The 2008 Newsletter of the International Association of Labour Inspection

: The IALI newsletter reflects on the organization’s activities in 2008, which included involvement in a number of conferences and reports addressing workplace monitoring, forced labor and human trafficking, workplace stress, migrant workers, and health and safety issues. The newsletter gives a summary plan for the organizations 2009 goals

Labour Inspection and Undeclared Work in the EU

[Excerpt] Within the ILO/EC framework of cooperation, this comparative study on Labour Inspection Strategies for Combatting Undeclared Work was carried out during the biennium 2012-13. The study was coordinated by the ILO, Labour Administration and Inspection Programme (LAB/ADMIN) in cooperation with EC Unit EMPL-B2/Labour Law. The purpose of this study was to consider the role that national labour inspection systems in the EU have as part of a strategic policy response to undeclared work

Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour

[Excerpt] The publication by the ILO of new estimates on forced labour in 2012 created a sense of urgency on the need to address implementation gaps regarding the ILO’s Forced Labour Conventions. In addition, it also prompted calls to consider the adoption of supplementary standards by the 103rd International Labour Conference in June 2014. The power of normative pressure against those who still use or condone the use of forced labour is essential. National legislation needs to be strengthened to combat forced labour and penalties against those who profit from it need to be strictly enforced. However, a better understanding of the socioeconomic root causes as well as a new assessment of the profits of forced labour are equally important to bringing about long-term change. The purpose of this report is to do just that. It highlights how forced labour thrives in the incubator of poverty and vulnerability, low levels of education and literacy, migration and other factors. The evidence and results presented in this report illustrate the need for stronger measures of prevention and protection and for enhanced law enforcement as the basic responses to forced labour. At the same time, it also provides new knowledge of the determinants of forced labour that can help us develop and expand policies and programmes to not only stop forced labour where it exists, but prevent it before it occurs

2013 Labour Overview: Latin America and the Caribbean

[Excerpt] Twenty years after the Labour Overview was first published, we analyze the challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean today. We also take a retrospective look at two very distinct decades for the labour markets of the region and envision the immediate future with concern arising from some current features of the region’s economies and labour markets

Promoting Better Working Conditions: A Guide to the International Labor Standards System

International Labor OrganizationILOWashingtonGuideInternationalLaborStandardsSystem.pdf: 1130 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Panorama Laboral 2010: América Latina y el Caribe

[Excerpt] El 2010 cierra con un panorama alentador de recuperación económica en América Latina y el Caribe. Casi todos los países mostraron un crecimiento positivo de sus economías, alejándose del fantasma de la recesión. Los países crecieron conforme fue permitido por su fortaleza macroeconómica y en relación directa a la diversificación y crecimiento de sus mercados externos y de acuerdo a la capacidad de inversión y consumo público y privado en el orden interno. La recuperación económica también fue favorecida por las políticas de estímulo al crecimiento e inversión, así como por las iniciativas en favor del fomento del empleo, la capacitación, el fortalecimiento del poder de compra de los salarios e ingresos, y la ampliación de la protección social. La reactivación de la economía tuvo un impacto favorable sobre la creación de empleo en el conjunto de la región. El impacto más directo fue la reducción en la tasa de desempleo urbano desde el 8.1% en el 2009, hasta el 7.4% estimado en 2010. Esto significó que en 2010 el crecimiento económico generó empleo u ocupación para cerca de 1.2 millones de personas. Aún así, en el 2010 el desempleo afecta a 16.9 millones de mujeres y hombres lo que representa una gran brecha de trabajo decente. La información disponible también sugiere que aumentó el empleo protegido por la seguridad social dentro del sector formal de empresas. Empero, este aumento del empleo formal no ocupó a la totalidad del crecimiento de la fuerza de trabajo, con lo cual muchos de los nuevos trabajadores fueron a engrosar las filas del sector informal. Por esta razón, se estima que en 2010 se mantuvo la tendencia de informalización del mercado de trabajo, con un incremento importante del trabajo por cuenta propia, de trabajadores auxiliares y de otras categorías de asalariados y patronos que se desempeñan en pequeños negocios informales o no registrados. Este fenómeno sigue conspirando contra los objetivos de mejora de la productividad y trabajo decente de los países. Durante el 2011 se prevé que las economías de América Latina y el Caribe seguirán la ruta del crecimiento, aunque a un menor ritmo del experimentado en 2010. Ello obliga a los países a seguir impulsando, según sus posibilidades, las políticas de estímulo al crecimiento y al empleo, junto a las medidas para mantener presupuestos fiscales sostenidos y una inflación baja Las conclusiones de la reciente conferencia convocada por la OIT y el Fondo Monetario Internacional (Oslo, setiembre de 2010) subrayan que la creación de empleo debe estar al centro de la recuperación económica y debería ser un objetivo macroeconómico clave. Aquí se acordó trabajar conjuntamente en el desarrollo de un piso de protección social que constituye uno de los pilares de la Agenda de Trabajo Decente de la OIT. Las propuestas del Pacto Mundial para el Empleo de la OIT (Ginebra, 2009) retoman vigencia en la actual coyuntura de recuperación de la economía mundial. En América Latina y el Caribe empleadores, trabajadores y gobiernos han reiterado recientemente, en la 17ª Reunión Regional Americana de la OIT, que esas propuestas resultan viables y prioritarias en esta región del mundo; y que las mismas se pueden impulsar a través de ese instrumento que es la Agenda Hemisférica de Trabajo Decente. La consigna de que la calidad del trabajo define la calidad de una sociedad caló profundamente durante dicha conferencia. Todo ello demanda del desarrollo de empresas sostenibles en un contexto medioambiental sustentable. La meta 1B adoptada en el sistema de Naciones Unidas que auspicia el trabajo decente para todos, incluyendo mujeres y jóvenes, constituye una condición indispensable para alcanzar el primer objetivo de desarrollo del milenio de erradicar la pobreza extrema y el hambre del mundo. Estando a mitad del recorrido hacia los objetivos de desarrollo del milenio planteados para el 2015, la experiencia reciente de implementación de políticas durante la coyuntura de crisis demuestra que sí es posible lograr objetivos de estabilidad macroeconómica con metas de crecimiento económico, empleo y trabajo decente. Y avanzar en esta dirección depende fundamentalmente de la decisión política de los actores del mundo del trabajo

Burden and outcome of HIV infection and other morbidities in health care workers attending an Occupational Health Program at the Provincial Hospital of Tete, Mozambique.

Objectives  To investigate the burden and outcome of HIV infection and other morbidities amongst a Mozambican hospital staff. Methods  Within an occupational health service set up in April 2008 in the provincial hospital of Tete, Mozambique, we offered to all staff members an initial clinical, laboratory and radiological screening and followed them up prospectively until April 2010. Results  A total of 47.5% of 423 health workers attended the program. The cohort (female-to-male ratio: 2.2; mean age: 39 years) consisted mostly of auxiliary staff (43%) and nurses (29.8%). At initial screening, 71% were asymptomatic. HIV infection (28.4%) and tuberculosis (TB) (21%) were the main reported antecedent illnesses. Laboratory screening revealed anaemia (haemoglobin level <10 mg/dl) in 9% participants, abnormal liver enzymes in 23.9% and a reactive non-treponemal syphilis test in 5%. Of 145 performed chest X-rays, 13% showed abnormalities. All 113 health workers not recently tested for HIV were screened, and 31 were newly diagnosed with HIV infection (resulting in an overall HIV prevalence of 43.8%). Nine cases of TB were diagnosed at screening/during follow-up. In April 2010, all but one of the participants were alive. All HIV-infected health workers under antiretroviral therapy were actively followed-up. Conclusion  Serious conditions were frequently diagnosed in health workers, in particular HIV infection. Mid-term outcome was favourable within this program. Creation of screening and care services dedicated to caregivers should be of highest priority in similar African settings

Does the company's economic performance affect access to occupational health services?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Finland like in many other countries, employers are legally obliged to organize occupational health services (OHS) for their employees. Because employers bear the costs of OHS it could be that in spite of the legal requirement OHS expenditure is more determined by economic performance of the company than by law. Therefore, we explored whether economic performance was associated with the companies' expenditure on occupational health services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used a prospective design to predict expenditure on OHS in 2001 by a company's economic performance in 1999. Data were provided by Statistics Finland and expressed by key indicators for profitability, solidity and liquidity and by the Social Insurance Institution as employers' reimbursement applications for OHS costs. The data could be linked at the company level. Regression analysis was used to study associations adjusted for various confounders.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nineteen percent of the companies (N = 6 155) did not apply for reimbursement of OHS costs in 2001. The profitability of the company represented by operating margin in 1999 and adjusted for type of industry was not significantly related to the company's probability to apply for reimbursement of the costs in 2001 (OR = 1.00, 95%CI: 0.99 to 1.01). Profitability measured as operating profit in 1999 and adjusted for type of industry was not significantly related to costs for curative medical services (Beta -0.001, 95%CI: -0.00 to 0.11) nor to OHS cost of prevention in 2001 (Beta -0.001, 95%CI: -0.00 to 0.00).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We did not find a relation between the company's economic performance and expenditure on OHS in Finland. We suppose that this is due to legislation obliging employers to provide OHS and the reimbursement system both being strong incentives for employers.</p

States and the political economy of unfree labour

A growing body of academic and policy research seeks to understand and address the problem of contemporary unfree labour. In this article, we argue that this literature could be strengthened by a stronger conceptualization of, and more systematic attention towards, the role of national states. In particular, we argue that there is a need to move beyond simplistic conceptualisations of states as simple agents of regulation and criminal justice enforcement who respond to the problem of unfree labour, and to recognize the causal and multifaceted role that national states play in creating the conditions in which unfree labour can flourish. We propose a framework to understand and compare the ways in which national states shape the political economy of unfree labour. Focusing on the United States, we outline three arenas of governance in which national states have been particularly central to enabling the conditions for unfree labour: the regulation of labour mobility, labour market regulation, and business regulation. We conclude by reflecting on the comparative political economy research that will be required to understand the role of different states in shaping the conditions in which unfree labour thrives or is eliminated