28 April 2021
On 28 April, the date of the UN’s annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work, the International Labour Organization is calling for occupational health services to be strengthened so as to make them more ‘robust and resilient’ in the event of a new global health crisis. In a comprehensive report, the UN agency shows that ‘frontline’ workers have been particularly exposed to Covid-19. The text cites examples and suggests ways of improving the situation, which the ILO believes include social dialogue...
4 February 2021
In January 2021 the International Labour Organization (ILO) published Working Paper 24 entitled: Online digital labour platforms in China – Working conditions, policy issues and prospects. This reports provides an overview of current online platform usage in China based on a vast survey conducted in 2019 of 1,071 self-employed workers who were using the three largest operators in the online platform sector, namely ZBJ (Chongqing/ southwest China), EPWK (Xiamen/southeast China) and 680 (originally based in...
29 June 2020
One of the main achievements of the last International Labour Conference, which took place in Geneva in June 2019, the Violence and Harassment Convention (C190) obliges the ratifying states to equip themselves with the appropriate judicial means to prohibit and sanction violence and harassment at work. In particular they must ask employers to adopt, after consultation with employees and their representatives, a policy addressing all forms of violence and harassment (see article n°11188). To establish the date of...
26 May 2020
‘The determining factors in any decision to return to work must be considerations of life and health and the anticipation and mitigation of risks. For the reactivation of economies to be sustainable, workers need to feel safe at their workplaces and reassured that they will not be exposed to unnecessary risks directly related to the new coronavirus,’ emphasizes the ILO’s Guidance Note on a Safe and Healthy Return to Work issued on 22 May. The international organization continues stating, ‘Social...
31 March 2020
The guidelines formulated by both the ILO and UNICEF and released on 30 March urge employers to consider the impact of decisions on workers’ families and to prioritise improved social protection where and whenever possible. In it the organisations also call on employers to provide additional support, especially to those on low incomes.
12 March 2020
Momentum from the Centenary celebrations in 2019 (which saw the conclusion of a declaration and a new international convention on violence at work c.f. article No. 11189 and No. 11188) has ultimately proved insufficient. 2020 began with a much-anticipated meeting on decent work in global supply chains, which meant to define how the International Labour Organization should address this 21st century issue. In the face of such a complex topic, which raises among others the debate on the due diligence obligations of...
19 November 2019
In Berlin on 18 November and presenting the OECD’s latest report on collective bargaining entitles: Negotiating Our Way Up: Collective Bargaining in a Changing World of Work, Stefano Scarpetta, OECD Director of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs emphasized the positive impact of collective bargaining on employment and working conditions, and launched an unambiguous message. With the world of work in flux and influenced by digitalization, automation and demographic change, social partners can and should play a...
29 October 2019
In a decision handed down on 17 October 2019 the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that covert video-surveillance of staff, which in this case subsequently resulted in employee dismissals, did not constitute a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, nor of Article 6 section 1 ensuring the right to a fair trial. The ECHR judges deemed that the Spanish courts’ judges had meticulously assessed the rights of both the applicants’, in this case...
2 September 2019
On its InfoStories website, the International Labour Organization has published a graph demonstrating the changing pay inequality across the world. The graph shows the so-called ‘top-bottom wage inequality ratio’, which compares the group of individuals who are in the top 10% of the income distribution and the group which is in the bottom 10%. Through analysis of OECD data from 2000 and 2016, the graph indicates which countries have seen an increase in inequality and which ones have seen this decrease. An...
24 June 2019
The 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia opened with these strong words: labour is not a commodity. It also established a series of primary objectives for the International Labour Organization – created 25 years earlier in 1919 – such as that of ensuring social justice. The 108th Session of the International Labour Conference, which came to a close on 21 June and marked the centenary of the ILO, intended to produce a declaration setting out the ILO’s roadmap for its second century of existence. The conference...
