Publications

December 2021

  1. Survey on the future demand for vocational training in the textile sector in Brazil

    15 December 2021

    The objective of the survey is to provide technical support to partners in the sector to design and implement professional training strategies that enable them to develop the skills necessary for the success and growth of industries, while ensuring that workers have access to decent and productive jobs.

August 2021

  1. Temporary labour migration: Two studies on workers’ perspectives and actions

    06 August 2021

    This report gathering two studies on workers organizations’ experience with temporary labour migration is part of a larger ILO project to gather knowledge on temporary labour migration. The views on temporary labour migration vary greatly, including among ILO constituents. In light of the various concerns that the complex dynamics of temporary labour migration raise, it is crucial for the Office to capture constituents’ perspectives to enrich the debate. This document is an input from the Workers’ side to this process.

February 2021

  1. United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation and the Decent Work Agenda – A Trade Union Reference Manual

    10 February 2021

    This document seeks to guide trade unions and encourage them to take on more assertive roles in processes shaping development policy at national, regional, and global levels. Trade unions can use this manual to more effectively contribute to the implementation, monitoring, and outcomes of the 2030 Agenda process, focusing particularly on Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) as well as regional and global sustainable development platforms, such as the High-Level Political Forum.

  2. The likely impact of COVID-19 on the achievement of SDG 8 – The role of Trade Unions

    10 February 2021

    This report presents the findings of a global survey on the likely impacts of COVID-19 on the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Agenda. The survey focused on SDG 8 and specifically on four targets and two indicators for which the International Labour Organization (ILO) is a custodian agency.

January 2020

  1. Interactions between Workers’ Organizations and Workers in the Informal Economy: A Compendium of Practice

    30 January 2020

    A compilation of concrete examples, drawn from around the world, showing how trade unions have sought to reach out to workers in the informal economy to reduce the decent work deficits they face and support their transition to formality.

August 2019

  1. Workers’ Guide to Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience Recommendation (No. 205)

    28 August 2019

    Through this Workers’ Guide, the ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) provides information and guidance on how trade unions can ensure the implementation of this new global tool to their advantage. It is intended to serve as a valuable reference to workers’ organizations on the provisions of Recommendation No. 205.

October 2018

  1. Recommendation No. 205 on Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience: What Role for Trade Unions?

    12 October 2018

    This policy brief aims at assisting workers’ organisations in positioning themselves with regard to conflicts and disasters, in particular, with regard to the generation of employment and decent work for the purpose of prevention, recovery, peace, and resilience with respect to crisis situations arising from both conflicts and disasters.

June 2016

  1. Global Framework Agreements: Achieving Decent Work in Global Supply Chains

    01 June 2016

    This report conducts a content analysis of the 54 most recent global framework agreements (GFAs) and an evaluation of 29 case studies on the implementation of GFAs to identify effective good-practice examples of GFAs promoting decent work in global supply chains by developing labour relations on a global scale.

December 2015

  1. Decent work in global supply chains

    07 December 2015

December 2014

  1. Trade Union Manual on Export Processing Zones

    01 December 2014

    The conclusions of the workshop on organizing in export processing zones (EPZs) organized jointly by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) in February 2011 ended with 2 key challenges. Firstly, engaging in the policy debate with governments on EPZ policy. Secondly, organizing workers. The manual responds to these two challenges.

December 2013

  1. Organizing for Decent Work in the Informal Economy-Strategies, Methods and Practices

    20 December 2013

    Based largely on empirical studies, this book makes an invaluable contribution by presenting trade union organizing strategies, methods and practices in South Asian countries.

June 2013

  1. Decent Work for Domestic Workers The state of labour rights, social protection and trade union initiatives in Europe

    19 June 2013

    Domestic work has come to the fore of international attention with the adoption of ILO Convention 189 and Recommendation 201 concerning Decent work for domestic workers by the International Labour Conference in 2011. It has also been the topic of a 2012 European training program of the Programme for Workers Activities of the International Training Centre of the ILO, organised in cooperation with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT) and funded by the EU.

March 2013

  1. Are “green” jobs decent?

    21 March 2013

    This issue of the Journal focuses on the question of whether the jobs that are emerging in the efforts to reach sustainable development can be described as “decent”.

September 2011

  1. Trade Unions and the Global Crisis: Labour’s Visions, Strategies and Responses

    30 September 2011

    If the recent global economic crisis has debilitated labour in many parts of the world, many segments of the trade union movement have been fighting back, combining traditional and innovative strategies and articulating alternatives to the dominant political and economic models. This book offers a composite overview of the responses of trade unions and other workers’ organizations to neoliberal globalization in general and to the recent financial crisis in particular.

December 2010

  1. Trade Unions and Decent Work Country Programmes: A Resource Package

    15 December 2010

    Tripartism and social dialogue are essential tools to achieve the Decent Work Agenda and should be mainstreamed throughout the Office, but particularly in the context of the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP)1 process which is a tool to implement the Social Justice Declaration and the Global Jobs Pact.All ILO constituents should be involved in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Decent Work activities at the country level.As one of the four strategic objectives, tripartism and social dialogue is the policy framework for the entire DWCP process and a tool to operationalize the other strategic objectives. They constitute a core element of the 2010-2015 Strategic Policy Framework (SPF) and can assist the ILO structures at all levels to apply this approach.

June 2010

  1. Winning Fair Labour Standards for Domestic Workers: Lessons Learned from the Campaign for a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in New York State

    15 June 2010

    This paper attempts to identify the core reasons for the success of the Domestic Workers United (DWU) Domestic Worker Bill of Rights Campaign while explaining how the strategies adopted overcame particular challenges.

January 2006

  1. Globalization and the sectors

    01 January 2006

    This issue of Labour Education 2006/1,No. 142 on “globalization and the sectors”, does not set out to be exhaustive. The Global Union Federations (GUFs) have to battle on many fronts. They encounter problems that are specifi c to their sectors.However, their efforts all feed into a joint approach to the challenges facing the trade union movement in the world today. Those challenges include promoting respect for human and trade union rights worldwide and defending equality, as well as strengthening the ranks of the trade union movement and its capacity to mobilize, negotiate and bring a sectoral approach to bear on the aim of decent work for all.

April 2004

  1. Trade unions and workers with disabilities: Promoting decent work,combating discrimination

    01 April 2004

    Labour Education 2004/4 No. 137: Although much has been done by the ILO to protect and promote the human rights of people with disabilities and to fi ght with them for equal opportunity and equal treatment in society and at the workplace,much more needs to be done. The International Labour Office has, since its very inception in 1919, considered that disabled people have equal rights to decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity, and has worked to promote these rights through its international labour standards, its research and publications, and its advocacy and technical cooperation activities.

March 2004

  1. Policy proposals for decent work and employment for young people

    01 March 2004

    It is neither the objective of this publication to come up with tailormade solutions to the dramatic problem of youth unemployment, nor to claim that simple answers exist. In this issue of Labour Education 2004/3 No. 136, our contributors all insist on policy-mix and seek to provide for a better understanding of youth employment issues.And yes, they insist on providing developing country governments with the policy space to pursue a higher level of aggregate demand and faster economic growth.

February 2003

  1. Decent work in agriculture

    03 February 2003

    Labour Education 2003/2-3 No. 131-132: This is not the fi rst time that Labour Education has focused on workers in agriculture, nor will it be the last. The fate of these women and men should remain at the top of our agenda. Not only because of their numbers, but also because of the contribution they make to all of our daily lives. Because of their crucial role in sustainable development. Because of the terrible living and working conditions under which they produce our food, while themselves often surviving on the most meagre of rations. And because their right to decent work has yet to materialize.