January 2003

1. Corporate social responsibility: Myth or reality?

   01 January 2003

   Labour Education 2003/1 No. 130: These days, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is common currency but a “currency” that is rather devalued. The phrase is so over- and poorly used that it begins to lose any meaning. Any proper definition of CSR would require a categorical standard of values.

August 2002

1. Promoting the Role of Agricultural Workers and Trade Unions in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development

   01 August 2002

   Leaflet produced by ACTRAV and IUF (The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations) to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, August 26 - September 4, 2002.

April 2002

1. Migrant workers

   01 April 2002

   Labour Education 2002/4 No. 129: Today immigration, once a favourite issue covered by labour ministries, falls under the competence of ministries of the interior or of justice. This short-sighted political approach, combined with the closure of borders, has achieved precisely the opposite of what it set out to do. And should we really be surprised? The nations in the West have as many holes in their fortress walls as Swiss cheese. Migrant workers are today at the mercy of mafia like groups specializing in human traffi cking, and the security forces appear to be conceding that they are powerless to stop them.

March 2002

1. Paying attention to wages

   01 March 2002

   This issue of Labour Education 2002/3 No. 128, has the modest ambition of shedding some light on the efforts needed to improve the situation of millions of people who are deprived of regular pay, who are on starvation wages or who suffer discrimination. To do so, it draws on analyses by ILO specialists and explores the courses of action mapped out by the trade union movement.

February 2002

1. Unprotected labour: What role for unions in the informal economy?

   01 February 2002

   Labour Education 2002/2 No. 127: An ILO study published 30 years ago noted the emergence of a group of workers and small enterprises operating outside the mainstream economy. The report referred to them as the “informal sector”. At the time it was presumed that the informal sector was a transitory phenomenon associated with lower levels of economic development, something that would disappear as development occurred. This presumption has however been proven incorrect. A greater number of workers than ever before are now working outside the “formal” economy and they are engaged in an increasingly diverse range of activities and situations.

January 2002

1. Gender Equality: A Guide to Collective Bargaining (Six booklets)

   01 January 2002

2. Health and safety at work: A trade union priority

   01 January 2002

   Figures appearing in this issue of Labour Education 2002/1 No. 126, are shocking: every day sees 5,000 people die from work-related accidents. That is three deaths every minute. Work-related diseases continue to take a heavy toll,affecting at any given time more than 160 million people in both developing and industrialized countries. This is an important issue for all of society, as these casualties help swell the pressures on increasingly stretched public health systems throughout the world. In consequence, the costs and the social impacts on communities have risen.

3. Gender Equality: A Guide to Collective Bargaining - An overview

   01 January 2002

   This guide is comprised of six booklets. Booklets 2 to 6 deal with different categories of bargaining issues.

4. Bitter Harvest Child Labour in Agriculture

   01 January 2002

   "Bitter Harvest" by Alef Fyfe was first published in 1997 to raise awareness of issues to be discussed in the debate on the new ILO Convention on Worst Forms of Child Labour, C 182, adopted in 1999. This new revised version has been updated taking into account recent initiatives to combat child labour.

March 2001

1. Trade unions and the global economy: An unfinished story

   04 March 2001

   This issue of Labour Education 2001/3-4 Nos. 124-125, is aimed at providing the key elements for such a dialogue to lead to tangible results in shaping a global economy with a human face. Globalization has so far failed to respond to legitimate demands that should be at the top of its agenda. Today, however,there are opportunities to change course. These should not be missed.

February 2001

1. The challenge of globalization in Africa: The trade union response

   01 February 2001

   Labour Education 2001/2 No. 123: While much has been written about these African problems, Labour Education looks at Africa from a different perspective. Africa has resources,both human and natural, it has potential markets and it has moved towards strengthening democracy. How can all this meet the challenges posed by globalization, how can Africa make globalization deliver to its citizens and how can unions contribute to this process? Many answers to these questions can be found in this issue, even if it does not claim to be exhaustive.

January 2001

1. Beyond survival - Organizing the informal economy

   01 January 2001

2. Decent Work: A Common Goal of Youth and Trade Unions

   01 January 2001

3. Fundamental rights at work: Overview and prospects

   01 January 2001

   Labour Education 2001/1 No. 122: Three years after the adoption of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up by the 86th Session of the International Labour Conference, it makes sense to try and take stock of the situation. Not that this would represent a definite exercise, but analysing trends, improvements or setbacks would help determine immediate and future work. This is the aim of this issue of Labour Education which has relied heavily on support from trade union experts and ILO specialists, including colleagues from the Bureau for Workers’ Activities as well as relevant departments at headquarters.

April 2000

1. Social protection: What workers and trade unions should know

   01 April 2000

   Labour Education 2000/4 No. 121: Much has been said about social security, and misconception, exaggeration, preconceived ideas and peremptory judgements are not absent in the talks. Labour Education attempts in this issue to examine the question with sobriety. Social security is too vital an area for millions of people to substitute ideology or profit for experience or common sense.

March 2000

1. Trade unions and social dialogue: Current situation and outlook

   01 March 2000

   Labour Education 2000/3 No. 120: What is it that accounts for the relatively recent infatuation with the term “social dialogue”? This is the question posed by the contributors Ozaki and Rueda-Catry, and also tackled by all the others from their respective standpoints as trade union leaders in confederations active at the national, regional and world levels and as specialists with an interest in labour relations issues.

January 2000

1. Top on the agenda: Health and safety in agriculture

   02 January 2000

   Labour Education 2000/1-2 Nos. 118/119: For time immemorial, workers on the land have tilled the soil in pain. They have been among the last to organize and, even when organized, their interests in promoting their own welfare in terms of safety and health have suffered through a general lack of attention to the needs of this group of workers. If the agenda of the June 2000 Session of the International Labour Conference carries an item on safety and health in agriculture (first discussion), no doubt ILO constituents have selected this item in order to bring to the fore, once and for all, the gravity of the safety and health problems of rural workers in the hope of arriving at a common strategy internationally.

2. Showing The Way Trade Unions Against Child Labour In India

   01 January 2000

3. ILO Declaration on Principles: A New Instrument to Promote Fundamental Rights

   01 January 2000

   Respect for the principles and rights enshrined in the fundamental Conventions of the ILO has always been a prime concern of trade union organizations. For those States that have ratified these core Conventions, the supervisory mechanism now in place effectively ensures their application, and trade union organizations are increasingly prepared to use them.

4. Trade Unions and Child Labour: 4. Campaigning Against Child Labour

   01 January 2000