputes of judicial, quasi-judicial and extrajudicial nature. Furthermore, it provides an overview of bipartite processes as well as of processes of third-party intervention and of the role that labour inspectorates and enforcement agencies play in securing effective access to justice.

  2. Factsheet

    Protection against acts of interference for employers' and workers' organizations: Evidence from the updated IRLex database

    20 February 2023

    Acts of interference can take many forms and may impact differently on workers’ and employers’ organizations and on their free and independent creation and functioning. International Labour Standards protect employers’ and workers’ organizations against interference both by each other and by the public authorities. This IRLex factsheet provides an overview of how protection against acts of interference is regulated by relevant ILO Conventions and applied in practice through the ILO supervisory system as well as a comparative analysis of how different legal systems provide protection against such acts and ensure its effective enforcement in practice.

2022

  1. Factsheet

    Protection against acts of anti-union discrimination: Evidence from the updated IRLex database

    25 November 2022

    Anti-union discrimination is one of the most serious violations of freedom of association, as it may jeopardize the very existence of trade unions. This IRLex factsheet provides a summary of the International Labour Standards protecting workers against acts of anti-union discrimination as well as a comparative overview of how different legal system around the world seek to regulate it and ensure its effective protection.

  2. ILO Brief

    Setting adequate wages: The question of living wages

    10 October 2022

    This brief provides an ILO perspective on the question of living wages and describes how the ILO promotes the setting of adequate wages that consider both the needs of workers and their families, and economic factors. In going forward, the ILO looks to strengthen its contribution to a better understanding of living wages by undertaking peer-reviewed research on concepts and estimations in that respect, and by providing assistance to Member States, upon request.

  3. Factsheet

    Extension of collective agreements: Evidence from the updated IRLex database

    30 June 2022

    Collective agreements are the result of collective bargaining between one or more workers' organisations, on the one hand, and one or more employers or employers' organisations, on the other hand, to determine the terms and conditions of employment and to regulate the relations between workers and employers and their respective organisations. In accordance with general principles of contract law, such agreements should only be binding on the parties to the agreement. However, regulatory frameworks often provide for the extension of collective agreements beyond the signatory parties subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions or requirements. This factsheet, based on the IRLex database, provides a comparative overview of the legal frameworks regulating extension mechanisms.

  4. A review of country data

    Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on informality: Has informal employment increased or decreased?

    21 March 2022

2021

  1. Methodological note

    Diagnosis of informality

    20 December 2021

  2. Publication

    Purchasing practices and working conditions in global supply chains: Results from field work in Bangladesh, China, India, South Africa and Turkey

    01 October 2021

  3. Factsheet

    Global Wage Report 2020-21: Factsheet for the European Union

    21 May 2021

    This factsheet provides key findings for the European Union from the ILO flagship Global Wage Report 2020-21

  4. Brief

    From potential to practice: Preliminary findings on the numbers of workers working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic

    31 March 2021

  5. WIEGO Statistic Brief no. 27

    Home-based Workers in the World: A Statistical Profile

    19 February 2021

    Globally, 260 million women and men are employed in home-based work, including 35 million in developed countries.

  6. Theory of Change

    Transition from the informal to the formal economy - Theory of change

    29 January 2021

    This umbrella theory of change provides the main pathways for the transition to formality of workers and enterprises. It is a general framework that can inform the development of theories of change focused on a specific sector, occupational groups, forms of informality or policy areas.

2020

  1. Questions & answers

    The role of social dialogue and the social partners in addressing the consequences of COVID-19 in the informal economy

    29 October 2020

  2. Brief

    Employers and workers negotiating measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, protect livelihoods and support recovery: A review of practice

    03 July 2020

  3. Brief

    Employment Protection throughout the World: A roundup of a decade of reforms (2009-2019)

    01 July 2020

    Key points: - Since 2009, the ILO has been monitoring legal changes in employment protection for over a hundred countries, recording the information in the ILO EPLex database. - Using these data, this brief shows that the past decade was rich in reforms of employment protection in case of individual dismissals. Some countries decreased their level of employment protection, while others increased it. - Overall, the world has moved to a more uniform level of employment protection. - Despite this, there remains a variety of legal approaches for achieving such seemingly similar levels of protection.

  4. Factsheet

    Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on loss of jobs and hours among domestic workers

    15 June 2020

    The ILO estimates that, in the early stages of the pandemic, on 15 March 2020, 49.3% of domestic workers were significantly impacted. This figure peaked at 73.7% on 15 May, before reducing to 72.3% on 4 June.

  5. Factsheet

    Temporary Wage Subsidies: Country examples

    22 May 2020

    This Appendix complements the ILO Factsheet on "Temporary Wage Subsidies". It offers country examples of temporary wage subsidies implemented during the Covid-19 crisis.

  6. Factsheet

    Temporary Wage Subsidies

    22 May 2020

    This factsheet provides an overview of temporary wage subsidies implemented during the Covid-19 crisis

  7. Factsheet

    Protection of workers' wage claims in enterprise insolvency

    21 May 2020

    This factsheet provides an international overview of approaches taken to address the protection of workers' wages claims in the event of enterprise insolvency/bankruptcy.