Articles

August 2008 

• A dynamic vision of prevention: The International Social Security Association (ISSA)
  Social security is everybody’s business. It affects our daily life by protecting us against work and life risks – health care needs, disability, old age and unemployment. ISSA Secretary General Hans-Horst Konkolewsky explains how social security and the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases go hand-in-hand.
• Promoting safe and healthy jobs: The ILO Global Programme on Safety, Health and the Environment (Safework)
  The adoption in 2006 of a far-reaching ILO Convention (No. 187) and Recommendation (No. 197) concerning the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health provides a key tool in the struggle to meet the challenges of OSH in today’s fast-paced, globalized economy. In this article Dr. ...

July 2008 

• Shining a light of hope: Occupational safety and health in the informal economy. Hundreds of millions of workers worldwide suffer from work-related diseases and accidents.
  The ILO estimates that hundreds of millions of workers worldwide suffer from work-related diseases and accidents, the poorest and the least protected being the worst sufferers. Bringing occupational safety and health to those working and living in the informal economy represents a particular challenge as this report from the slums of Pune in India shows.
• Microinsurance and OSH: helping to cope with workplace risks, Work-related accidents and diseases take a grim toll every year.
  Work-related accidents and diseases take a grim toll every year. Although prevention can help improve occupational safety and health (OSH), microinsurance can also play a complementary role in coping with workplace risks and provide direct benefits to employers and workers.

April 2008 

• Multinationals and socially responsible labour practices: Better business - Looking back, looking forward
  A major international forum in Geneva has marked the 30th anniversary of one of the first initiatives by the international community to put the social dimension into globalization. Andrew Bibby reports on a key tool to encourage multinational businesses to adopt socially responsible labour practices.
• We’re in business! From Better Factories to Better Work. World of Work looks at a country project that grew into a major global programme.
  The ILO’s work with the private sector is not new. But in recent years there have been some interesting developments in ILO support to companies in their CSR-related activities. World of Work looks at a country project that grew into a major global programme, and interviews Ros Harvey, the Better Work Global Programme Manager.
• No vacuum: Cleaning up cleaning contracts
  A hidden army of workers is at work each day cleaning the world’s office blocks. Many office staff never meet the people who empty their garbage and dust their desks, for cleaning contracts often specify that the work is to be undertaken out of normal work time, in the early morning or evening periods. Yet cleaners are an essential part of modern office life. Andrew Bibby reports.

December 2007 

• The end of child labour: Millions of voices, one common hope
  The past decade has seen an unprecedented convergence of thought and action within the worldwide movement against child labour. In the 15th year of the ILO’s International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), World of Work looks at its achievements and its vision for future action. Alec Fyfe, IPEC Senior Child Labour Specialist, contributed to this article.
• Future harvests without child labour
  The vast majority of the world’s working children are not toiling in factories and sweatshops or working as domestics or street vendors in urban areas. They are working on farms and plantations, often from sun-up to sundown, planting and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides and tending livestock.

August 2007 

• Green jobs: Facing up to "an inconvenient truth"
  Over the last year or so, it has dawned on policy makers, businesses and the public around the world that climate change looks set to become the biggest social and environmental challenge of the 21st century. Peter Poschen, ILO Senior Policy Specialist and focal point on climate change, looks at the social and labour impacts of this complex global challenge.
• Talking weather: Trade unions and climate change
  It's been a way of breaking the ice – but now it's time for real discussions and bargaining to find solutions to save not only the tops of the icebergs, but the whole planet. ...

April 2007 

• ILO Global Report Insidiousness and insecurity: The new face of discrimination and inequality in the world of work
  At workplaces where different people gather, one thing remains the same: despite major advances in addressing discrimination at work, inequalities between mainstream groups and those vulnerable to discrimination remain stubbornly persistent and continue to afflict millions of people worldwide.

March 2007 

• Indigenous women overcome multiple obstacles
  Indigenous peoples around the world suffer from discrimination in the world of work, but indigenous women can be particularly hard hit by the double whammy of ethnicity and gender. Jessie Fredlund of the ILO Gender Bureau and INDISCO looks at the problem and finds some success stories in Bangladesh.

December 2006 

• Working together out of poverty No miracles, just decent work
  Every day tens of millions of people around the world seek their own way out of poverty through a simple act: they go to work. For many, however, their efforts are not enough to escape the poverty trap. What people need are jobs - and a fair chance of getting a decent one. ...
• Lighting a torch for empowerment - "We matter," say Filipino domestic workers
  Domestic workers in the Philippines are being given a voice by SUMAPI, the only workers' organization in the country for this sector. Ricardo R. Casco of ILODOMWORK reports on its progress.
• Cooperating out of poverty: Cooperative reform in Tanzania
  African cooperatives are recreating themselves through member empowerment and increased commercial viability. British journalist Andrew Bibby reports from the United Republic of Tanzania where cooperatives are adopting a new approach to sustainability.

September 2006 

• Business with a conscience: Why best practice is good practice
  As global business continues to diversify and grow, social dialogue plays a crucial role in encouraging the adoption and implementation of corporate social responsibility policies.
• Picking education, not tea: Voices of change in Uganda
  The new ILO report The end of child labour: Within reach paints a mixed picture of child labour worldwide. While the global total of child labourers is on the decline, there remain some 50 million working children in sub-Saharan Africa. ...
• Decent Work for All UN moves to strengthen global efforts to promote Decent Work for poverty reduction and sustainable development
  The High-level Segment of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), meeting in early July, adopted a wide-ranging Ministerial Declaration on full and productive employment and decent work, saying it would help strengthen efforts by the UN and the multilateral system to create jobs, cut poverty and provide new hope for the world's 1.4 billion working poor during the next decade. ...
• Dispelling the migrant myth
  Recent media buzz has sparked the latest global debate on migrant workers. Poverty and the decent work deficit are the two main reasons these workers cross borders in search of better lives, and most often they will take any job they can find, no matter how dirty or dangerous. ...