Publications

July 2020

  1. ILO Standards on Violence and Harassment: What role for workers'organizations?

    02 July 2020

    This Policy Brief is primarily directed to workers and their organizations. Its main purpose is to promote the understanding of the new International Labour Standards and to raise awareness on the importance of promoting the ratification of Convention No. 190 and the application of Recommendation 206.

June 2013

  1. Meeting the challenge of precarious work: A workers ’ agenda

    18 June 2013

    In 2011, the Bureau for Workers’ activities held its biannual symposium on an ever-growing preoccupation for workers around the world: the growth and spread of precarious work. This issue of the IJLR presents some of the contributions to this event and, more importantly, tries to provide guidance on possible trade union strategies to counter the expansion of forms of precarious work.

June 2012

  1. Confronting Finance: Mobilizing the 99% for economic and social progress

    15 June 2012

    "The Global Labour Column has become a valuable source of analysis of current economic trends that affect working people all over the world. This anthology brings together critical pieces on many issues (fiscal strategies, finance policies, social protection, strategies for job creation and much more), encompassing different regions and various perspectives." -Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

  2. Export Processing Zones in China-A Survey Report and a Case Study

    11 June 2012

    Running in tandem with China’s gradual shift away from a planned towards a market economy, the development of EPZs has become the epitome of China’s reform and opening up, as well as a major catalyzer of this process.

  3. Trade Unions and Special Economic Zones in India

    11 June 2012

    The term SEZ covers a broad range of zones, such as export processing zones, industrial parks, free ports, enterprise zones, and others. Industrial free zones, industrial export zones, free trade zones (often presented as bonded platforms within countries heavily involved in transit trade), special economic zones (principally in China), bonded warehouses, technological and scientific parks, financial services zones, free ports, duty-free zones (destined for the retailing of duty-free consumer goods to tourists) are also among the variants. EPZs have been a feature of Indian policy since 1960.

  4. The State of Trade Unionism and Industrial Relations practice in Nigeria’s Export Processing Zones

    11 June 2012

    The expansion of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) across the world has been an attendant phenomenon to the globalising processes of neoliberalism in the past few decades. The EPZs are supposed to be vehicles for the attraction of much needed foreign direct investments for development by the world’s underdeveloped and less developed countries. Unfortunately, they have also become havens for some of the worst work practices and denial of workers’ rights to associate in defence of their rights and for the advancement of their interests, thus constituting one of the most inhumane “race to the bottom” characteristic of the neoliberal pathway to socio economic development of countries.

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.

October 2009

  1. Trade union strategies towards global production systems

    09 October 2009

    International Journal of Labour Research,2009 Vol. 1, Issue 1: The International Journal of Labour Research is published by the Bureau for Workers’ Activities. It provides an overview of recent research on labour and social policies from trade union researchers and academics around the world. The International Journal of Labour Research is multidisciplinary and will be of interest to trade union researchers, labour ministries and academics of all relevant disciplines - industrial relations, sociology, law, economics and political science. It is published twice a year in English, French and Spanish.

January 2002

  1. Gender Equality: A Guide to Collective Bargaining (Six booklets)

    01 January 2002

January 2001

  1. Fundamental rights at work: Overview and prospects

    01 January 2001

    Labour Education 2001/1 No. 122: Three years after the adoption of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up by the 86th Session of the International Labour Conference, it makes sense to try and take stock of the situation. Not that this would represent a definite exercise, but analysing trends, improvements or setbacks would help determine immediate and future work. This is the aim of this issue of Labour Education which has relied heavily on support from trade union experts and ILO specialists, including colleagues from the Bureau for Workers’ Activities as well as relevant departments at headquarters.

March 1998

  1. Voices for freedom of association

    01 March 1998

    Labour Education 1998/3 No. 112: By a vote of 127 in favour, 0 against and 11 abstentions, the 31st Session of the International Labour Conference held in June and July 1948 adopted one of the most important Conventions in the sphere of labour relations and fundamental human rights: Convention No. 87 on freedom of association and protection of the right to organise.