Feature articles

February 2006 

• Maritime Session of the International Labour Conference (7-23 February 2006): "labour history": ILO adopts new consolidated maritime Convention
  23 February 2006 - The consolidated Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 adopted by the ILO today is a ground-breaking, comprehensive global legal instrument concerning maritime labour standards for the world's ship owners, seafarers and maritime nations. The new Convention will not only address the need for decent working conditions for the world's more than 1. ...
• Sharing profit, knowledge and power: Worker-owned businesses
  21 February 2006 - The number of employee-owned businesses such as John Lewis in the United Kingdom where the share capital is held for the benefit of the workforce remains relatively small. However, a recent ILO publication ( Note 1), suggests that this form of company structure is both successful in business terms and more widely applicable. Andrew Bibby reports for ILO Online from London.
• Sharing profit, knowledge and power: Worker-owned businesses
  21 February 2006 - The number of employee-owned businesses such as John Lewis in the United Kingdom where the share capital is held for the benefit of the workforce remains relatively small. However, a recent ILO publication ( Note 1), suggests that this form of company structure is both successful in business terms and more widely applicable. Andrew Bibby reports for ILO Online from London.
• Skill is power: broadening partnerships to promote youth employment
  13 February 2006 - According to ILO estimates, nearly half of the world's more than 190 million unemployed people are under the age of 24. A target of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to give young people a chance to find decent and productive work. ...
• Maritime Session of the International Labour Conference (7-23 February 2006): A new standard for the global shipping industry
  02 February 2006 - Nearly 1.2 million seafarers work for the world's shipping industry. The ILO now heads for a new Maritime Labour Convention reflecting the needs of a globalized shipping industry. If adopted, the standard will consolidate and update more than 65 international labour standards adopted over the last 80 years. ...

January 2006 

• Environmentally sustainable development: the WILL is there
  30 January 2006 - NAIROBI (ILO Online) - The Workers Initiative for a Lasting Legacy (WILL 2006), organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in cooperation with the ILO, SustainLabour and the UN Global Compact, held here the first ever trade union assembly on labour and the environment last week. ...
• Maritime Session of the International Labour Conference (7-23 February 2006): The global seafarer: mixed fortunes mirror global trends
  29 January 2006 - Nearly 1.2 million seafarers work for the world's shipping industry. Aboard the world's cruise ships, crews often represent 20 nationalities or more. While the current shipbuilding boom has created strong demand for officers worldwide, the trend towards increasingly automated vessels also reduces the need for ratings. ...
• Is there a decent way to break ships?
  26 January 2006 - GENEVA (ILO Online) - The dispatch of the asbestos-laden aircraft carrier 'Clemenceau' from France to the world's largest ship graveyard on India's west coast for scrapping has focused new attention on the human and environmental dangers inherent in ship breaking. ...
• Which is best for the economy: employment stability or employment flexibility?
  20 January 2006 - A recent article in the ILO's International Labour Review analyzes the relationship between employment stability and productivity in six major sectors in 13 European countries. According to the authors, both, extensive and short job tenure can produce adverse affects on productivity. ...
• The Lego experience: "Putting flexibility and security together"
  13 January 2006 - Workers who are facing layoffs may want to know why employees at Danish toymaker Lego don't worry too much if their jobs are outsourced. It has to do with what the International Labour Office and others call "flexicurity". ILO Online reports from the Lego toy factory in Denmark.