new maritime convention makes labour · pdf filethis magazine is not an official document of...

Full steam ahead!New maritime Convention

makes labour history

No. 56, April 2006 Also in this issue • Helping Pakistan rebuild • The global jobs crisis • Women and sport • Worker-owned businesses • Employment opportunities for disabled people in Ethiopia

Violence at work •

WORLD OF WORK, NO. 56, APRIL 2006

World of Work magazine is published threetimes per year by the Department of Com-munication and Public Information of theILO in Geneva. Also published in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Finnish,French, Hindi, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanishand Swedish.

EDITOR

May Hofman ÖjermarkASSISTANT EDITOR

Katherine LomasneySPANISH EDITION

In collaboration with the ILO Office, MadridPRODUCTION MANAGER

Kiran Mehra-KerpelmanPRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Corine LuchiniPHOTO EDITOR

Marcel CrozetART DIRECTION

MDP, ILO TurinCOVER DESIGN

M. Montesano and E. Fortarezza, ILO Turin,Cover photos by J. MaillardEDITORIAL BOARD

Thomas Netter (Chair), Rosemary Beattie,Charlotte Beauchamp, Lauren Elsaesser, MayHofman Öjermark, Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman,Corinne Perthuis

This magazine is not an official document ofthe International Labour Organization. Theopinions expressed do not necessarily reflectthe views of the ILO. The designationsemployed do not imply the expression of anyopinion whatsoever on the part of the ILOconcerning the legal status of any country, areaor territory, or of its authorities, or concerningthe delimitation of its frontiers.Reference to names of firms and commercialproducts and processes does not imply theirendorsement by the ILO, and any failure tomention a particular firm, commercial prod-uct or process is not a sign of disapproval.Texts and photographs may be freely repro-duced with mention of source (except photoagency photographs). Written notification isappreciated.

All correspondence should be addressed tothe ILO Department of Communication andPublic Information, CH-1211 Geneva 22,Switzerland.Tel: +4122/799-7912Fax: +4122/799-8577Email: [email protected]/communication

Printed by ILO TurinISSN 1020-0010

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From its first days, the member States ofthe ILO realized that in the world of work,seafarers and shipowners were different.Not land-based but working on the seas,they not only moved huge amounts ofworld trade even 86 years ago, but repre-sented the most fluid and wide-rangingworkforce on the planet.

So when the first International LabourConference in June of 1919 began dis-cussing working hours, the need for a spe-cial approach to working time and workingconditions in the maritime sector becameapparent. And a year later, the ILO held its2nd International Labour Conference atGenoa, Italy devoted to seafarers. In all, tenMaritime Sessions of the InternationalLabour Conference adopted 68 MaritimeConventions and Recommendations.

These instruments covered all aspects ofworking conditions at sea: minimum age ofentry to employment, recruitment andplacement, medical examination, articles ofagreement, repatriation, holidays with pay,

social security, hours of work and restperiods, crew accommodation, identitydocuments, occupational safety and health,welfare at sea and in ports, continuity ofemployment, vocational training and cer-tificates of competency.

But times changed, and so did the vol-ume of trade hauled by sea. Eventually, itbecame clear that the seafarers working onthe “supertankers” and other ships neededa “super Convention” that not only coveredtheir needs, but addressed the need of theshipowners and governments for fair com-petition as well.

Thus, the most recent ILO Conventionwas born. The 94th ILC adopted the Mari-time Labour Convention, 2006 in February,providing a comprehensive labour standardand setting the tone for future Conventionsthat will regulate not only a sector butaddress the issues posed by globalization.The new standard is not only a landmarkon the seas but a pioneering contributionto making globalization fair.

A global Convention for a global workforce

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Real-time response:The ILO’s role in helping Pakistan rebuild and get back to work

The decent work deficit:A new ILO report outlines the latest global employment trends

A personal stake:Why employee-owned businesses return more than a profit

Disabled people in Ethiopia:Making public services work for poor people

C O V E R S T O R Y

Full steam ahead! ILO adopts “super Convention” for the maritime sector

Created in 1919, the International Labour Organization (ILO) brings together governments, employers and workers of its 178 member States in commonaction to improve social protection and conditions of life and work throughout the world. The International Labour Office, in Geneva, is the permanentSecretariat of the Organization.

G E N E R A L A R T I C L E S

F E A T U R E S

Maritime Labour Convention, 2006

Planet Work

• Women in sports:

How level is the playing field?

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News

• Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM):

ILO report sees wide gaps in wages, productivity

gains

• International Women’s Day 2006:

ILO activities organized around the world

• Women entrepreneurs in Africa:

ILO and AfDB strengthen support

• World AIDS Day 2005:

ILO organizes activities based on workplace efforts

to stop HIV/AIDS

Around the Continents

Media Shelf

Seafarers are the world’s most global and global-ized workforce. The importance of this sector –and the need to update and revitalize ILOstandards, some of which were outdated – cametogether at the recent International LabourConference on maritime matters. As a result, theConference adopted a “super Convention” toprovide a comprehensive charter for seafarersand shipowners alike.

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Violence at work

• Taming the beast:A look at the many forms and guises of workplaceviolence 23

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Jean-Marc Schindler, President of the Conference, and Director-General Juan Somavia

Full steam ahead!ILO adopts “super Convention”

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ver 1.2 million seafarers represent theworld’s most global and globalizedworkforce, and it is they and theshipowners for whom they work who

move the bulk of world trade as well as serving onpassenger ships. The importance of this sector –and the need to update and revitalize ILO stand-ards, some of which were nearly as old as theOrganization – came together at the recent Inter-national Labour Conference on maritime matters.As a result, the Conference adopted what has beencalled a “super Convention” for the world’s mari-time sector, providing a comprehensive charter forseafarers and shipowners alike. Here – in questionand answer format – World of Work discusses thenew Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 and whyit’s so important.

What is the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006about?

The maritime industry is highly globalized. Infact, it is the first global workforce. No matter whatflag they fly or port they call home, ships roam theworld’s oceans, largely staffed by seafarers drawn

from many different countries, and, in particular,from less developed economies. The tremendousincrease in the volume of world trade over the last50 years has been largely due to a massive increasein productivity in the shipping sector – not justbecause of reduced import barriers or bettertelecommunications and infrastructure. Today,ships haul some 90 per cent of world trade. What’smore, the speed with which goods are movedaround the world has increased dramatically andthe cost has fallen exponentially. Without shipown-ers and seafarers there would be no globalization aswe know it today.

What are the main features of the new MaritimeLabour Convention, 2006?

The new Convention provides an innovative,integrated approach to ensuring decent work for allseafarers, wherever they come from and whateverthe national flag of the ship on which they work. TheILO constituents have recognized that poor workingconditions and quality shipping cannot go together.They have put a socio-economic floor to globalcompetition in the maritime sector. This competi-tion will continue, but it will be based on fair, well-conceived common rules for fair competition andon cooperation to ensure that they are followed.

What sorts of ships and seafarers are covered?The Convention aims to achieve worldwide

protection for all seafarers in several ways. It isestimated that there are over 1.2 million peopleworking at sea, but up to now it was not clear whowas to be considered a seafarer – for example, thosewho work on board ship but are not directlyinvolved in navigating or operating the ship, suchas the many personnel on passenger ships. The newConvention clearly defines a seafarer as any personwho is employed or engaged or works in anycapacity on board a ship that is covered by theConvention. Except for a few specific exclusions,the Convention applies to all ships ordinarily

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engaged in commercial activities, whether publicly orprivately owned, and to the seafarers on those ships.

Flexibility is provided for national authorities toexempt from some aspects of the Conventionsmaller ships (200 gross tonnage and below) thatdo not go on international voyages. Also, the Con-vention does not apply to:

! ships which navigate exclusively in inland watersor waters within, or closely adjacent to, shelteredwaters or areas where port regulations apply;

! ships engaged in fishing;! ships of traditional build such as dhows and junks;

and! warships or naval auxiliaries.

Workers on board fishing vessels will be coveredin a separate proposed Convention and Recom-mendation to be discussed at the InternationalLabour Conference in 2007.

What is the significance of the tonnage of theseships?

The success of the Convention will largelydepend on its wide acceptance. One indicator ofwide acceptance will be when a substantial amountof the world’s shipping is flying the flags of Statesthat have ratified it. The amount of shipping ismeasured by gross tonnage, the internationallyaccepted measure of the capacity of ships. TheConvention will only come into force 12 monthsafter it has been ratified by at least 30 ILO memberStates with a total share of world gross tonnage of33 per cent. In order to bring the Convention intoforce quickly, it is therefore not only important thata large number of States ratify it but also that Stateswith significant shipping fleets ratify it.

What are some of the key elements of thisConvention that will affect seafarers andshipowners?

The new Convention is set to achieve morecompliance by operators and owners of ships and

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to strengthen enforcement of Convention require-ments through mechanisms at all levels, including:

! provisions for complaint procedures available toseafarers;

! the shipowners’ and shipmasters’ supervision ofconditions on their ships;

! the flag States’ jurisdiction and control over theirships; and

! port State inspections of foreign ships.

The Convention sets minimum requirementsfor seafarers to work on a ship and contains provi-sions on conditions of employment, accommoda-tion, recreational facilities, food and catering,health protection, medical care, welfare and socialsecurity protection.

How do these new provisions differ from thosecontained in the scores of existing Conventionsregarding the maritime sector?

There are several novel features as far as the ILOis concerned. The whole structure of the newConvention differs from that of traditional ILOConventions. It consists of the basic provisions,i.e. the Articles and Regulations, followed by atwo-part Code. The Regulations and the Code, thelatter containing Standards and Guidelines, areorganized under the following five Titles: 1: Mini-mum requirements for seafarers to work on a ship;2: Conditions of employment; 3: Accommodation,recreational facilities, food and catering; 4: Healthprotection, medical care, welfare and social secur-ity protection; and 5: Compliance and enforce-ment. There is also an Explanatory Note to furtherassist member States in implementing the Conven-tion. Other innovations are found in the accelerat-ed amendment procedures and the system for thecertification of ships.

How does the Convention balance the need forprotection of seafarers and flexibility in themaritime labour market?

The Convention text establishes clear defini-tions of rights while at the same time allowing anecessary degree of national discretion in the deliv-ery of those rights with transparency, consultationand accountability. The Convention will developfurther with the evolving needs of the industry. Itwill provide an assurance of universal applicationand enforcement measures and will ensure a levelplaying field worldwide.

The adoption of the new Convention is theculmination of five years of international socialdialogue.

Tripartism and social dialogue are key tools ingetting beyond policy and ideological dead ends.They can reconcile the pressures for productivityand competitiveness with sustainable developmentand improvement in living conditions for all. In themaritime sector, the ILO has shown how this canbe done. The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006shows that tripartism can give constructiveresponses to the challenges of this globalizedindustry and to globalization more generally.

How does the new Convention provide a wayforward for dealing with globalization?

Many of the challenges the maritime sector hasto deal with – and the framework in which it oper-

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ates – are also faced by other sectors. Governmentseverywhere are trying to manage and developnational economies and specific sectors while alsodealing with the demands of adjustments to finan-cial and trade liberalization. Enterprises are them-selves struggling to succeed, grow and survive in theface of intensifying competition in domestic, region-al and global markets. And workers often feel thatthey are at the receiving end of these tensions. In thesearch for solutions it has become more and moreevident that there can be no lasting success throughpurely national solutions to global problems.

The Convention is also a good example ofcooperation in the multilateral system.

The very first Article of the Convention requiresmember States to cooperate with each other for itseffective implementation and enforcement. Thismeans cooperation between countries and betweeninternational organizations and other intergovern-mental organizations, as well as the many inter-ested shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations andother NGOs. The Convention connects with devel-opments in the multilateral system and is consis-tent with the strong movement towards better inte-gration of work among the organizations of thesystem. It has been designed so that relevant ele-ments mesh well with the established systems ofthe International Maritime Organization (IMO).There has been long-standing cooperation betweenthe ILO and the IMO, and this has continued in thedevelopment of the Maritime Labour Convention,2006. Such collaboration also extends to very prac-tical day-to-day problems of seafarers.

What are the next challenges?Ratification and then implementation will be

the next challenges. The prospects for ratificationhave been an integral part of the discussions, andthe concerns expressed have been addressed in thedevelopment of the instrument. So, early ratifica-tion is a reasonable expectation. But we do not takethis for granted. The ILO’s constituents, in particu-lar the social partners, and the InternationalLabour Office itself must now become advocatesfor ratification with parliamentarians, with con-cerned ministries, with all who have a stake in themaritime sector. Solid partnerships will be neededas well as resourced programmes to provide tech-nical cooperation where needed. To respond, theILO plans to put together a significant technicalcooperation programme.

How will the new Convention affect ILOstandard setting in general?

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 seeks toensure the relevance of ILO standards in this era ofthe globalization of production and work. Whathas been done for the maritime sector may alsoprovide the impetus and support for similar inno-vative and balanced approaches in other industries.

7WORLD OF WORK, NO. 56, APRIL 2006

n his reply to the Delegates at the Maritime Labour Conference, Director-General Juan Somavia spoke of the widespread applicability of the new

Convention, and noted that not only does it have enforcement mechanisms thatwill allow it to be more effective but it also sets a model for addressing work-place and globalization issues in other sectors. Plus, he pledged full support ofthe Office for the implementation of the Convention, adding that the ILO wouldbegin examining the requirements of technical cooperation that this Conventionimplies and would “do what we can do in order to be able to push forward withthe next steps”.

“It does not mean that we do not have any problems ahead of us,” saidMr. Somavia. “Of course, we do. But life is step-by-step. It will take us someyears to have it ratified. But history will remind us of this great moment of theInternational Labour Conference at its Maritime Session, when we demonstrat-ed that the challenges of globalization could be addressed through dialogueand tripartism.”

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Real-time responseThe ILO's role in helping Pakistan

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he ILO continues to play an importantrole in the earthquake recovery efforts inPakistan. From establishing emergencyemployment centres and cash-for-work

programmes to easing trauma through decentwork, the ILO’s multi-pronged approach capital-ized on an existing infrastructure for technicalcooperation to distribute resources quickly andefficiently.

ISLAMABAD – The October 2005 earthquakethat shook Pakistan reduced whole cities to rubble,claimed more than 87,000 lives and affected morethan 3 million people1 – but it did not succeed inbreaking the spirit of the men, women andchildren who survived the disaster. Hundreds ofthousands of livelihoods were affected,2 and sixmonths on there is still much to be done. Butthanks in part to the ILO’s Rapid Income Supportthrough Employment (RISE) initiative, designed toquickly inject money back into local economies,those worst affected are being given a chance torebuild their own lives with dignity. The programmewas launched soon after the earthquake in close col-laboration with the Ministry of Labour, andemployers’ and workers’ organizations. The ILO wasthe first international agency to launch the cash-for-work programme, and the progress is heartening.

According to the ILO’s initial assessment of theearthquake’s impact on livelihoods, in conjunctionwith the Pakistan Institute of DevelopmentEconomics, the loss of jobs was far greater in theinformal sector, representing close to 74 per cent,whereas the formal sector saw nearly 25 per centjob loss. There was a total of 62.1 per cent job lossacross the affected population, the bulk of whichtook place in the agricultural sector.

The ILO’s immediate response strategy was toredirect the activities of existing technical coopera-tion projects to distribute urgently needed aid andsupport to the greatest number of people, especiallyvulnerable groups such as children, women and the

disabled. With the assistance of the Regional Officeand ILO Headquarters in Geneva, internalresources were quickly mobilized to start cash-for-work programmes and establish skills developmentprojects and emergency employment services.

Rising aboveThe RISE pilot project was initially rolled out in

Balakot, one of the worst-affected areas, to getpeople back to work quickly and help them comeout of post-disaster trauma. Nearly 45,000 work-days were generated not only to give employmentto affected women and men but also to help in therebuilding and recovery efforts. The programmeintroduced jobs such as cleaning of the camps,removal of debris from critical buildings andstreets, repairing drainage lanes, building tempor-ary shelters for displaced people and restoringbasic services.

A programme to identify and register thoseaffected was designed as part of the RISE pro-gramme. A database was created to catalogue job-seekers based on their skills and then to link themwith employment opportunities based on the spe-cific needs of the area. Two Emergency EmploymentInformation Centres (EEICs) were established as aresult, in Balakot and in Muzaffarabad. To date, over6,000 people have been registered in different occu-pations and more than 150 have been linked withemployment opportunities.

Skills development is another important com-ponent of the RISE programme, and the ILOdesigned and offered short-cycle, tailor-made skillstraining programmes to ensure the employment ofthe local population and, particularly, to avoidskilled labourers coming in from elsewhere. Manyof the existing training centres were badly damagedor had collapsed, and so makeshift training centreswere established in tents throughout the affectedareas. The ILO has established three vocationaltraining centres in Balakot, Muzaffarabad andBagh in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour,

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1 Estimates from the

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local government departments, an internationalNGO and the National Rural Support Programme.Course offerings for men include masonry, carpen-try, electrical construction work, plumbing andwelding. There are also training courses on dressdesigning and sewing for women and repair ofhousehold appliances for disabled workers.

The RISE pilot programme was successful andreceived wide appreciation at both national and inter-national levels. Most recently, in March, the ILO wasrecognized, among other UN agencies and NGOs, at

a ceremony in Mansehra by the Pakistan Army for itswork in affected areas. Based on a high number ofrequests, the programme was expanded to the crisisareas of Batagram, Muzaffarabad and Bagh.

Of the total number of people who were hired towork in the RISE programmes of Muzaffarabadand Bagh, about 30 per cent were women. A cul-turally sensitive approach was taken in this situ-ation by appointing women supervisors for womenworkers, and families expressed appreciation of theILO’s sensitivity to cultural norms.

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Building back betterThe ILO has established strategic partnerships

with several governments, constituents, UN agen-cies and NGOs. In particular, joint missions havebeen undertaken with the UN DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP), the Department for Inter-national Development (DfID) and others toevaluate opportunities to help recover livelihoodsin the affected areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir

(AJK) and North West Frontier Province (NWFP).These missions have resulted in a proposal to for-mulate a joint UN agencies programme.

One of the most important lessons learned bythe ILO during the early recovery stage is thatdecent jobs should be created as an immediate andcentral need to generate income – and to give dig-nity back to the disadvantaged and affected fam-ilies. Also, crises offer a unique opportunity to“build back better”, laying a firm foundation for amore sustainable and crisis-resistant socio-economic community.

To that end, the ILO Islamabad office has com-piled a specialized tool kit for use in disaster situ-ations, highlighting the issue of creating sustain-able livelihoods and employment in post-disasteraffected areas, including cash-for-work and food-for-work programmes, public employment ser-vices, labour-based infrastructure projects, com-munity contracting, vocational and skills training,women entrepreneurship and microfinance.

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For more information, please contact the ILO Islamabad office attel.: + 92 51 227 6456-7; fax: + 92 51 2279181-2; or e-mail: [email protected].

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hirty-three tons of warm clothes,collected locally under an initia-

tive launched by a group of staff of theInternational Labour Office in February2006, were sent directly to Pakistan forvictims of the October earthquake.

The ILO staff launched the initiative afterseeing images of bare-foot children wanderingin the snow four months after the earthquake.Other international agencies, the local Genevapopulation, schools and department storesjoined in the initiative. Hundreds of cartonswith shoes, anoraks, warm clothing and blan-kets were packed by volunteers in less than 48hours.

The Swiss Development and TechnicalCooperation Agency kindly arranged for thedelivery of the clothing to the Chakala Air Basein Islamabad. The Director of the ILO IslamabadOffice handed over the consignment toPakistan's Federal Relief Commission in a sim-ple ceremony. Officials of the Ministry ofLabour were also present on this occasion. TheFederal Relief Commission organized for theimmediate distribution of the clothing via armyhelicopters to the worst-affected areas ofNorth West Frontier Province and the Pakistan-Administered Kashmir. Colleagues at the ILOoffice in Islamabad and the Pakistani Office forHumanitarian Assistance also ensured distri-bution to those most in need.

“The success of this collection, which wasmeant to be a modest contribution to helpPakistanis suffering from the extreme winterin the Himalayas, went far beyond our expec-tations,” said Zohreh Tabatabai, Director of theILO Department of Communication and PublicInformation, which initiated the collection.

33 TONS OF WARM CLOTHING COLLECTED BY ILO GENEVA STAFF FOR PAKISTAN QUAKE VICTIMS

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he ILO’s 2006 Global Employment TrendsBrief paints a sombre picture not only ofgrowing unemployment and poverty butof a significant lack of decent job oppor-

tunities, especially for young people. Despite therobust world economic growth of 2005, the globaleconomy failed to deliver enough new jobs. Butthe ILO’s stance is a strong one, involving a globalstrategy of communication, education, sound pol-icy enforcement and the promotion of entrepre-neurship to encourage the creation of more andbetter jobs.

GENEVA – A “perfect storm” is gathering forcein the global jobs landscape, due to worseningunemployment, poverty and labour migration.Despite the strong GDP growth of 4.3 per cent in2005, which increased world output by someUS$2.5 trillion, the global economy is failing todeliver enough new jobs for those entering jobmarkets, according to the ILO’s 2006 GlobalEmployment Trends Brief.1 Some 40 million jobsmust be created each year over the next decadejust to keep up with the number of people lookingfor work.

Only 14.5 million of the world’s more than 500million extreme working poor were able to riseabove the US$1 per day, per person poverty line. Inaddition, in 2005, of the more than 2.8 billionworkers in the world, 1.4 billion still did not earnenough to lift themselves and their families abovethe US$2 a day poverty line – just as many as 10years ago.

At the January 2006 World Economic Forum inDavos, Switzerland, where creating future jobs wasa key item on the agenda, ILO Director-GeneralJuan Somavia addressed the audience of worldgovernment and business leaders, saying this is an“unprecedented global jobs crisis of mammothproportions”.

In addition to an overall lack of employ-ment opportunities, the global jobs crisis isalso creating a deficit of decent work. “Thiscrisis isn’t going unnoticed on the streets ofrich and poor countries alike,” he said.“Increasingly, political leaders are hearing thevoices of people demanding a fair chance atdecent jobs and new opportunities to find andkeep work. Yet, far too often those opportuni-ties just aren’t there.”


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TheDecent Work DeficitA new ILO report outlines the

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The global jobs crisis is illustrated by a numberof factors, which include:

! Half of the world’s workers, some 1.4 billion work-ing poor, live with their families on less than US$2per day, per person. These people largely work in theinformal sector, both in rural and urban settings.

! Unemployment is at its highest point ever andcontinues to rise. In the last ten years, officialunemployment has grown by more than 25 percent and now stands at nearly 192 million world-wide, or about 6 per cent of the global work force.

! Of these unemployed, the ILO estimates that near-ly 86 million, or about half the global total, areyoung people aged 15 to 24 (see sidebar on p. 14).

! When people cannot find work at home, in theircommunities and societies, they look elsewhere. Inthe present environment, labour migration easilybecomes a source of tension, not to speak of traf-ficking and other similar activities.

Regional trends According to the Global Employment Trends

Brief, the largest increase in unemploymentoccurred in Latin America and the Caribbean,

where the number of unemployed rose by nearly1.3 million and the unemployment rate increasedby 0.3 percentage points between 2004 and 2005 to7.7 per cent. Also the Central and Eastern Europe(non-EU) and CIS region witnessed a year-over-year increase in unemployment, which stood at 9.7per cent, up from 9.5 per cent in 2004.

In developed economies and the EuropeanUnion (EU), unemployment rates declined from7.1 per cent in 2004 to 6.7 per cent in 2005.

Unemployment rates in Asian sub-regions didnot change markedly. East Asia’s unemploymentrate was 3.8 per cent, thereby remaining the lowestin the world. South Asia’s unemployment rate was4.7 per cent and South-East Asia and the Pacific’swas 6.1 per cent.

At 13.2 per cent in 2005, the Middle East andNorth Africa remained the region with the highestunemployment rate in the world. Sub-SaharanAfrica’s rate stood at 9.7 per cent, the second highestin the world. The region also had the highest sharein working poverty, underscoring that tackling thedecent work deficit is most urgently needed there.

Employment-to-population ratios, the share ofpeople employed within the working age popula-

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G L O B A L E M P L O Y M E N T T R E N D S

he world is facing a growing youth employ-ment crisis. Latest ILO data indicate that of the

world’s estimated 191 million unemployed peoplein 2004, about half – or nearly 86 million – are agedbetween 15 and 24. In many economies, youngpeople are more than three times as likely asadults to be out of work. Today, both industrializedand developing countries are failing to increaseemployment opportunities for young people.

“Creating jobs for youth is not enough. Acrossthe planet, youth are not only finding it difficult ifnot impossible to find jobs, but also they cannotfind decent jobs,” says ILO Director-General JuanSomavia. “We are facing not only an economicchallenge, but a security threat of monumentalproportions.”

More youth are poor or underemployed thanever before. Some 106 million youth work but livein households that earn less than the equivalent ofUS$1 per day. And millions of young people aretrapped in temporary, involuntary, part-time orcasual work that offers few benefits and limitedprospects for advancement. Clearly, somethingmust be done.

Young people bring energy, talent and creativityto economies that no one can afford to squander.Around the world, young women and men aremaking important contributions as productiveworkers, entrepreneurs, consumers – as membersof civil society and agents of change. What ouryoung people do today will create the foundationsfor what our economies will do tomorrow.

Youth employment at a glance! Global youth unemployment rose from 70.8 mil-

lion in 1994 to 85.7 million in 2004, accountingfor 45 per cent of total unemployment.

! Youth accounted for about 20 per cent of theworld’s estimated 535 million working poor in2004. Some 106 million youth worked but livedin households that earned less than the equiv-alent of US$1 per day.

The ILO responseDecent and productive employment for youth is amajor commitment of the Millennium DevelopmentGoals. The ILO has a special role to play in pro-moting policies and initiatives on youth employ-ment as part of this commitment. The ILO’s pro-gramme on youth employment operates through aglobal network of technical specialists at its head-quarters in Geneva and in more than 60 officesaround the world. It provides assistance to coun-tries in developing coherent and coordinatedinterventions on youth employment.

For more information, please contactthe Youth Employment Programme, at

tel: + 41 22 799 68 53;fax: + 41 22 799 75 62e-mail: [email protected] site: www.ilo.org/youth

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YOUTH EMPLOYMENT: A GLOBAL GOAL, A NATIONAL CHALLENGE

tion, varied between regions. East Asia had thehighest ratio with 71.1 per cent in 2005 but wasalso the region with the biggest change in its ratioover the last 10 years, with a drop of 3.5 percentagepoints. The Middle East and North Africa regionhad the lowest ratio, at 46.4 per cent in 2005.

The ILO report said the failure of mosteconomies to turn GDP growth into job creationor wage increases, coupled with a spate of naturaldisasters and rising energy prices, hit the world’sworking poor especially hard.

In all regions, working poverty at the US$1 leveldeclined in 2005 except in sub-Saharan Africawhere it increased by another 2.5 million and theMiddle East and North Africa where it stayed moreor less unchanged. The total number of US$2 a dayworking poverty only declined in Central and East-ern Europe (non-EU) and CIS, Latin America andthe Caribbean, and most considerably in East Asia.On the other hand, it increased in South-East Asiaand the Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East, NorthAfrica and especially sub-Saharan Africa.

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The ILO approach

The ILO proposes five concrete steps to addressthe global jobs crisis. They include:

! Shifting economic and social policies to put decentwork at the centre of national and internationaldevelopment efforts and creating a new balancebetween economic and social policies that stressesmacroeconomic stability, adaptability andsecurity.

! Promoting employment-rich, sustainable economicgrowth as a means of global as well as local eco-nomic development to create lasting, decent jobs.

! Creating the right policy and regulatory environ-ment to encourage competitiveness and enterprisedevelopment in every country. Promoting entre-preneurship, innovation and productivity andhighlighting the role of small enterprise in jobcreation.

! Expanding training, lifelong learning, educationand other means of enhancing human capacities,with a particular focus on young people.“If we canreduce the youth unemployment rate by just half,we will add at least US$2.2 trillion to the globaleconomy,” Mr. Somavia said.

! Promoting better international governance tointegrate the efforts of governments, business,trade unions and other stakeholders in civil so-ciety with the purpose of reducing poverty andcreating jobs.

“The global jobs crisis is one of the biggestsecurity risks we face today,” said Mr. Somavia.“If we choose to continue along the present path,the world risks becoming more fragmented, pro-tectionist and confrontational. A continued lack ofdecent work opportunities, insufficient invest-ments and under-consumption lead to an erosionof the basic social contract underlying democraticsocieties: that all must share in progress. It is timeto revisit the commitments made by the globalcommunity to promote social inclusion and jobs asthe basis of poverty reduction, and respect for fun-damental principles and rights at work – this is thefoundation of decent work.”


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mployee-owned businesses remain anoverlooked option for companies as ameans toward ramping up productivity,profit and morale. A new study shows that

the overwhelming success of companies like UK-based John Lewis is due to innovative mechanismsto encourage employee participation and cultivatea culture of ownership. Andrew Bibby exploreshow the company model of a fully or majorityemployee-owned business is not only self-sustain-ing and successful, but is in fact widely applicable.

LONDON – Oxford Street is home to London’spremier shopping area, a magnet for locals andtourists alike, where British and internationalretailers have their flagship stores. Yet one store onOxford Street distinguishes itself in a surprisingway – it is owned by 63,000 people.

John Lewis, which has traded in the UnitedKingdom for almost 150 years, is the largest fullyemployee-owned company in the UK, with 27department stores and almost 170 supermarkets.All 63,000 permanent staff are known as “partners”,and together they control the business. There are

no external shareholders; rather, all companyshares are held in a specially created employee ben-efit trust.

John Lewis has operated as a fully worker co-ownership business since 1950, when the son of thefounder transferred ownership of the firm to theemployee trust at far below the market value.Today, John Lewis’ constitution states that the com-pany’s ultimate purpose is “the happiness of all itsmembers, through their worthwhile and satisfyingemployment in a successful business”. Partners“share the responsibilities of ownership as well asits rewards of profit, knowledge and power”.

The John Lewis Partnership, as the company isofficially known, also has innovative mechanismsin place to encourage employee participation in thebusiness. Parallel to normal management struc-tures is a separate system of democratic partner-ship bodies, one for each main operating unit. Allpartners are represented through the group-widePartnership Council which appoints five non-executive employee directors to the main boardand has the power to dismiss the chairman. At theday-to-day level, staff can also demand responses

A personal stakeWhy employee-owned businesses return more than a profit

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John Lewis store in 1899


by management to anonymous criticisms andcomments via the in-house magazine.

Giving employees a piece of the pieAlthough the John Lewis Partnership is well

known in the United Kingdom for its innovativestructure, it has often been disregarded as a rel-evant model for other businesses because it wasoriginally created as a philanthropic endeavour byits former owner. But a new report entitled SharedCompany, issued by the UK association of employee-owned businesses Job Ownership Ltd (JOL), sug-gests that this form of company structure is bothsuccessful in business terms and more widelyapplicable than most suspect. The report quotesBritish, US and Japanese academic research whichclaims to demonstrate that employee ownershipand participation improves productivity and com-pany performance. What is needed to achieve this,the report says, is a “culture of ownership”.

JOL is particularly keen to encourage the idea ofemployee buy-outs for smaller, privately ownedbusinesses whose owners are looking to withdraw,typically at the time when they come to retire. Phil-anthropy, JOL stresses, doesn’t need to apply. Infact, selling a business to the current managementand workforce may be the most advantageous wayof extricating capital while ensuring that a businessis able to continue trading. Patrick Burns, JOL’sexecutive director, says a huge number of busi-nesses fail because of botched succession when a for-mer owner withdraws. He criticizes business advisorsand accountants for not necessarily understandingthat worker buy-outs are a potential alternative tomanagement buy-outs or commercial sales.

For the claimed benefits of employee ownershipto be applicable, however, a company must begenuinely in the hands of its workforce. JOL makesit clear that it is not talking of the common inter-national practice of rewarding staff, especially sen-ior staff, with company shares as a management orHR incentive. Rather, its focus is on employee-owned businesses, or in other words companieswhich are either wholly or majority-owned by theiremployees. Ownership may be through individualshareholdings, collectively held holdings (as usedby John Lewis) or some combination of the two.

This is a crucial point, according to David Erdal,head of Baxi Partnership, a UK capital fund foremployee co-ownerships. “Control is very impor-tant,” he said. “If it’s less than 50 per cent, then it’snot control.” He adds that, in his opinion, majorityor fully employee-owned businesses tend to have

healthier corporate governance. “Compared with ashareholder-owned company where shareholdersare sometimes ignorant of what’s going on,employees know it backwards, who’s good and whoisn’t. Directors have to play straight,” he said.

Employee-owned businesses such as John Lewiswhere the share capital is held for the benefit of theworkforce are not synonymous with worker coop-eratives, which tend to have more rigorous demo-cratic structures and which commit themselves tofollowing the seven agreed principles establishedby the International Co-operative Alliance. How-ever, even when adding in cooperative businesses,the number of companies which are broadlyemployee-controlled remains relatively small. Onedifficulty is that these businesses cannot alwaysaccess the full range of equity capital available toother businesses, and are therefore limited to usingloan capital or retained profits for financinggrowth.

All for one, and one for allThe question of whether employees should be

encouraged to become part-owners of their busi-nesses, and particularly whether they should beencouraged to provide themselves some of thecapital needs of a business, has been on the agendarecently at the European level, particularly in rela-tion to the EU’s declared Lisbon strategy for econ-omic competitiveness. A European Commissioncommunication three years ago called for financialparticipation by employees in their own companiesto be encouraged as a political priority within EUMember States.

>>John Lewis store in 1960

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The EU call is a broad one, covering a multitudeof situations, from JOL-style employee co-owner-ships to mainstream corporations with share-ownership schemes. Perhaps because of this, theissue of employee financial participation can be acontroversial one. Observers point out that it canbe highly imprudent to encourage employees to bereliant on a single business not only for theiremployment and pension but also as a place fortheir investment money.

As Dr Antonio Fici of the law faculty of theUniversity of Rome points out, trade unions havealso often been cautious of schemes to encourageworkers to invest financially in their firms. “Theyfear that direct involvement of employees willchange the system of industrial relations in termsof individualism and contrary to conflict, therebydiminishing the protective role they play,” he says.But Dr Fici, who has studied employee participa-tion particularly in relation to cooperatives andsocial enterprises, says that it is quite possible todevelop forms of employee participation which thesocial partners can embrace. It helps, he says, toappreciate the distinction between profit-sharingand real forms of employee ownership. Certainly,JOL sees no difficulty here. As its Shared Companyreport puts it, “There’s nothing about employeeownership that rules out a strong, positive role forunions.”

How to set up:! By selling shares to employees

! Through schemes that allowemployees to buy or ownshares when key targets or afixed date are reached

! Through governing rules, suchas for companies limited byguarantee where all membershave equal voting rights

Possible structures:! Company limited by shares

! Industrial and provident society (IPS)

! Company limited by guarantee

! Partnership

! Cooperative

! Employee share ownershipplan (ESOP)

Key advantages:! Start-up businesses can raise

cash by selling shares toemployees

! Employee ownership helps agrowing business recruit andretain key employees

! Improved employee motiva-tion often leads to betterperformance

EMPLOYEE-OWNED BUSINESSES: FAST FACTS

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Disabled people in EthiopiaMaking public services work for poor people

ost of Addis Ababa’s estimatedthree million population lives inslums and informal settlements. InJune 2005 the President of Ethiopia

officially opened the first of 30 modern publicshower and toilet facilities run by a cooperativeof disabled persons in Addis Ababa with the sup-port of the ILO. This innovative proposal by theEthiopian Federation of Persons with Disabilities(EFPD) to renovate existing sanitary facilitiesand unlock the economic potential of unem-ployed people with disabilities won a World BankDevelopment Marketplace Competition prize inthe year 2003.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Abaynesh GebeyehuDamtew, a 20-year-old disabled woman from thenorth of Ethiopia, left her home town of Alamataeight years ago to get medical treatment in thecapital. She has not seen her family since.

“My family did not need me because of my dis-ability. In the place where I was born there was nodisabled people’s organization. There was noawareness about disability. You cannot find sup-port and services,” she explains.

Having completed her medical treatment,Abaynesh became a member of the NationalAssociation of the Physically Handicapped. Shewears a short brace, below her right knee, due to

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Ethiopian President Girma Wolde-Giorgis at the opening ceremony of the Yenegew Sew Sanitary Service Cooperative.




>> her disability caused by polio. Despite her mobil-ity difficulties Abaynesh attends late eveningclasses at Basilios Primary and Junior HighSchool.

“I must learn today in order to change my lifetomorrow,” she says. “Rather than sitting idle,working also gives a meaning to my life.” Beforethe classes, she attends a skills training course tobecome a tailor four days a week from 8 a.m. to12.30 p.m. and works as a cleaner at one of the 30public sanitary service blocs managed by theYenegew Sew Sanitary Service Cooperative from1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The Cooperative was formed after the proposalby the Ethiopian Federation of Persons with Dis-abilities (EFPD) to renovate existing sanitaryfacilities and create jobs for unemployed peoplewith disabilities had won a World Bank Develop-ment Marketplace Competition prize in 2003.The proposal was one of 186 chosen from over2,700 proposals submitted.

When the project was designed, the AddisAbaba City Administration Sanitation, Beautifi-cation and Parks Development Agency was plan-ning to build more than 200 new public toiletsand to outsource the management of the existingfacilities to private and community organizationsinterested in running them at affordable prices.

The City Administration and the ILO were bothpartners in the EFPD’s submission to renovateand manage 30 facilities.

The objective of the World Bank’s Develop-ment Marketplace (DM) Global Competition isto identify and fund the most innovative ideas indevelopment from around the world. The themefor the 2003 DM Competition was “Making Pub-lic Services Work for Poor People”. In a city where24 per cent of housing units have no bathroomsat all and 45 per cent share pit latrines, the EFPDinitiative has made an important contribution topublic health and hygiene.

Enabling disabled workers through cooperativesIn January 2004, EFPD officially started to

implement the DM project, known as “EqualOpportunities for Persons with Disabilities”.

“Existing public toilets were inadequate,unevenly distributed and had design problems.Public toilet misuse and vandalism were com-mon. Before the project started, only 28 of the 72public toilets were operational,” explains FisihaBelay, the General Manager of EFPD.

EFPD not only constructed two new blocs,installing 72 showers and a pilot laundry as wellas renovating 30 existing toilets, but also estab-lished the Yenegew Sew Sanitary Service Cooper-

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ative. The Cooperative provides jobs to 250unemployed persons with visual, hearing andmobility impairments as well as ex-leprosypatients and mothers of children with mentalretardation. The modern public shower and toiletfacilities run by the Cooperative serve the mainmarket area of Addis Ababa and fill a vacuum inpublic sanitation facilities in other areas of thecity as well.

Yenegew Sew charges Birr 0.25 (US$ 0.03) pervisit per user for toilet service and Birr 1.00(US$0.12) for shower service. “In Addis Ababacity, paying for public toilet services is relativelynew, but the responsiveness of the inhabitants isencouraging and expected to increase,” says Belay.

“We are only worried about the relatively longlead time required to get a vacuum truck from thecity administration to empty the septic tanks, andthe interruption of services whenever the tanksare full . . . together with EFPD, the disabled per-sons’ Cooperative has prepared a proposal for thepurchase of a vacuum truck,” he continues.

Cooperative leaders received managementtraining and went on a study tour to the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania where they learned how torun sanitary facilities as a public utility servicefrom an ILO-supported urban sanitation projectin Dar es Salaam. Cooperative members weretrained in customer handling and marketing,maintenance and plumbing. The ILO andDevelopment Cooperation Ireland (DCI), theofficial international aid programme of theIrish Government, provided training throughan existing ILO-DCI project, “Developing Entre-preneurship among Women with Disabilities” inAddis Ababa and in the Amhara and Tigrayregions of Ethiopia.

Key ILO instruments in practiceThe ILO promotes equal employment oppor-

tunities for persons with disabilities through itsresearch, advocacy and service activities. KeyILO instruments include the VocationalRehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Per-sons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159), and the ILOCode of Practice on Managing Disability in theWorkplace adopted in 2001.

Support is provided to policy makers, socialpartners and disabled persons’ organizations inthe design and implementation of vocationaltraining and rehabilitation programmes, as well

as the formulation and implementation of policyand legislation to ensure equality of opportunityand treatment of persons with disabilities intraining and employment. Technical cooperationprojects are an important means of demonstrat-ing how these principles can be implemented inpractice.

“People with disabilities are frequently trappedin a vicious circle of marginalization, poverty andsocial exclusion, and positive action is needed toassist them in breaking out of it,” says BarbaraMurray, ILO Senior Specialist on Disability. “Thepublic shower and toilet project in Addis Ababanot only helps to overcome barriers which dis-abled people face in getting jobs and taking theirplace in society, it also makes public services workfor the rest of the poor.” >>

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THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR DISABLED WORKERS

f the 610 million people with disabilities on theplanet, more than half are of working age and

want to work. But discrimination still abounds, evenfor those with qualifications and skills. And thestandards and relevance of vocational training forthose with disabilities are still a challenge in manycountries.

For the 400 million disabled people in developingcountries, these problems are compounded by thefact that the majority live in rural areas, often quiteremote from the residential training programmesheld in the cities and towns. This factor alone actsto exclude many disabled people, who rely on fam-ily support and do not wish to leave their homes.

ILO Convention 159 on Vocational Rehabilitationand Employment (Disabled Persons), 1983, calls onmember States to develop a national disability pol-

icy based on the principles of equality of opportun-ity, equality of treatment, non-discrimination andmainstreaming of training and employment oppor-tunities. In promoting vocational training andemployment opportunities for disabled persons, theILO works with governments and employers’ andworkers’ organizations, civil society organizationsand the private sector.

For many disabled persons in developing coun-tries, self-employment in some form is the most like-ly option when they complete training. The ILO pro-ject in Ethiopia featured in this article is an exampleof how the ILO works in partnership with disabledpersons organizations (DPOs) to promote oppor-tunities in a sustainable way, developing the capac-ity of these DPOs to continue playing this role oncethe project is completed.

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“Disabled people want what we all want: the chance to get educated, find rewarding work,lead worthwhile lives and be valued members of their community and in the world at large.”

James Wolfensohn and Amartya Sen, “Helping disabled people out of the shadows”, in Global Viewpoint,

November2004

RECOMMENDED READING

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Managing disability in the workplace. ILO code of practiceISBN 92-2-111639-5Placement of job-seekers with disabilities: Elements of an effective serviceISBN 92-2-115114-XAssisting disabled persons in finding employment: A practical guideISBN 92-2-115116-6

Job and work analysis: Guidelines on identifying jobsfor persons with disabilitiesISBN 92-2-117864-1Trade unions and workers with disabilities: Promotingdecent work, combating discriminationLabour Education, vol. XXX.ISSN 0378-5467

For more information, please visit www.ilo.org/publns or e-mail [email protected].


hen it comes to violence in theworkplace, such as sexual harass-ment, bullying and threats, abuseof power and even murder, people

are asking why it happens, and who can stop it.But violence is a ubiquitous shape shifter, lurkingin formal and informal workplaces alike, and it isoften hard to pinpoint its occurrence and itsinstigators. Today, workplace violence is receivingmore exposure, and organizations like the ILOare taking a steadfast stance against it by develop-ing standards, codes of practice and communityawareness. Based on the ILO’s newly releasedViolence at work,1 in its third edition, Alicia Priestexplores who’s at risk, what’s at stake and what’sbeing done to stop it.

We live in a cruel and violent world. Recentmedia focus on terrorist attacks has added a chill-ing aspect to the public image of violence. Fewpeople realize, however, that violent incidentsoccur in a setting where they spend a huge chunkof their lives – the workplace. Violence happens infactories, hospitals, schools, restaurants, stores,offices, taxis and private homes – everywhere thatpeople work. And in the vast majority of cases, ithappens out of sight.

In the recently updated and highly informativeILO publication, Violence at work, authors Dun-can Chappell and Vittorio Di Martino fling thedoors wide open. They reveal a grim panorama ofmillions of workers all over the world suffering avariety of physical, mental and emotional harms.All too often those harms result in despair, illness,injury and death. The full range of aggressiveworkplace acts is staggering. They include mur-der, rape, robbery, beating, stalking, swearing,sexual harassment, name-calling and sabotage oftools and equipment. There are more. One formof violence not often viewed as such even thoughit can cause great distress is mobbing, the collec-tive bullying of a worker by his or her workmatesand/or supervisors.

The authors tell of Leif, a skilled repairman ina large Norwegian factory who was repeatedlyridiculed by his co-workers because of his Danishaccent. When he demanded that the joking stop,the taunts only worsened and he became increas-ingly isolated and anxious. A workplace outcast,Leif eventually developed serious psychosomaticdisorders, lost his job and became totally unem-ployable. In Sweden, authorities estimate thatmobbing plays a role in about 10-15 per cent ofall suicides each year.

Another near invisible yet devastating form ofworkplace violence occurs in domestic serviceworldwide. For example, women migrants inSaudi Arabia frequently jump from upper floorsof their places of employment in an attempt toescape from abusive employers, Chappell andDi Martino explain. In fact, in 2002 a large Saudihospital reported that two to three foreign female

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Taming the beastA look at the many forms and guises ofworkplace violence

1 Duncan Chappell and

Vittorio di Martino.

Violence at work.

Third edition,

Geneva, International

Labour Office, 2006.

ISBN 978-92-2-

117948-1.

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domestic workers were admitted per week withserious bone fractures after leaping from lockedrooms and houses.

Why does it happen?Violence at work is more than a litany of work-

place wrongdoings. The book is an ambitious andcourageous attempt to understand the multi-faceted nature and global extent of workplaceviolence in order to spur its eradication. Ironical-ly, as awareness of aggressive workplace acts swells– largely due to horrific events such as schoolshootings and post office murders – so does theincidence of violence at work itself.

Data collection, the authors confess, is oftendifficult, especially in the developing world where“widespread under-reporting of incidents ofworkplace violence seems to be the norm ratherthan the exception”. The situation is further com-plicated by varying cultural definitions of whatconstitutes violence and the role it plays in a so-ciety. In Bulgaria, for instance, violence is seen asa normal part of everyday life and a way to “regu-late family, social, interpersonal and institutionalrelations”. South Africa’s high level of workplaceviolence is symptomatic of wider, long-standingproblems grounded in the country’s harsh socio-economic realities. Despite these particulars,Chappell and Di Martino present ample evidencethat violence at work is on the rise. This, they

argue, is a “worrying trend”, one that reflectswidespread growth in community unrest and thecollapse of societal values.

The authors assert that myriad external symp-toms can contribute to both the existence and theincrease of violence in the workplace. Risk factorssuch as an abusive childhood could lead to a per-son becoming a violent offender. Testosterone orother gender-specific factors may play a part, withmen being at least ten times more likely thanwomen to be charged with violent offences. Also,the physical composition of the work environ-ment could help set the stage; a degraded settingcan invite violence.

Who’s at risk?The authors also cast light on who is most like-

ly to be victimized by violence. Although certainoccupations are inherently riskier than others (seesidebar), victims generally share one fundamentalcharacteristic – powerlessness. That placeswomen, children and youth, lone workers, immi-grant workers and the “precariously employed” ingreater danger of abuse.

Furthermore, the authors identify severalmodern stressors such as layoffs, heavy work-loads, faster pace of work, cuts in salaries andincreasing reliance on short-term contracts andcasual work that, they say, could lead to “a climateof violence driven by uncertainty, growing exas-

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CLOSE UP: OCCUPATIONS AT RISK

iolence has always come with the territory ofcertain occupations such as law enforce-

ment and journalism in war zones. But as the bookViolence at work shows, traditionally benign jobsare becoming increasingly hazardous. Attendingschool as a teacher or student, for instance, wasseen as safe and secure. But that was before the1996 Dunblane school shootings in Scotland, the1998 Thurston school shootings in Oregon, the1999 Columbine school shootings in Colorado andthe 2004 school stabbings in Japan. Today, educa-tion ministries around the world report rising inci-dences of bullying, harassment and other violentacts in schools.

Other occupational groups considered to behigh risk are health care, medical and dentalpractitioners; bus, train and subway workers; taxidrivers; postal workers and flight attendants. Evenpublic librarians are more likely than others toexperience aggressive acts, as their open-doorpolicy allows anyone to use the building, and thiscan sometimes invite trouble. “Some librarianshave even been killed,” Violence at work authors

Duncan Chappell and Vittorio Di Martino write.Why would workers in such dissimilar roles

share similar chances of experiencing violence?The authors explain that workers' risk of violencedepends not only on what they do but on the con-ditions under which they perform those tasks. Forinstance, as automation spreads, more people findthemselves running a one-person shop. Workingin retail is not inherently dangerous but workingwith cash transactions alone at night is. Otherpotentially dangerous situations include: workingwith the public; working with valuables such ascash or pharmaceuticals; working with people indistress; and working in military and paramilitaryorganizations.

In the military, the authors note, the greatestrisks do not always come from an enemy. Forinstance, in several countries there is a long-standing tradition of torturing new recruits, andsome women soldiers in industrialized and devel-oping countries alike are raped or sexuallyassaulted by fellow soldiers.

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peration and vulnerability”. And vulnerability,they conclude, “lies at the root of a great deal ofviolence at work”.

Although the media tend to blame violent actsat work on “disgruntled employees who goberserk”, the authors show that violence is farmore pervasive and seldom so simple. Ratherthan being sporadic, senseless and unpredictable,workplace violence is highly complex and intri-

cately woven into the specific social, organiza-tional and economic fabric of workplace culture.“The causes and consequences of workplace viol-ence”, they write, “cannot be analysed indepen-dently of employment relationships”.

Where to turn?But therein lies the hope for change. In

Violence at work, Chappell and Di Martino

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REMEDY AT WHAT COST?

uriously, with increased recognition of psycho-logical aggression such as harassment and

bullying in the workplace, there has been adecrease in attention paid to physical assaults. Thisis a disturbing development to say the least,considering the book's extensive data showing thepersistence of physical brutality in both the develop-ing and industrialized worlds.

And access to remedies can often be difficult.Despite advances on the legislative and regulatoryfronts, responses to workplace violence remainfragmented, and plaintiffs can be drawn into costlyand stressful litigation.

By any estimate, workplace violence is enor-mously expensive. From an individual perspective,the cost of personal pain and suffering resultingfrom a serious violent incident is incalculable. Butlike a pebble thrown in a pond, the costs of violencespread out to affect a worker's family, otherworkers, employers, the community and society as a

whole. Experts who try to tally this toll consider arange of negative effects such as declining morale,increased absenteeism, increased turnover, healthcare and rehabilitation costs, reduced efficiencyand performance and ultimately declining productiv-ity. In the United States, the total cost to Americanemployees per year for workplace violence is esti-mated to be US$4.2 billion.

Eliminating workplace violence entirely isarguably unachievable. What is not in doubt, how-ever, is people's ability to greatly diminish its occur-rence, especially now when so much is knownabout its causes and conditions. But what would ittake?

Thirty-five years ago, American sociologist AmitaiEtzioni answered: “Only a just and cohesive society,responsive to new demands, satisfying old ones,providing a meaningful life for its members, wouldsharply reduce violence, and even such a societywould not eliminate it.”

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>> evaluate the benefits of different types ofresponses to workplace violence such as collec-tive and industry-sector agreements, policyinterventions, safer workplace designs and “bestpractices”.

Three common themes in the many guidelineson preventing violence at work particularly standout:

! Work organization and the working environ-ment hold significant keys to the causes and solu-tions of the problem.

! The participation of workers and their represen-tatives is crucial both in identifying the problemand in implementing solutions.

! Interpersonal skills of managers and workersalike are key.

A wide range of government legislation andrecommendations for action is beginning to takeeffect. For instance, the European Union Directive2002/73/EC on equal treatment for men andwomen has affected the implementation ofnational legislation on sexual harassment in EUcountries, while many developing countries andcountries in transition have adopted specificlegislation prohibiting sexual harassment andproviding protection from it. These includeArgentina, Bangladesh, Belize, Costa Rica, Cro-atia, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Guyana, Hon-duras, the Republic of Korea, Lesotho, Mauritius,

Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, the Philippines,Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, theUnited Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay andVenezuela.

At the international level, action to combatworkplace violence has included importantinitiatives ever since the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights in 1949. Among the most recentare a major survey in 2003 on violence againstwomen by the Special Rapporteur to the UNCommission on Human Rights; the entry intoforce in 2003 of another UN instrument, theInternational Convention on the Protection of theRights of all Migrant Workers and Members oftheir Families; a special study in 2003 of the inter-relationship between violence at work and occu-pational stress carried out by the ILO, the Inter-national Council of Nurses, the World HealthOrganization and Public Services International.

The ILO has a long-standing and continuingcommitment, expressed through a series of fun-damental Conventions, to worker protection anddignity at work. The 2004 ILO code of practiceWorkplace violence in services sectors and measuresto combat this phenomenon was based on anexamination of the extent and severity of work-place violence in various service industry sectorsincluding the postal sector, the performing artsand journalism, transport, education, financialservices and hotels, catering and tourism.

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F E A T U R E S

A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S M E D I A S H E L FN E W SP L A N E T W O R K

P L A N E T W O R K A REVIEW OF TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN LABOUR ISSUES

■ In the world of sports, gender hasbecome one of the main events.Women are taking an increasinglyactive role in sports the world over,becoming more visible, assertive andactive in a way that goes beyond thearena. Winning in sports not only pro-vides a momentary rush of accom-plishment – it also involves a racetoward combating social stereotypingand reaching the goal of gender equal-ity. To say the hurdles that onceappeared insurmountable to women insports are not only falling but beingovercome is not only an apt analogybut symbolic of the advancementwomen have made both on and off anincreasingly level playing field. Womenathletes, trainers, promoters and otherswho make their living in the sportssector are today going the extra mile tochange cultural norms – and findingthat sports can provide a springboardfor further advancement in societies.Be it for work or pleasure, womenathletes and their supporters have lit-erally made enormous strides, aim-ing their ambition, vision and enthu-siasm at the target of attaining auniversal, equal status in the world ofwork.

■ The visibility of women athletes,trainers and promoters in today’ssports world is a far cry from their sta-tus just slightly more than a centuryago. When the first Olympic Games ofthe modern era took place in 1896, theidea of women taking part was thoughtto be “unfeminine”. Since then, it iseasy to see the progress that has sincebeen made in many parts of the world.By 1900, societal views had modern-

ized enough to allow 11 women tostand beside the 1,319 men at theopening ceremony at the ParisOlympics, although their participationwas restricted to sports regarded as“suitable” for women – tennis and golf.

■ By the 2004 Olympic Games inAthens, a new world record was set –just over 40 per cent of participantswere female. Leading up to this has

OOnn tthhee ccoouurrttss aanndd iinn tthhee ccoouurrttrroooommss,, tthhee ssuubbjjeecctt ooff aa wwoommaann’’ss rroollee iinn pprrooffeessssiioonnaall ssppoorrttss –– aanndd tthhee hhuuggee ggaappbbeettwweeeenn ooppppoorrttuunniittiieess,, ffuunnddiinngg aanndd mmeeddiiaa eexxppoossuurree ggiivveenn ttoo mmaalleess aanndd ffeemmaalleess iinn tthhee ssppoorrttiinngg wwoorrlldd –– iiss eemmbblleemm--aattiicc ooff tthhee llaarrggeerr qquueessttiioonn oonn ggeennddeerr eeqquuaalliittyy ttooddaayy:: iiss eeqquuaall rreeaallllyy eeqquuaall?? TThhee iissssuuee ooff wwoommeenn aanndd tthheeiirr rroollee iinn tthheessppoorrttiinngg wwoorrlldd iinncclluuddeess aallll tthhee iissssuueess ccuurrrreennttllyy bbeeiinngg ddeebbaatteedd iinn tthhee wwiiddeerr wwoorrlldd –– ssuucchh aass wwoommeenn iinn ddeecciissiioonn--mmaakkiinngg rroolleess,, wwoommeenn iinn mmaannaaggeemmeenntt,, wwoommeenn iinn aa wwiiddee rraannggee ooff pprrooffeessssiioonnss.. PPllaanneett WWoorrkk eexxaammiinneess hhooww tthhee rroolleeooff wwoommeenn iinn tthhee wwoorrlldd ooff ssppoorrttss iilllluussttrraatteess tthhee ggeennddeerr ssttaattee ooff ppllaayy iinn tthhee wwiiddeerr wwoorrlldd,, aanndd hhooww wwoommeenn aarree hheellpp--iinngg ttoo pprroommoottee ggeennddeerr eeqquuaalliittyy iinn aa wwiiddeerr pprrooffeessssiioonnaall ccoonntteexxtt tthhrroouugghh ssppoorrttss..

Women in sports: How level is the playing field?

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Nawal El Moutawakel poses in front of the photograph showing her winning the 400 meter hur-dles at the 1984 Olympics. El Moutawakel was a featured speaker at the ILO’s InternationalWomen’s Day event in Geneva. (See report on page 34)


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been a decreasing trend in the numberof countries sending all-male teams –there were 35 all-male national teamsat the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, 26 atAtlanta in 1996 and 12 at Sydney in2000 (South China Morning Post,December 2005).

■ During the Fourth Women’s IslamicGames held in Tehran in 2005, 1,300female athletes represented 43 nations,and the Iranian government providedUS$1.4 million to support the Games(Business Recorder, September 2005).

■ Major inroads have also been madein access to participation in and payequity for other international sportingcompetitions. The 250-year-old Royal& Ancient Club in Scotland, consid-ered the world’s leading authority ongolf, lifted a long-standing ban onwomen playing in the Open Cham-pionship in 2005 (The Guardian,February 2005). In tennis, the FrenchOpen recently joined ranks with theAustralian and US Opens by offeringboth men and women competitorsequal prize money, leaving Wimbledonas the only major tournament withprize money inequity (Sports Business,September 2005). Also, the 2005 Stan-dard Chartered Singapore Marathonpaid winners of men’s and women’scategories equal prize money (TheStraits Times, June 2005).

TRADITIONAL SPORTS, NEW HURDLES

■ Of course, these hard-won victoriesare not the norm, and women startingout in the sports world have an uphillbattle to wage, due to limited opportu-nities for competition, support andmoney. “People tend to believe thatwomen have the same opportunities asmen, but the infrastructures availableto women are very precarious, and theschedules are not conducive to thepractice of sport,” said Alfredina Silva,a former professional football playerfrom Portugal, in an ILO interviewaired on International Women’s Day(IWD) this year.

■ Family obligations can also keepwomen from pursuing sporting activ-ities in some parts of the world. “InAfrica, young women and men are notgiven the same attention,” saidTirunesh Dibaba, a long-distance run-ner from Ethiopia, in an IWD inter-view with the ILO. “For women, whatmakes it difficult to go running is thefamily. The family does not allow youto run, but they also don’t want you togo to school. A girl works at home,always at home.”

■ Once a woman’s athletic career isunderway, the most apparent inequal-ities between male and female profes-

sional athletes can be measured in payand media coverage. For instance,according to the US National Commit-tee on Pay Equity, the average salary inthe Women’s National Basketball Asso-ciation (WNBA) is only 2 per cent ofthe all-male National Basketball Asso-ciation’s (NBA) average (www.pay-equity.org). Media coverage of sportsis similarly lopsided: the coverage ratioas of 2004 between male and femaleprofessional sports was 9 to 1 in UStelevision and 20 to 1 in US printmedia (Ms., Summer 2004).

■ So, who’s setting the agenda in themedia? The editors who assign storiesand coverage, or the readership? Howcan such a huge gap exist today? A sur-vey of sports editors and deputy edi-tors from 285 newspapers in thesouth-eastern United States in 2003found that 25 per cent of the editorsstill believe women are naturally lessathletic than men. Nearly half of thosesurveyed said that men’s sports suf-fered as a result of Title IX, the 1972ruling that bars gender discriminationin any educational programme thataccepts federal funding. Nearly 90 percent were confident that the genderbalance in their newspapers’ sportssections reflected reader interests inmale over female sports and roughly45 per cent said they believed womenhave little or no interest in sports. Onlythe younger editors were less inclinedto view Title IX as a problem for malesports (Associated Press, 2005).

■ Similar views were expressed in aEuropean study in 2005. The study wasconducted of the newspaper coverage

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of women’s sports in Belgium, Den-mark, France and Italy during the2000 Sydney Olympic Games. It evalu-ated the number of articles, size, pageplacement, accompanying photo-graphs and photograph size in allmajor newspapers in the four Euro-pean countries. The survey found therate of newspaper coverage was similarto the rate of female participation inthe Games, with only 29.3 per cent ofthe articles and 38 per cent of photosdedicated to women’s sports. However,no significant gender differences werefound with respect to article size, pageplacement, accompanying photographsor photograph size (Research Quarterlyfor Exercise and Sport, June 2005).

■ “Women’s sport is much less visiblethan men’s sport,” said Silva. “Womencould play a key part in decision-making and ensure that more womenparticipate in sports by improving theirconditions.”

TAKING THE LEAD

■ One area directly linked withadvancing the cause of gender equalityin sports is leadership. Worldwide, thenumber of women in decision-makingand leadership positions is still rela-tively small. Some attribute their lackof presence at the executive level to“glass-ceiling” effects, social and cul-ture barriers, a lack of female candi-

dates and a less than supportive pro-fessional environment.

■ Working to kick down these bar-riers are strong female role models likePat Summitt, considered one of thegreatest college basketball coaches ofall time. A former basketball player, shetook over coaching the women’s teamat the University of Tennessee in theUS in 1974 at the age of 22, and lastyear became the most successful UScollege basketball coach in history,racking up over 880 wins. She alsocoached the US women’s basketballteam to its first gold medal at the 1984Olympics in Los Angeles. (The SundayTimes, March 2006).

■ Sports journalism is another sectorthat has a thick glass ceiling. But thewomen who have broken through haveemerged as legends. Melissa Ludtke, areporter for the US magazine SportsIllustrated, changed history when shefiled a lawsuit after being banned fromthe locker room during the 1977 WorldSeries between the New York Yankeesand the Los Angeles Dodgers. The suitresulted in a ground-breaking federalcourt ruling in 1978 granting womenjournalists equal access rights to lockerrooms and other sports venues (Amer-ican Journalism Review, January 2005).

■ Still, change resulting in equalityand balance at the executive level isslow in coming. As of 2005 only 12 outof the International Olympic Commit-tee’s (IOC) 116 members were women.Out of 202 National Olympic Com-mittees (NOC), only nine have womenpresidents, five of them in Africa. Aspart of its Women and Sport policy,the IOC established targets in 1997 toincrease the number of women inexecutive roles to 10 per cent by 2001and 20 per cent by 2005. For compari-son, the percentage of women partici-pants at the International Labour Con-ference, by region, including ministersduring the period of 2001 and 2005 >>

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was 22 per cent (Gender Balance in theInternational Labour Conference, ILO2005).

■ According to “Women, Leadershipand the Olympic Movement” in the2006 ILO publication, Beyond theScoreboard, authors Ian Henry andAnita White surveyed the Secretary-General of each NOC and its currentfemale members to evaluate theprocess of recruitment, career paths,overall impact on the organizationsand level of support required toensure the realization of widerinvolvement of women in decision-making roles. The results indicatedthat since introducing the targets, theproportion of women at the NOCexecutive level has indeed risen. Fur-thermore, the exercise helped to raiseawareness of gender inequalities, bringtalented women into the Olympic fam-ily and improve Olympic governanceby setting an example and providingmoral leadership to the world of sportsin terms of equity representation.

WHAT SPORTS CAN DO FOR WOMEN

■ Involvement in sports for womenand men teaches critical lessons ondiscipline, goal setting, communica-tion and work ethics that are widelytransferable and often translate into

successful careers down the line. Forinstance, Marjo Matikaninen, theWorld Champion and Olympic GoldMedallist in cross-country skiing in1988 from Finland, went on to a Mas-ters degree in Engineering and is todaya member of the European Parlia-ment. “What I find interesting here isthat those women who have been suc-cessful in sports have also applied thegoal-oriented learning to their livesstudying at university or establishingtheir own businesses,” said sportspsychologist and former Olympic ath-lete from Finland Laura Jansson, in anILO interview. “Elite athletes reachtheir peak between the ages of 20 and30, depending on the discipline. After

that they can be great educators andtrainers who have a huge responsibil-ity to the next generation to help themfollow their footsteps.”

■ Cecilia Tait has done just that. Aformer professional volleyball playerfrom Peru, her efforts to promoteequal sporting opportunities forwomen helped her get elected to thecountry’s Congress. “We should keeptrying to emulate our role models, andto create new role models, to show thatthrough sports you can do it, you canimprove quality of life,” she said in anILO interview for IWD. “Why do youthink they have voted for me to be inCongress? Because I am a woman andan athlete, and because if I hadn’t beenan athlete you and others wouldn’thave ever known about me. We arepublic figures, and a country withouthistory and without examples doesnot move ahead.”

The importance of role models forwomen in sports is undeniable. In fact,one could assert that it is a virtuouscircle. The more women take positive,leading roles as athletes, trainers, jour-nalists and decision-makers, the morewomen will see that gender inequal-ities can be overcome – not only insports but in all professions.

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Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM)ILO report sees wide gaps in wages, productivity gains

1 Key Indicators of the

Labour Market,

4th edition,

CD-ROM version,

ILO, Geneva, 2005:

ISBN 92-2-017568-1.

Print version:

ISBN 92-1-113381-8.

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Global economic growth is increas-ingly failing to translate into new andbetter jobs that lead to a reduction inpoverty, according to the latest KeyIndicators of the Labour Market. TheKILM1 2005 illustrates that within thisglobal trend, different regions showmixed results in terms of job creation,productivity results, wage improve-ments and poverty reduction.

GENEVA – Taking a global view, the 4th edi-tion of the KILM says that currently half theworld’s workers still do not earn enough to liftthemselves and their families above the US$2 aday poverty line.

“The key message is that up to now better jobsand income for the world’s workers has not beena priority in policy-making,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia at the time of the release.“Globalization has so far not led to the creationof sufficient and sustainable decent work oppor-tunities around the world. That has to change,and as many leaders have already said we mustmake decent work a central objective of all econ-omic and social policies. This report can be auseful tool for promoting that objective.”

The study found that while in some areas ofAsia economic expansion is fostering solidgrowth in jobs and improvements in living con-ditions, other areas such as Africa and parts ofLatin America are seeing increasing numbers ofpeople working in less favourable conditions,especially in the agricultural sector. The KILMalso said that for millions of workers, new jobsoften provide barely enough income to lift themabove the poverty line, or are far below any ad-equate measure of satisfying and productivework. The total number of working women andmen living on less than US$2 a day has not fallen

over the past decade, although at 1.38 billion it isa smaller share of global employment at justbelow 50 per cent, a decline from 57 per cent in1994.

The report emphasized that in many develop-ing economies the problem is mainly a lack ofdecent and productive work opportunitiesrather than outright unemployment. Womenand men are working long and hard for verylittle because their only alternative is to have noincome at all.

The new KILM painted an in-depth picture ofboth the quantity and quality of jobs around theworld by examining 20 key indicators of thelabour market. The KILM covers quantitativetopics such as labour force participation;employment; inactivity; employment elasticities;sectoral employment; labour productivity andunemployment; and qualitative issues such ashours worked, wages, employment status, unem-ployment duration and others.

For additional information, please visithttp://kilm.ilo.org/2005/press


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International Women's Day 2006ILO activities organized around the world

For the sixth straight year, the ILOorganized activities to mark 8 March,International Women’s Day, aroundthe world. This year’s theme was“Women in Sports”, but ILO officesalso marked the day with discussionson women in the workplace, develop-ments in the labour market andmoves by member States to improveworking conditions and legislationrelating to women in the world of work.

GENEVA – In Geneva, top female athletes inboxing, track and tennis addressed the Women’sDay event on the role of women in the world ofsports, and the larger context of what sportmeans to women in civil society. In recognitionof this year’s theme, the International OlympicCommittee (IOC), which is headquartered in

nearby Lausanne, Switzerland, joined the eventand awarded its “Women and Sport” annual prizeto Gabriela Sabatini, the Argentine tennis star.

The opening event featured a panel discussionwith Nawal El Moutawakel, the first femaleOlympic gold medallist from Morocco and aMember of the IOC, and Myriam Lamare, theWorld Boxing Association’s current light welter-weight champion from Marseille, France.

Following the ILO panel, the IOC held itsannual awards ceremony to recognize interna-tional sports personalities who have made signif-icant contributions to the development ofwomen’s sports in their countries.

In addition to Ms. Sabatini, who was recog-nized for her work to promote and develop ten-nis in her country, especially among youngwomen, the IOC awarded trophies to AlbertineBarbosa Andrade of Senegal, Charmaine Crooksof Canada, Elisa Lee of the Republic of Korea,Dominique Petit of France and Lorraine Mar ofFiji for their work in promoting women’s sports.

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Gabriela Sabatini, MyriamLamare and Charmaine

Crooks at the joint ILO/IOCevent on International

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Global ILO eventsIn Europe, the ILO participated in a discus-

sion by the Russian State Duma (Parliament)Committee on Women, Family and Children inMoscow on a draft law on the State Guaranteesof Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities forMen and Women in the Russian Federation. InLisbon, the ILO joined other national entities insigning a Declaration on women and equality.

In Asia, the ILO Office in New Delhi hosted adiscussion on “Women as change agents –Emerging out of crisis situations,” presided overby the Minister of State for Labour and Employ-ment. During the discussion, women from theregion shared their experiences of emergingfrom crisis situations of different kinds. A rockconcert, co-hosted by the ILO and other UNagencies, also took place. Marches through ruraland tsunami-affected areas were organized toraise awareness of the minimum wage and otherlabour laws for workers in the informal econ-omy. Women form a large number of the work-ers in this sector.

In Tokyo, the ILO and other UN agenciesheld a public forum on “Women in Decision-Making” featuring distinguished speakers fromthe region. In Banda Aceh, the ILO announcedthe winners of the Best Women Entrepreneurs ofAceh Awards who were honoured for foundingor owning businesses (see p. 38). In Manila, theILO and national sports institutions sponsoredsports demonstrations, lectures and 5km and10km races. Seminars and book launches alsotook place in Bangkok and Colombo.

In Washington D.C., the ILO co-sponsored around-table discussion with several other UNagencies and a number of key speakers. The ILOoffice for Arab States organized a series of activ-ities on women migrant domestic workers aswell as breaking the glass ceiling, and providinga guide for trade unions and employers onpromoting gender equality in the region. InAfrica, events ranged from seminars on womenand decision-making to women entrepreneursand the working conditions of women on thecontinent.

In a statement issued to mark the day, ILODirector-General Juan Somavia said, “There isno doubt that women continue to transform theworkplaces of the world – a critical arena for theadvancement of women in society. Over the pastdecade, the number of working women hasincreased by 200 million. Today, women repre-

sent more than 40 per cent of working peopleworldwide. Women are also continuing to makeinroads in the world of professional sports.

“Despite the advances”, Mr. Somavia contin-ued, “glaring inequalities persist in workplacesthroughout the world. The pay gap is still areality. The ‘jobs gap’ between men and women –especially in terms of quality – remains wide. Weestimate that women represent 60 per cent of theworld’s working poor.”

The ILO chose the theme of women in sportsand the world of work to draw attention to gen-der inequalities and barriers that exist across allprofessions, including sports.

In professional sports, for instance, womenearn far less money than men, with the rationalethat women’s sports do not attract the audiencesor draw an equal level of media coverage, adver-tising revenue or endorsements.

For more information, please see the PlanetWork section of this issue, pp 27-30.

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Nawal El Moutawakel at ILO’s Geneva event.


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African women entrepreneurs areplaying an ever-increasing role inAfrican economies. The ILO and theAfrican Development Bank (AfDB)have jointly launched a series ofreports1 providing concrete recom-mendations for action to supportgrowth-oriented women entrepre-neurs in Ethiopia, Kenya, the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania and Uganda.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – African womenentrepreneurs are becoming more prominent inmany African economies despite several specificconstraints: limited access to land, credit, educa-tion and training. Against this background, ILOand AfDB intend to boost their cooperation indeveloping an integrated solution to supportfinancing for growth-oriented micro and smalland medium-sized enterprises owned by womenin those countries.

A new ILO-AfDB report examines “goodpractices” and challenges in policy and pro-gramme support. It adopts an integratedapproach to helping women entrepreneurs,including coordination, leadership, financing,training, business support, information sharing,networks and women entrepreneurs’ associa-tions and the legal environment.

According to the report, the ongoing sub-regional discussions on women entrepreneursnot only affect Ethiopia, Kenya, the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania and Uganda, but also therest of the continent. It recommends linkingaccess to finance to business support services.Based on the findings of the report for Kenya, theAfDB has approved a new project to provideloan guarantees, business training and strength-ening of associations of women entrepreneurs.As a further response to the reports in the fourcountries, the ILO will give greater priority towomen’s entrepreneurship in Africa over thenext two years.

The report also calls for special efforts at thenational and regional levels to challenge existingcultural and social practices and to allow womenentrepreneurs to participate in private sectordevelopment and employment creation activitiesby reviewing the legal frameworks.

The AfDB, which advocates small andmedium-sized enterprise development andwomen’s access to finance, and the ILO, whichprovides technical expertise through its Women’sEntrepreneurship Development and GenderEquality (WEDGE) technical cooperation pro-ject, launched the report during an interactiveworkshop in Nairobi in November 2005.

1 Support for growth-

oriented women

entrepreneurs in

Ethiopia, Kenya and

Tanzania: An overview

report, International

Labour Office,

Geneva, and African

Development Bank,

Tunis, 2005. ISBN 92-

2-117005-5.

Women entrepreneurs in AfricaILO and AfDB strengthen support

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World AIDS Day 2005 ILO organizes activities based on workplace efforts to stop HIV/AIDS

Workers and employers, in collabo-ration with the International LabourOrganization’s HIV/AIDS pro-gramme, organized a wide range ofactivities in Geneva and around theworld to commemorate World AIDSDay on 1 December 2005.

GENEVA – “The workplace must play astrategic role in the fight against HIV/AIDS,”said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, in astatement on HIV/AIDS in the world of workissued for the day. “It is a fight not only againstthe ravages of a disease but also against discrim-ination, intolerance, misconceptions and fear.”

Events ranged from a series of public eventsdesigned to mobilize support for workplaceactivities against HIV/AIDS, to the launch of anumber of new products aimed at providing thebest examples of ways to prevent or manage thedisease and its impact. Mr.Somavia said the workplace is avital platform for reaching com-munities attempting to deal withthe epidemic.

“Through the workplace wecan protect people’s lives andlivelihoods by providing infor-mation and education, care andsupport,” Mr. Somavia said. “Theworkplace is also key in protect-ing the rights of those infected oraffected. And equally important-ly, through workplace action wecan send a strong message ofhope: that women and men withHIV/AIDS can continue to liveactively and work productivelyfor many years, especially withcare, support and treatment.”

The ILO has played a significant role in theglobal campaign against HIV/AIDS through itsexpertise on issues in the world of work. TheILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS in the Worldof Work, adopted in 2001, has become theglobal standard for dealing with HIV/AIDS inthe workplace. From July 2005 to July 2006, theILO is chairing the highest decision-makingbody of UNAIDS, the Committee of Co-spon-soring Organizations (CCO).

“Social protection can be seen as the otherside of the coin of employment,” said Mr. AssaneDiop, Executive Director of the ILO’s SocialProtection Sector. “In close relation with ourconstituents, we need to encourage a culture ofprotection among workers through pro-grammes of prevention and care in the work-place. One working man, or one workingwoman, with awareness and motivation to acton HIV/AIDS means a whole family protected,and through it the community.”

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A REGULAR REVIEW OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOURORGANIZATION AND ILO-RELATED ACTIVITIES AND EVENTSTAKING PLACE AROUND THE WORLD

A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S

The campaign was organized by theILO in partnership with Egypt’sNational Council for Childhoodand Motherhood (NCCM). TheFIFA and the African Football Con-federation have enlisted the ILO’sRed Card campaign as a solidaritypartner since its inception in 2002 inBamako. The ILO and NCCM willbe hosting several activities duringthe Africa Cup of Nations 2006 bothin and out of the stadiums, in coop-

ness, be the key decision-makerand be responsible for the day-to-day management. Judges includeda panel of representatives from dif-ferent organizations, associationsand micro-finance institutions.

For more information, please contactthe ILO Jakarta office at tel. +62.21.314.13.08; fax +62.21.310.07.66;e-mail: [email protected].

ILO/IPEC Red Card to Child Labourcampaign moves on■ Under the auspices of theEgyptian First Lady, Mrs. SuzanneMubarak, a new edition ofILO/IPEC’s Red Card to ChildLabour campaign is scheduled forthe Africa Cup of Nations 2006.

Women entrepreneurs honoured in BandaAceh, Indonesia■ More than a year after thetsunami, women-owned businessesin the hard-hit Banda Aceh area arereopening and starting anew,thanks to an ILO initiative to pro-mote women in local area business.To mark the progress, the ILOoffice in Banda Aceh held a compe-tition for “Best Women Entrepre-neurs of Aceh 2006”. One winnerwas chosen from each of the fol-lowing categories: Best WomanEntrepreneur (non-services), BestWoman Entrepreneur (services),Best Disabled Woman Entre-preneur, Best Young Woman Entre-preneur (15-24 years) and Best Busi-ness Plan. Each winner received aprize of IDR 5,000,000 (US$540)and was honoured at an awards cer-emony on International Women’sDay on 8 March.Contestants were judged accordingto their strong entrepreneurialattributes, original vision and busi-ness strategy, use of creativity toovercome obstacles, excellence inarea of work and how their busi-ness benefits Acehnese society. Tobe considered, these women mustbe the founder/owner of the busi-

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Egyptian First Lady, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak


Inauguration of newILO premises in Santiago■ On 14 December 2005, thePresident of the Republic of Chile,Ricardo Lagos (left in photo), andILO Director-General Juan Somavia(right) inaugurated the new premis-

opportunity to map the tradeunion movement’s objectives onenvironmental issues such as cli-mate change, energy, chemicals,health, water and corporatesocial responsibility.

For more information, please contactthe ILO Bureau for Workers’Activities, at tel.: +41.22.799.6328; e-mail: [email protected]

eration with the CAF, the localorganizing committee of the Cup,and a variety of national and inter-national agencies and NGOs.The campaign has proved to be aninvaluable tool for raising aware-ness in the ILO/IPEC fight againstchild labour, which provides viablealternatives for children and theirfamilies. It has been held success-fully on all continents, reached agreat number of people, and beensupported by many leading person-alities in politics, sports and thearts.

For more information, please contactthe “Red Card to Child Labour”campaign, IPEC,tel.: +41.22.799.7568; e-mail: [email protected]

Nairobi hostsconference onLabour and theEnvironment■ In January, Nairobi hostedthe global Trade Union Assemblyon Labour and the Environment,an event organized by the UnitedNations Environment Pro-gramme (UNEP), in conjunctionwith the ILO, Sustainlabour andthe United Nations Global Com-pact Office. The conferencebrought together trade unionleaders from around the globe topromote trade union activitiesin favour of the environmentand sustainable workplaces; thesocial and labour dimension ofsustainable development; andstrengthening the relationshipbetween trade unions, industry,UNEP and other UN bodies toadvance the environment andsustainability agenda.The meeting also provided an

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es of the ILO Subregional Office forthe Southern Cone in Santiago deChile. In his speech, the Presidentremembered his professional careerin the ILO and expressed his person-al attachment to the values and thework of the Organization.

For more information, please visit:www.oitchile.cl

Preventing AIDS in the workplace■ The number of HIV-infectedpersons in the Russian Federation in2005 was more than 45 times higherthan in 1997 – one of the fastestgrowth rates of the pandemicworldwide. The ILO estimates that,if such growth continues, thecountry’s working population maydecrease by 1.1 million in 2015 andby 2.1 million in 2050.In January, the Russian Ministry ofHealth and Social Development, theCoordinating Council of Employers’Associations and the RussianFederation of Independent TradeUnions, which are parties to theTripartite Commission on theRegulation of Social and LabourRelations, spoke of joining efforts inthe fight against HIV/AIDS andcollaborating in the prevention ofHIV/AIDS in the workplace.In a joint declaration on HIV/AIDSand the world of work signed byMinister Mikhail Zourabov, theCoordinating Council’s PresidentOleg Eremeev and the Trade UnionFederation Chairman MikhailShmakov, the tripartite partnerscalled HIV/AIDS “a potential threatto workers, enterprises and thenational economy”.

For more information, please contactthe ILO Moscow office at tel.: + 70.95.933.0810; e-mail: [email protected]

Training andemployment fordisabled persons in Asia■ Improving legislation to promotetraining and employment opportuni-ties for disabled persons in Asia wasthe focus of a six-country meetingheld in Bangkok, Thailand from 18 to20 January. Government, representa-tives for workers and employers, par-liamentarians, disabled persons andlegal experts from China, Mongolia,Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and VietNam discussed how to promote train-ing and employment opportunitiesfor women and men with disabilitiesthrough legislation and adequate poli-cies.

For more information,please contact the ILO Regional officefor Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok at tel.: +66.2.288.1234; fax: +66.2.288.1735; e-mail: [email protected]

Five years after:Social ProtectionFinancing MasterProgramme■ In 2000, the ILO’s Social SecurityDepartment and the University ofMaastricht in the Netherlands launcheda joint initiative, the Social ProtectionFinancing (SPF) Master Programme.The one-year programme assists mem-ber States in enhancing the effectivenessof social protection systems, extendingthe coverage of social protectionschemes and giving students a solidtheoretical background in social pro-tection.The SPF Master Programme fills thegaps in standard academic teaching andgoes beyond. At its core are the demo-graphic, actuarial and economic tech-niques required for a 360° analysis ofthe finances of social protection sys-tems. The programme addresses,among others, the management ofsocial risks; economics, statistics andmathematics required for demographicand social protection analysis; the dif-ferent concepts of financing social pro-tection; national accounting and socialbudgeting; actuarial mathematics; andquantitative techniques in health carefinancing.Based on a thorough understanding ofthese topics, students learn how, andto which extent, the application of dif-ferent techniques, parameter estimatesor scenario formulation contribute toany biases in public discussions andpolitical decisions relating to socialprotection.

For more information, please visit:www.governance.unimaas.nl

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ILO


■ Competing for global talent

Christiane Kuptsch and Eng Fong

Pang. International Institute for

Labour Studies. ISBN 92-9014-776-

8. Geneva, 2006. US$30; £16.95; €26;

40 Swiss francs.

Global talent has never been more mobile or in

demand. In the past decade, many countries have

welcomed foreign professionals to redress domes-

tic skill shortages and quicken economic growth.

Competing for global talent includes general and

theoretical papers on skilled migration, in addition

to the country experiences of Australia, India,

Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the

United States. It addresses the socio-economic

and cultural challenges created by increased

mobility in a world where globalizing and localizing

forces are at work simultaneously. It aims to devel-

op a deeper understanding of the factors that con-

tribute to the effective design and implementation of

policies and programmes to attract global talent.

■ The effective employers'

organization: A series of "hands-

on" guides: (1) Governance (2)

Strategy (3) Advocacy (4) Revenue

building

ISBN 92-2-117403-4. Geneva, 2005.

US$45; £27; €40; 60 Swiss francs. Includes CD-ROM.

These four guides, aimed primarily at those set-

ting up, building and managing national-level

organizations in developing countries and

economies in transition, will also provide a wealth

of useful advice to employers' organizations in

industrialized countries, in particular to those

undertaking a strategic review of the way they

operate.

M E D I A S H E L F

M E D I A S H E L F

■ Guidelines for labour in-

spection in forestry

ISBN 92-2-118081-6. Geneva, 2006.

US$22.95; £13.95; €22; 30 Swiss

francs. Also available in French

and Spanish

Forestry provides an important contribution to

the economic development of many countries, gen-

erating foreign exchange and employment. Proper

management, with an emphasis on labour stand-

ards, is essential for the development of this impor-

tant sector and one in which the ILO is actively

involved. These guidelines provide an important

overview of forestry and its labour issues and dis-

cuss implementation and the vital role of evaluation

and labour inspection in assessing compliance.

■ Health micro-insurance

schemes: Feasibility study guide

Volume 1: Procedure

ISBN 92-2-116571-X. Geneva, 2005.

US$14.95; £8.95; €13; 20 Swiss

francs.

Volume 2: Tools

ISBN 92-2-116572-8. Geneva, 2005.US$19.95; £11.95;

€16; 25 Swiss francs.

Two-volume set:

ISBN 92-2-116573-6. US$30; £16.95; €26; 40 Swiss

francs. Also available in French.

For many countries in the process of develop-

ment, the number of health micro-insurance

schemes is rapidly increasing due to a need for

improved access to social protection and health-

care. But it is essential for the success of these

schemes to conduct a systematic feasibility study

prior to their establishment or further development.

This two-volume guide is designed to help promot-

ers of health micro-insurance schemes to analyse

the necessary prerequisites for the creation of such

a scheme, as well as to identify the organizations,

services and other important characteristics for its

viability and effectiveness. The first volume outlines

the step-by-step procedures to fully implement the

study, while the second provides methods, tools and

concrete support to put the procedures into prac-

tice.

■ Key Indicators of the Labour

Market (KILM).

Fourth edition (CD-ROM)

ISBN 92-2-017568-1. Geneva, 2005.

US$55; £30; €45; 70 Swiss francs.

Now in its 4th edition, the KILM

CD-ROM offers the general user instant and

uncomplicated access to data on the world's

labour markets. Harvesting vast information from

international data repositories and regional and

national statistical sources, this important refer-

ence tool offers data for over 200 countries for the

years 1980 through the latest available subsequent

year. Using market indicators such as statistical

data on the labour force, employment, unemploy-

ment, underemployment, educational attainment of

the workforce and others, the software provides

users with access to the most current information

available.

■ Labour and social trends in

Asia and the Pacific 2005

ISBN 92-2-117711-4.

Bangkok, 2005. US$19.95; £10.95;


The first issue of a new report

to be published every second year, this book pres-

ents major trends in employment and social condi-

tions in the world's most populous and dynamic

region. Drawing attention to key policy challenges

posed by identified trends, it contributes to the

development of internationally comparable,

gender-sensitive indicators to measure

progress in decent work.

■ Labour-management coopera-

tion in SMEs: Forms and factors

Tayo Fashoyin, Emily Sims and

Arturo Tolentino. ISBN 978-92-2-

117413-4. Geneva, 2006. US$26.95;

£15.95; €24; 35 Swiss francs.

Enterprises that place a high priority on the

safety and well-being of workers, respect their

rights and engage them fully in the production

process are much better positioned to take on the

challenges of global markets, increasing competi-

tion, and ever more demanding customers. This

comprehensive study examines how the labour-

management partnership can contribute to

increased productivity and competitiveness in

small and medium-sized enterprises in developing

countries. Using case studies from Botswana,

Kenya, Nepal and the Philippines as a basis, the

book fleshes out the existing knowledge with

regard to recruitment, staffing, wages and compen-

sation, appraisals, occupational safety and health,

grievance procedures and other human resource

management practices.


F E A T U R E S


■ 2005 Labour Overview

ISBN 92-2-117569-3. Lima, 2005.

US$10; £6.95; €10; 15 Swiss francs.

Also available in Spanish.

A valuable assessment of the

current economic and labour mar-

ket situation in Latin America and the Caribbean,

this book examines how, overall, healthy economic

performance has led to improvements in the region-

al labour market, while unemployment in the region

still remains high. This edition includes feature art-

icles on voluntary migration trends both within and

outside the region as well as economic and labour

progress since the application of economic stabil-

ization policies in the 1990s. It also provides a sta-

tistical annex and an explanatory note with con-

cepts, definitions and a list of other information

resources.

■ Merchants of labour

Christiane Kuptsch. International

Institute for Labour Studies. ISBN

92-9014-780-6. Geneva, 2006.

US$26.95; £15.95; €25; 35 Swiss

francs.

More workers are crossing national borders to

look for jobs than ever before. The agents and inter-

mediaries who recruit and deploy migrant workers

are at the heart of the evolving migration infra-

structure. These "merchants of labour" include rela-

tives who finance and coordinate a migrant's trip

abroad, public employment services and private

recruitment agencies. They also comprise an

insalubrious underworld of smugglers and traffick-

ers. This book highlights innovative strategies to

protect migrant workers, underlining the contribu-

tion of ILO standards. Geared towards govern-

ments, international institutions and researchers

worldwide, it covers a broad range of national and

regional experiences and puts the merchants of

labour in the wider context of changing employ-

ment relationships in globalizing labour markets.

■ Reaching out to SMEs: An elec-

tronic toolkit for employers'

organizations (CD-ROM)

Geneva, 2005. US$31.95; £17.95;


Although small and medium-

sized enterprises (SMEs) make up more than 90 per

cent of enterprises in most countries around the

world, they often are not fully represented by

employers' organizations. Providing services to

SMEs poses certain challenges: this CD-ROM

offers practical case studies demonstrating ways

employers' organizations can reach out to SMEs,

as well as detailed guidance on providing services,

seeking board approval and strengthening repre-

sentation for SMEs.

■ Safety and health in the iron

and steel industry: ILO code of

practice (2nd edition)

ISBN 92-2-117535-9. Geneva,

2005.US$30; £16.95; €26; 40 Swiss

francs.

This completely revised second edition offers

insight into the many changes that have occurred in

the iron and steel industry and among its work-

force. It reviews the specific roles to be played by

competent authorities, employers, workers and

their respective organizations in establishing and

maintaining safety and health guidelines in the

industry. It focuses particularly on the production of

iron and steel products and the different operations

commonly used - from coke ovens to steel furnaces

and foundries. Transport, competence and training,

personal protective equipment, emergency pre-

paredness and hygiene issues are also discussed.

■ Yearbook of Labour Statistics 2005, 64th edition

ISBN 92-2-017247-X. Geneva, 2005.US$220; £135; €180; 275 Swiss francs.

Trilingual: English, French and Spanish.

Since its first edition in 1935-36, the Yearbook of Labour Statistics has

established itself as the world's foremost work of statistical reference on

labour questions, bringing together in systematic form a mass of data from a

vast network of authoritative sources of information in some 190 countries.

This new edition contains 31 tables corresponding to nine major substantive

chapters on economically active population, employment, unemployment,

hours of work, wages, labour cost, consumer prices, occupational injuries and strikes and lockouts.

■ Yearbook of Labour Statistics 2005, 64th edition (CD-ROM)

ISBN 92-2-117246-5. Geneva, 2005.US$220; £135; €180; 275 Swiss francs.

The CD-ROM version provides access to the full range of data and metadata including statistics for

previous years not contained in the printed edition. It includes the series Sources and Methods: Labour

Statistics, in ten volumes, which complements the brief explanations given in the tables in the

print edition.

■ Occupational wages and hours of work and retail food prices:

Statistics from the ILO October 2005 Inquiry

ISBN 92-2-016580-5. Geneva, 2005.US$60; £40; €60; 75 Swiss francs. Trilingual:

English, French and Spanish.

This volume presents the latest results of the ILO October Inquiry, a world-

wide survey (conducted regularly since 1924) of wages and hours of work

relating to 159 occupations in 49 industry groups and of retail prices of 93 food

items. The occupations and industry groups covered comprise those which

are important in terms of the number of persons employed in them, those

which fall within the scope of ILO industrial committees and similar bodies and those which are impor-

tant in terms of certain types of workers such as women and salaried employees. The food items cov-

ered are, to the extent possible, representative of the dietary habits in countries throughout the world.

■ Occupational wages and hours of work and retail food prices:

Statistics from the ILO October Inquiry (CD-ROM)

ISBN 92-2-116269-9: Geneva, 2005. US$75; £45; €65; 100 Swiss francs. Trilingual: English, French and

Spanish.

The CD-ROM version includes information from the last 20 years, rather than the two years includ-

ed in the printed version.


ILO publications for sale can be obtained through major booksellers or ILO local offices in many countries, or directly from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, 4 route des Morillons, CH-1211Geneva 22, Switzerland. Tel: +4122/799-7828, fax: +4122/799-6938, e-mail: [email protected], web site: http://www.ilo.org/publns. Catalogues or lists of new publications are available free of charge from theabove address. The ILO Publications Center in North America can be contacted by phone: +613/745 2665, fax: +613/745 7660, e-mail: [email protected]. Customers from developing countriescan benefit from special discounts on the regular prices indicated in this magazine and may be able to pay in local currency through an ILO field office. For more information, e-mail us at [email protected].

■ Support for growth-oriented

women entrepreneurs in Uganda

Lois Stevenson and Annette

St-Onge. ISBN 92-2-117819-6.

Geneva, 2005. US$19.95; £10.95;


The African Development Bank's (AfDB) Addis

Ababa Forum in June 2003 focused on the role of

women entrepreneurs in private sector develop-

ment, poverty reduction and sustainable growth

and development. It provided an opportunity for the

AfDB and the ILO to join forces in support of

women-owned businesses in various African coun-

tries. This report is based on the country assess-

ment for Uganda. Examining economic context,

micro-finance, women entrepreneurs' associa-

tions, capacity-building and other issues, this

report indicates the next steps the AfDB and the ILO

can take.

■ International Labour Review

Vol. 144 (2005), No. 4

Women's labour force partici-

pation is the focus of this special

issue of the ILR, which contains

articles, book reviews and the

index for 2005. In the first article, Laís Abramo and

María Elena Valenzuela examine the progress

achieved in female rates of labour force participa-

tion, as well as the continuing gap between men

and women in access to quality jobs, unemploy-

ment, remuneration and social protection. With 33

million women joining the labour market between

1990 and 2004, women now represent 40 per cent of

the economically active population in urban areas

in Latin America.

In January 2005, the Agreement on Textiles and

Clothing terminated the decades-old quota regime

that regulated international trade in textiles and

clothing. Karin Astrid Siegmann outlines how this

industry in Pakistan has been restructuring to cope

with the consequences of increased competition

on the newly liberalized global market, focusing

particularly on its potential effects on gendered

employment. If the author's forecast proves cor-

rect, Pakistani women could suffer disproportion-

ate job losses with scant prospects for alternative

employment.

The impact of economic crisis on female labour

force participation in Argentina and the Republic of

Korea in the 1990s is explored by Kye Woo Lee and

Kisuk Cho. Two hypotheses are tested: the "added

workers hypothesis" that more women are likely to

enter the labour force to compensate for household

income lost because of the crisis; and the "discour-

aged workers hypothesis" that poor macroeconom-

ic conditions and scarcity of jobs lead women to

leave the labour force altogether. Neither hypothe-

sis is entirely supported here: most of the country

differences are attributed to differences in employ-

ers' risk-aversion/discrimination in employment and

compensation, and to supportive public policies.

Women in the Japanese labour market from

1947 to 2003 are the subject of the fourth article, by

Junko Kumamoto-Healy. Despite major legislative

reforms in the late 1990s, in practice, women are

still overwhelmingly confined to "mommy-track"

jobs. The author puts this tradition into historical

perspective in an overview of economic develop-

ment and changes in the legal framework and soci-

etal attitudes. A 2002 judicial decision marked a

turning point in the enforcement of equal opportu-

nity legislation and there are signs of a trend

towards improvement.

Finally, in an innovative application of classifi-

cation trees of significant methodological interest,

Fabio B. Losa and Pau Origoni investigate the

choices women in Switzerland make about

whether to participate in the labour force and, if so,

whether to do so full- or part-time. Asking whether

the trade-off women make between work and fam-

ily is socio-culturally conditioned, the authors focus

on the three distinct language regions in Switzer-

land bridging southern and northern Europe, whose

patterns of female labour force participation are

known to differ.

■ Trade union strategies in Cen-

tral and Eastern Europe: Towards

decent work

ISBN 92-2-117852-8. Budapest,

2005. US$22.95; £13.95; €22; 30

Swiss francs

This volume highlights some of the major fac-

tors influencing trade unions' strategic choices

over the 15 years when they functioned not only as

labour movements but also as agents of socio-eco-

nomic and political change. It explores what strate-

gies and policies unions in this region need to curb

negative trends and strengthen their capacities and

functions within the new industrial relations sys-

tems. Case studies from Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia

and Slovenia reveal some of the differences and

commonalities in trade union choices, processes

and outcomes of action. The book also looks at

major issues stemming from the European Union

integration process for labour movements in Cen-

tral and Eastern Europe.

■ Vocational education and

training institutions: A manage-

ment handbook and CD-ROM

Vladimir Gasskov. ISBN 92-2-

117104-3. Geneva, 2006. US$34.95;

£19.95; €30; 45 Swiss francs.

Most countries operate large numbers of VET

institutions, which face an increasing demand for

education and training services and absorb a large

share of government budgets. This handbook and

CD-ROM are intended as self-learning materials for

VET managers, resource material for management

development programmes in the VET sector and an

outline for performance reviews of VET institutions.

The handbook consists of 11 modules with 43 learn-

ing units, while the CD-ROM provides access to

more than 400 documents, giving summaries of

national management practices in the VET sector

and of national policies, reports and legal docu-

ments, as well as real-life management instruments

applied by VET institutions.

LATIN AMERICA

PAKISTAN

ARGENTINA/REPUBLIC OF KOREA

JAPAN

SWITZERLAND

Huge increase in female labour force participation since 1990

Free trade in textiles threatens women's jobs

Economic crisis affects women’s employment in different ways

Women still overwhelmingly confined to mommy-track jobs

Gender, not sex, explains female employment patterns

NEW in March 2006Special issue:Women’s labour force participation

INTERNATIONALLABOUR REVIEWThe world’s leading multi-disciplinary journalon labour and employment

Bringing together the thinking of distinguished philosophers, economists, sociologists and lawyers to throw light on the complex socio-economic issues that affect people’s lives today

Now in its 85th year

Order the International Labour Review through ILO Publications, International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. Fax +41 22 799 6117 E-mail: [email protected] • www.ilo.org/publnsOr through major booksellers, subscription agencies or ILO local offices. Print and access to the online version: ISSN 0020-7780. Online version only: ISSN 1564-913X

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