1. About the ILO
2. Topics
3. Regions
4. Meetings and events
5. Publications
6. Research
7. Labour standards
8. Statistics and databases

3. Protecting working people

This chapter starts by focusing on the protection of workers against hazards at work and against the contingencies of working life, including injury and illness. The improvements achieved during the biennium in occupational safety and health with the ILO's assistance are described, with particular reference to the development of comprehensive estimates of the incidence of work-related accidents and injuries and the efforts made to improve the situation of workers in the agricultural and informal sectors. The chapter also covers the ILO's work in the field of working conditions, drug and alcohol abuse prevention programmes and violence at work, as well as the strengthening and extension of social security systems. Lastly, the chapter focuses on issues relating to equality and the prevention of discrimination. Equality of opportunity and treatment in employment and occupation is a fundamental right of all workers, of particular relevance to women and to minority groups, such as workers with disabilities and migrant workers.

Occupational safety and health

During the biennium, the ILO's estimates that over 1 million work-related deaths occur every year received widespread publicity. The ILO also warned that, without further preventive action, the total could double by the year 2020. These figures were presented by the ILO to the 3,500 participants at the XVth World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health, held in São Paulo, Brazil, in April 1999.
 

Conclusions of the XVth World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health The participants agreed on: the need to review the world's social situation, as a basis for a possible new Global Agenda for the Social Dimension at Work; the enormous need to train more occupational safety and health experts and to provide minimum training to employers and workers; the need to use information and communication technology (ICT) to improve occupational safety and health throughout the world; the need for new efforts for the recording and notification of injuries and the compilation of statistics and surveys; the use of ICT systems for the collection and dissemination of occupational safety and health information; the need to develop occupational safety and health in small and medium-sized enterprises and among the self-employed through the application of innovative strategies; the need to implement universal minimum standards, including the ILO's safety and health standards; and the need to move from theory, in the form of research, conferences and meetings, to achieving progress in practice.

The delegates to the Congress were also informed that, by conservative estimates:

• 250 million work-related accidents causing absence from work occur every year (nearly 700,000 a day);
• 3,000 people are killed by work every day;
• 160 million cases of occupational disease occur every year; and
• working children suffer 12 million occupational accidents annually, of which 12,000 are fatal.  
   

Work-related deaths and injuries take a particularly heavy toll in developing countries, where large numbers of workers are concentrated in primary and extractive activities, including agriculture, logging, fishing and mining. ILO estimates show that the fatality rate in the advanced industrialized countries is almost half that of Central and Eastern Europe, China and India. The fatality rate is even higher than the latter in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia (excluding China and India). Certain hazardous jobs can be much riskier in the developing world. For example, construction sites in developing countries are on average ten times more dangerous than those in industrialized countries.

ILO global estimates of fatal occupational accidents and all work-related deaths per year
 

Statistical methodologies for occupational injuries

The ILO has been publishing national statistics on occupational injuries in its Yearbook of Labour Statistics for many years. These statistics are provided to the Office by national statistical services or ministries of labour. However, in the majority of cases, they suffer from several shortcomings. Certain categories of workers, economic activities and even sectors are often excluded, with the result that the coverage of the data varies between a high point of about 80 per cent of the workforce down to as low as 10 per cent.

The ILO's Code of practice on recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases, published in 1996,⁽¹⁾ provides guidance on the improvement of national recording and notification systems. In an attempt to identify new national sources of information on occupational injuries and diseases and supplement the information already available to the Office, a questionnaire was sent out in 1998 to 160 member States, together with the code of practice. The new global estimates of occupational fatalities publicized at the World Congress were based on the 106 replies received to this questionnaire.

The resolution concerning statistics of occupational injuries resulting from occupational accidents adopted at the 16th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 1998 complements the code of practice and provides further practical guidance for the collection of statistics on occupational injuries, including the various sources of information which can be used to build the comprehensive set of data required for accident prevention purposes.

A new and potentially important initiative was the launching of an interdepartmental statistical programme for developing methodologies aimed at collecting information on occupational injuries from sources other than the regular notification systems (i.e. injury compensation schemes, labour inspectorates). The programme carried out experimental surveys in three countries in order to provide constituents with the means of obtaining additional information needed to generate better estimates on the number and distribution of occupational injuries by economic activity, occupation and sex. A technical manual for the use of the methodologies will be prepared.

Asbestos

One of the estimates which received widespread attention at the World Congress and in the world's media was the figure of 100,000 deaths a year caused by asbestos. The ILO's Asbestos Convention, 1986 (No. 162), the aim of which is to gradually eliminate the use of asbestos, also had a major impact during the biennium. Following broad-based discussions on the subject, France joined ten other ILO member States in banning the substance. The use of asbestos was then prohibited in the European Union; other member States, including producers such as Brazil, reported that they would follow suit. Convention No. 162 was ratified during the biennium by the Netherlands and Portugal.

Occupational safety and health standards

Efforts to promote occupational safety and health standards helped member States to register an additional 21 ratifications of the most important Conventions in this field. Further promotional work included a publication ⁽²⁾ which outlines all the key principles of prevention and protection embodied in the ILO's occupational safety and health standards and provides practical guidelines for the development and implementation of effective policies and programmes. Several field seminars, workshops and conferences were also held in developing and transition countries to highlight the latest standards in this area, and particularly the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155), and the Occupational Health Services Convention, 1985 (No. 161).

New standards on safety and health

Following the decision of the Governing Body at its 271st Session (March 1998) to place an item on safety and health in agriculture on the agenda of the International Labour Conference in 2000, a law and practice report ⁽³⁾ with a questionnaire on the form and content of possible international instruments was prepared and sent to governments for comments. On the basis of the replies received, Proposed Conclusions with a view to a Convention and a Recommendation were drafted in a second report ⁽⁴⁾ indicating the main points to be considered and intended to serve as the basis for the first discussion in 2000. The overall intention is to apply the framework of Convention No. 155 to agriculture. As part of the promotional activities for the new standards on safety and health, a multimedia CD-ROM on safety and health in agriculture and forestry work is being prepared, providing detailed advice on safety measures concerning, among other things, use of machinery and tools, agrochemicals and animal breeding.
 

Safety and health in agriculture The ILO report to the 88th Session of the Conference, Safety and health in agriculture, Report VI(1), emphasizes a number of factors which highlight the importance of taking action to improve health and safety in agriculture. These include: the size of the agricultural workforce worldwide, which accounts for half of all workers in the world, or 1.3 billion workers; the difference between the industrialized world, where agriculture accounts for under 10 per cent of the economically active population, and the less developed regions, where the figure is nearly 60 per cent; the high rate of accidents in agriculture, which accounted for some 170,000 of the ILO's estimate of 330,000 fatal workplace accidents in 1997; the aggravation of risks in recent years owing to the increased use of machinery and pesticides; the exclusion of agricultural workers in many countries from employment injury benefit or insurance schemes, as well as from general occupational safety and health legislation; the large numbers of children engaged in agricultural work; and the very complex and heterogeneous nature of the sector, which covers such different undertakings as highly mechanized plantations and small-scale subsistence agriculture using traditional working methods.

 
 

Central American project on safety and health in agriculture A Central American project on occupational safety and health in agriculture drew up and tested a model strategy for the development of national policies on occupational safety and health in agriculture in developing countries. The experience gained in this project contributed to the preparation of the new proposed standards on safety and health in agriculture and to other technical cooperation activities and will be further developed in the framework of the InFocus Programme on SafeWork. The project focuses on awareness raising, information and training on occupational safety and health for rural workers, inspection services, health care personnel and extension workers. The network of trainers was chosen from each of the abovementioned institutions and relevant associations of rural workers. The target groups were trained as trainers and their instruction included the evaluation of working conditions, the enforcement of legislation through inspection, safety measures in the use of tools and machinery, the diagnosis of intoxications and the identification of other health hazards. The training programme was organized to contribute to the effective accomplishment of their ongoing tasks to avoid overlapping and to guarantee sustainability. A responsible person from each institution acted as a focal point to coordinate their participation in the project. The group of trainers was followed up by the ILO project on a monthly basis to discuss findings and to help with problem solving.

 A Code of practice on ambient factors at the workplace, adopted by a Meeting of Experts in January 1999, lays down provisions which should be considered as the basis for eliminating or controlling exposure to hazardous ambient factors at the workplace. Research and preparatory work were also undertaken with a view to developing codes of practice on safety in the use of insulation wools and on occupational safety and health management systems.

Safety and health information

An important focus of the ILO's work in the field of occupational safety and health continued to be the acquisition and dissemination of information. These efforts centred on the International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre (CIS) and its network of over 120 National and Collaborating Centres. CIS responds to queries from ILO constituents and publishes material in several forms.

The fourth edition of the Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety was published in print and CD-ROM versions and promoted through its own website.⁽⁵⁾ The Encyclopaedia was translated into Spanish during the biennium. Work was also commenced on its translation into Chinese, French, Japanese and Russian.

The bimonthly Safety and Health at Work: ILO-CIS Bulletin was revitalized during the course of the biennium and now includes special supplements, such as the global estimates of fatal occupational accidents which were featured at the World Congress.⁽⁶⁾ African and Asian-Pacific Newsletters on Occupational Health and Safety also continued to be produced, with one issue of each newsletter containing an editorial by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. International hazard data sheets on occupations were prepared in collaboration with national experts, following the proven model of the International Chemical Safety Cards, and made available through the CIS network.
 

National Safety Week in Viet Nam In May 1999, the ILO helped the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalidity and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to organize a National Safety Week as part of its national occupational safety and health information programme. During National Safety Week, which was modelled on a similar event in Thailand: the week was opened in Hanoi by the Vice Prime Minister; events were organized in a total of 61 provinces; participating cities were decorated with flags and posters; central and local television and other media followed the events; many employers throughout the country organized special activities, such as safety and health training; participation throughout the country was estimated at 5 million people; and mechanisms for interdepartmental coordination were established at the national and provincial levels, including the labour and health ministries, and police and fire services. In July 1999 the Government issued a Decree making National Safety Week an annual event.

Harmonization of information on chemical safety

As part of the follow-up to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the ILO continued to play a leading role in international efforts to achieve the environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals. In a globalizing world in which hazardous chemicals are crossing national frontiers in rapidly increasing volume, the emphasis was placed on the development of clear and standardized information on the properties of chemical substances and on a universally harmonized system for the classification and labelling of chemicals.

Within the framework of the WHO/ILO/UNEP International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), the ILO continued to manage the preparation, translation and dissemination of International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSCs), which provide a clear summary of essential health and safety information on chemical substances for use at the workplace and for inspection purposes. These cards are all subject to peer review by experts from around 20 national institutions. The full collection of 1,200 ICSCs currently exists in Chinese, English, Finnish, French, German, Japanese, Spanish and Swahili. Partial collections are available in almost 30 languages. The cards are disseminated through the Internet and in CD-ROM and hard-copy versions.

The widespread use made of the cards is illustrated by the numbers of requests received from individual enterprises and users when new cards are approved, requests for assistance with translation and the numbers of users through the Internet. Assistance is currently being provided for their translation into Portuguese (Brazil), Hindi, Bangla and Tamil. The cards, which are available on the website of the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, account for a significant proportion of the visits to the Institute's site.

A longer term activity consists of the continuing development of the globally harmonized system for the classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS). This project, which was initiated by the ILO in 1990, places emphasis on broad collaboration between the competent international organizations and a very wide-ranging approval process of the proposed standards by over 300 experts worldwide representing the major stakeholders.

Experience in such areas as international hazard symbols and the harmonization of practices for the transportation of dangerous goods shows that, although universal standards take time to be accepted and broadly implemented, they contribute greatly to improving safety. The GHS is planned to be completed as a non-binding standard by the end of 2000, when the implementation phase will begin.

Conditions of work

Maternity protection

The ILO's efforts to improve the protection of working mothers centred on the revision of the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103), and Recommendation, 1952 (No. 95), which were examined in their first discussion by the Conference in June 1999. During the preparatory work for the revision of these instruments, replies were received by the Office from a large number of member States and employers' and workers' organizations. Many of the replies emphasized the need to develop instruments providing effective protection for the largest possible number of women in different national situations and at different levels of development.

Working time and occupational safety and health

The importance of working time as an issue for workers' protection has long been recognized and yet the relationship between working time patterns and the safety, health and well-being of workers is not widely understood. A study was undertaken during the biennium examining the impact on workers of shift and night work, overtime, annual hours of work, hours averaging and irregular hours. It takes account of the costs and benefits, for both employers and workers, of particular patterns of working time and proposes intervention strategies and practical recommendations for the management of working time.

The discussions leading to the probable adoption of new maternity protection standards in the year 2000, coming at a time when women's social and economic roles are being transformed, have sparked considerable interest. Women today tend to remain economically active throughout their childbearing years and their financial contribution to household income has become essential to the well-being of families. Indeed, maternity protection is coming to be more widely viewed as a condition of equality in employment. These debates have also focused attention on the uneven protection currently in place.
 

Maternity protection The Conference Committee on Maternity Protection decided that the new instruments should take the form of a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation. The Committee proposed that the new Convention should apply to all employed women, allowing, however, for the exclusion of limited categories of workers. It would set a minimum period of maternity leave (not less than 12 weeks), a portion of which would be compulsory. Leave would also be provided in the case of maternity-related illness or complications. Cash and medical benefits would be provided. Employment protection would cover the woman's pregnancy, absence on leave and a period following her return to work, but would not be absolute. Members would take measures to ensure that maternity does not constitute a source of discrimination. Women would be entitled to daily breaks for breastfeeding. The proposed Recommendation would encourage the extension of maternity leave to at least 16 weeks. Extension of leave was also recommended in the case of multiple births. The instrument would contain additional provisions on maternity benefits, and recommendations for financing those benefits. It would also provide for further protection in respect of employment and discrimination, health protection for any woman employed in work which could be prejudicial to her health or to that of her child, and related types of leave.

Work Improvements in Small Enterprises (WISE) programme

The ILO's Work Improvements in Small Enterprises (WISE) methodology has proven to be very effective in introducing simple, low-cost improvements in the working conditions in small enterprises. It continued to be implemented in several countries worldwide, and particularly in the Philippines, where it has been institutionalized as official policy. Training programmes were organized for its introduction in other countries, including six English-speaking African countries as well as other countries in Asia and Central and South America.

Efforts are now being made to adapt the materials to the specific needs of different types of small-scale enterprise. An action manual was published ⁽⁷⁾ and is being translated into French and Spanish.

The methodology was adapted during the biennium to reach two major and hard-to-reach categories of workers, namely small-scale farmers and informal sector workers. A methodology and practical materials -- Work Improvements in Neighbourhood Development (WIND) -- were prepared and tested in pilot programmes to help workers in small farms to improve their working and living conditions. Similar steps were taken to assist workers in the informal sector and micro-enterprises through the formulation of the Work Improvement and Development of Entrepreneurship (WIDE) methodology.
 

Work Improvement and Development of Entrepreneurship (WIDE) The WIDE programme aimed to integrate the concepts developed under the ILO's Improve Your Business and Work Improvements in Small Enterprises programmes, and apply these to micro-enterprises and the informal sector in various countries in the Asian region. Micro-entrepreneurs were mostly quick to respond, by actually implementing in their businesses some of the ideas they gained. The ideas for improvements in working conditions that were implemented were concrete and with clear benefits, quick to implement, low-cost or no-cost, and linked to another aspect of business improvement. For example, several home-based shoe manufacturers allocated a specific location in their houses as workplaces, moved dust-producing machines away from living areas, stored glues away from the reach of their children and arranged shoe lasts and finished products on shoe racks. The enterprise development suggestions that entrepreneurs implemented quickly were those that were easy and had an immediate effect on profits or on the entrepreneurs' understanding of their business. For example, a number of businesses moved to new locations for greater visibility and accessibility to their customers, and reported strong sales growth. Others improved inventory management and financial record-keeping. Making easy changes which produced immediate benefits encouraged entrepreneurs to attempt more complicated or costly changes.

Social initiatives by enterprises

Some companies are now recognizing that protecting their workers' welfare can help reduce turnover and absenteeism, improve morale and productivity, and ultimately boost profitability. As a means of persuading corporations that they can do more and do better in protecting and promoting their workers' welfare, advocacy can therefore have significant impact in promoting voluntary initiatives by enterprises that improve labour protection.

An action programme was undertaken during the biennium to promote social initiatives by enterprises to enhance worker protection and welfare. Research focused on good practice by enterprises in a variety of sectoral and geographical contexts, highlighting three areas of good practice: assessing workers' perception ("pulse-taking") at the workplace; helping workers integrate work and family concerns; and promoting employee assistance programmes (EAPs), particularly with respect to alcohol and drugs and HIV/AIDS.

The research found that these initiatives tend to be bundled together and are directly linked to a corporate philosophy which recognizes workers as a valuable resource. Several case studies on what constitutes good practice were also carried out and highlighted the strategic importance of such initiatives for both the workers and the company.

Violence at work

One of the ILO publications which received the widest publicity in the media during the biennium was on the subject of violence at work.⁽⁸⁾ A series of tragedies, such as the massacre at Dunblane School in the United Kingdom, had already focused attention on the issue. In addition, the violence suffered by workers in sectors such as transport, health care and hotels and tourism has been receiving steadily greater publicity. Meetings with the press and special workshops gave the publication a high-profile launch, resulting in requests for advisory services from several countries, as well as from the European Union.

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The publication examines the causes of violence at work and suggests ways of preventing it. Best practices in the field of prevention are highlighted. During the biennium, constituents in many countries and sectors were quick to take action and a second edition of the publication was prepared towards the end of 1999 to take into account the additional experience acquired and the progress made in developing preventive action over the short period since the appearance of the first edition. A French version of the report was also published. Reflecting these developments, the ILO also compiled and published an annotated bibliography on violence at work and drew up a list of key websites which have been found to provide accurate, reliable and contemporary information about this subject.

Drug and alcohol abuse prevention programmes

Promoting a healthy workforce

The past two or three biennia have seen growing recognition, at least in certain countries and among experts, of two important aspects of drug and alcohol abuse. These are, firstly, that substance abuse is a very important workplace problem, often accounting for between 20 and 25 per cent of work-related accidents and causing high rates of ill-health and absenteeism; and secondly that, with some two-thirds of alcohol and drug abusers in employment, consensual action by the social partners is a particularly effective instrument in addressing the issue.

The ILO code of practice

The ILO's Code of practice on the management of alcohol- and drug-related issues in the workplace, adopted in 1995,⁽⁹⁾ has played a seminal role in developing a broadening consensus on a number of important principles in this field. These include:

• the importance of addressing the problem through partnerships at work and in the community, particularly between employers' and workers' organizations;
• the need to regard substance abuse problems as a health issue; and
• the emphasis which should be placed on prevention, assistance and the rehabilitation of abusers.

Many of these principles were included in the United Nations Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction, adopted by the Special Session of the General Assembly on the World Drug Problem in June 1998. The code of practice also inspired the development of prevention campaigns at the national level, for example in the United Kingdom.
 

A national prevention programme One of the participants at the 1995 meeting which adopted the ILO Code of practice on the management of alcohol- and drug-related issues in the workplace used the code as an instrument to promote a business-community prevention programme in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, focusing on drugs, alcohol and other health hazards among the workforce. The recently launched national programme was in turn modelled on the Manchester initiative. The national programme is based on courses for company and community trainers. Its objective is to educate the entire United Kingdom workforce on the dangers of substance abuse.

International partners

Through its partnerships with international and regional agencies, and particularly with the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), WHO, the Council of Europe and the European Union, the ILO was able to contribute to several developments during the biennium.

Supporting action at the national level

The ILO also took a leading role in a series of projects to introduce prevention and assistance programmes in over 100 large and small enterprises in various countries throughout the world. In general, the enterprises involved have made a striking shift towards primary prevention. In several of the countries concerned, including Poland and Namibia, the projects led to the creation of associations of human resource managers against drug abuse, which have been instrumental in replicating preventive action on a broader scale at the national level.

An ILO/UNDCP project in six Central and Eastern European countries led to the establishment of tripartite advisory boards and national teams for project implementation. These bodies have provided an important stimulus for action at the national and enterprise levels. Several of the enterprises involved in Ukraine have reported that, instead of their previous reliance on disciplinary measures to combat drunkenness at work, they have found prevention to be both more effective and less costly. Some enterprises in Slovenia have reported a decline in absenteeism and sick leave following the introduction of prevention programmes.
 

Prevention programmes in India As part of a joint ILO/UNDCP project in India, selected NGOs were trained in the community-based rehabilitation of drug addicts. A total of 18 model programmes, incorporating self-employment programmes for the social integration of recovering addicts, were set up in nine Indian cities. In addition, 12 enterprises, including the Karnataka State Transport Corporation, developed and adopted policies and prevention programmes in consultation with workers' representatives. The introduction of consensual programmes focusing on prevention and on the rehabilitation of substance abusers constituted an innovation in India. It resulted in proposals for amendments to the national legislation and changes in the Government's policy in this field, with a view to the widespread replication of the pilot activities.

Bringing together experts and the social partners

Over 200 representatives of employers' and workers' organizations, public authorities and NGOs met in Sundsvall, Sweden, in May 1999, at the Fourth International Private Sector Conference on Drugs in the Workplace and the Community. The participants agreed upon an action plan, the main feature of which is the development of networks and partnerships at the regional and local levels to kick-start preventive programmes in the workplace and the community. The networking will be supported by ILO activities, including the database on drug and alcohol prevention programmes set up during the biennium.

Recent research

In view of the importance of consolidating knowledge in a comparatively new discipline, the ILO collaborated with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse to review research work. One of the main findings of recent research is that performance impairment can be caused by even fairly low quantities of alcohol or drugs. Moreover, even though heavy drinkers and dependent drug users constitute the biggest risk factors, the majority of workplace problems attributable to substance misuse are caused by moderate or occasional drinkers, who are much more numerous than problem users.

The findings of the review confirm the need for broad-based and consensual prevention policies. Despite the progress which has been made, the review also emphasizes the tremendous amount of work that is still needed to raise awareness of this widespread problem and ensure that effective prevention measures are implemented as broadly as possible.

Social security

Reviewing social security principles and standards

While priority continued to be given during the biennium to improving the understanding and application of the ILO's social security standards, it was recognized that changes in society and economic developments had resulted in the principles governing social security being challenged in a number of countries. An initial analysis was therefore carried out of these principles to identify aspects which require further examination and this will be developed into a comprehensive review leading to the possible formulation of options for revision of ILO social security standards. This matter will be a specific topic of discussion at the International Labour Conference in 2001.

Guidance on the underlying principles of social security was also provided through two major publications. The first of these was the World Labour Report, which points out that income security is derived from many sources and that, in the developed world, the volume of transfers in the form of income security measures has reached nearly 25 per cent of GDP.⁽¹⁰⁾ Although many are concerned about its cost, it should be remembered that social protection systems play a vital role in guaranteeing social stability. They help to raise productivity in a variety of ways and constitute a vital element in containing the insecurity unleashed by liberalization and globalization.

The most urgent challenge to be addressed is the need to extend social protection systems to cover the large proportion of the population which does not have access to social security systems.⁽¹¹⁾ Hopes that, in due course, the models of social protection developed in the industrialized countries would also spread to the developing world have been disappointed and long delayed. It is necessary to address this issue, which can no longer wait upon the general drift of economic growth. The social security institutions which exist in developing countries must therefore be assisted in improving their management, benefit levels and, above all, their coverage of the population.

Another possibility considered was the development among those working in the informal sector of contributory self-administered schemes. These would essentially be in the form of micro-insurance schemes based on the principles of solidarity and risk-pooling, but providing basic social protection to meet priority needs identified by the members in return for an agreed small contribution. Such schemes were particularly suited to coverage of health care but were still innovative and there were many practical problems that needed to be addressed before they could become widespread.
 

Conclusions of the World Labour Report The World Labour Report reached a number of policy conclusions on the future of income security and social protection, which may be briefly summarized as follows: the greatest challenge is to extend the coverage of social protection to the large proportion of the population in developing countries who are not yet covered, through the extension of existing schemes, as well as through the development of special schemes for the self-employed and workers in the informal sector; the need for good governance, based on the sound design of social security schemes and the establishment of suitable institutional arrangements through which insured persons can participate in their management; the link between social protection and gender, with the improvement of income security for women leading to greater equality between women and men, both in the home and in the labour market; the affordability and positive economic effects of social protection, which plays a major role in guaranteeing social stability, especially in times of rapid change; and the benefits of increased participation by insured persons, who can ensure that the schemes reflect the needs and aspirations of those whom they are designed to serve.

A publication was also prepared, in the context of an action programme, on the reform and management of pension schemes, based on a set of policy papers which were produced and discussed with social security experts in seminars in each region. It was expected that this book would become a standard reference for all social security planners and managers.⁽¹²⁾

Strategies and Tools against Social Exclusion and Poverty (STEP)

The major innovation during the biennium in the ILO's activities in the field of social security was the launching of the Strategies and Tools against Social Exclusion and Poverty (STEP) programme. STEP focuses on combating social exclusion and extending social protection to the very large percentage of the population in developing and many transition countries which is currently outside the scope of more traditional social protection schemes.

There is a growing realization and consensus that the extension of social protection to excluded categories of the population cannot be achieved on the basis of traditional social security systems alone. There is therefore an urgent need for innovation, experimentation and the reform of policies and strategies in this area. STEP made a start during the biennium in developing and disseminating innovative methods of social protection capable of reconciling economic efficiency with social solidarity, and of combining social justice, good management and economic realism. 

The approach adopted by STEP is based on the active participation of civil society and excluded workers in defining and implementing appropriate forms of social protection. For this purpose a programme strategy has been adopted comprising:

• the development of knowledge of the most significant innovations around the world, with the identification of practical lessons and the preparation of methodological and training tools;  

• the provision of services to constituents, including advisory services, the development of projects, the organization of training and the promotion of dialogue and networks;  

• advocacy in the international debate on the future and extension of social protection systems; and  

• the development of strategic partnerships with other international organizations and the broad range of players concerned, including governments, the social partners, community organizations and civil society, donors, the private sector, research centres, NGOs and local authorities.

By the end of the biennium, some ten donors had agreed to contribute around US$16 million to support the activities of STEP.
 

STEP research project on social exclusion STEP's project for social economy research in developing countries to confront poverty and social exclusion contributes to the research component of STEP's overall knowledge development. In this respect, "social economy" refers to the activities of entities such as cooperatives, mutual societies and other non profit-making organizations applying the following principles: quality of service to their members or communities, rather than profit; managerial autonomy; democratic decision-making processes; and the primacy of people and labour over capital in the distribution of income. The project's main themes for research encompass the following three aspects: strengthening the concept of the social economy as it appears in the developing countries, including the impact and effectiveness of the social economy; research into local development strategies and how they involve a thorough understanding of the need to use a grass-roots approach; promoting micro-insurance through solidarity and community-orientation in order to reach the poor and socially excluded effectively. All three themes include gender as a cross-cutting feature.

The STEP programme and the global network called Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) co-organized a workshop on "Social Protection for Women in the Informal Sector" in December 1999 with participation by practitioners, researchers and policy-makers from governments, the social partners, development agencies, civil society and research institutions. The workshop identified gaps in, and priorities for, future programmes and formulated recommendations that will be incorporated in an action plan by ILO/STEP and WIEGO.
 

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) The recommendations resulting from an international workshop on social protection for women in the informal sector, held in December 1999, covered the following: continued research on best practice, viability and replication values of existing micro-insurance schemes open to women and men workers in the informal sector; development of partnership between structures working for the extension of social protection (governments, employers' organizations, trade unions, civil society, research communities and development agencies); capacity building for women in the informal sector to empower their participation in policy decisions at local, regional and national levels about their rights to social protection services; gender-sensitive socio-political analysis of the extension of social protection to informal sector workers; concrete linkages between STEP's activities on extending social protection to workers in the informal sector and other ILO programmes working in this area, in particular with workers' activities programmes; dissemination of information materials, research findings and training materials though ILO/STEP and WIEGO's networks; enhancement of regional information and exchange programmes on awareness building; development of the knowledge base on insurance schemes aimed at informal sector workers.

Micro-insurance and mutual funds

Many of the activities carried out under the STEP programme have focused on the concept of micro-insurance, particularly in the form of community-based mutual funds for social protection. A regional programme, based in Dakar, for the development of mutual health and other funds in West Africa was launched in collaboration with the organizational and cooperative support to grass-roots initiatives (ACOPAM) programme. In this context, case studies ⁽¹³⁾ were carried out and a regional seminar was held in Abidjan, which developed the Abidjan Platform. A network was also established of partners in the region who are active in fighting exclusion, particularly in the field of access to primary health care in Africa. Financing was obtained for projects in 11 African countries, which will be implemented between 1999 and 2003.
 

STEP projects in Africa, 1999-2003 Social inclusion in Portuguese-speaking Africa and in Portugal This project aims to replicate and disseminate the promising experience acquired by Portugal through its National Programme to Fight Poverty and to strengthen local development in the field of social inclusion in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe. Experience will be exchanged through a website, a newsletter, a discussion forum, case studies, workshops and teaching materials. The project will provide technical support to different field workers and local development agencies in the field of social protection for the excluded and pilot projects will be undertaken in favour of excluded populations. STEP in West Africa A regional project is being implemented in West Africa to promote the right of women to social protection, notably affordable and improved health services, with emphasis on reproductive health care. Activities will be conducted in Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea (Conakry) and Senegal. The project will contribute to enhancing the capacity of women and adolescent girls in the informal sector, through selected women's organizations, to set up and manage their own micro-health insurance schemes, which will give them power vis-à-vis the local health providers to negotiate their own terms for the purchase of health care. The project includes awareness-raising activities for health providers, decision-makers in governments and national/international development agencies which are involved in planning and implementing basic health services. The innovative use of the micro-health insurance system as a tool to increase women's contribution to the improvement of quality health care will be documented and disseminated to other countries. Partnership with United Nations/international development agencies is key to the project's implementation strategy. Within the framework of the Bamako initiative, launched by UNICEF and WHO, the project builds on promoting more accessible and affordable health care through the involvement of local communities. By working in partnerships and using participatory approaches, the project promotes solidarity and encourages the mobilization of ideas designed to influence development thinking. The project is executed in collaboration with WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and UNDP. At the national level, the project activities are being identified and jointly implemented with ministries of health, social affairs and women's affairs and a number of NGOs working in the field of social protection.  Lévé Débouté The level of economic development in Rodrigues Island (Mauritius) has lagged behind the high growth rates recorded for Mauritius Island. As a result, socially excluded people are widespread throughout the island and a large part of the population faces major problems caused by declining productivity in agriculture and fishing. The project known as Lévé Débouté aims to improve the living and working conditions in the poor segment of the Rodriguan population by enabling the poorest communities to take care of their own development needs. Local economic development will be stimulated through participatory social and income-generating activities. The project will concentrate initially on ten selected villages classified as the poorest of the poor. The successful results of these activities will be extended to 20 villages throughout the island. The project will help the rural populations, and particularly the excluded, and their self-help organizations to gain access to technical and financial tools in order to promote income-generating activities. The active participation of all the key players is the underlying theme of the project.

Activities for the promotion of micro-insurance concepts were also being developed at the end of the biennium in Latin America and Asia. In Latin America, a major regional initiative was launched in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) with a view to extending social protection in the field of health care. The initiative began with a diagnostic phase and a study of innovative social protection systems and led up to the holding of a regional tripartite meeting in Mexico City in November-December 1999, at which a series of working papers was presented.⁽¹⁴⁾ The ILO and PAHO also presented a joint position paper.⁽¹⁵⁾ The participants at the meeting agreed on a regional action plan, which focuses on:

• the joint work of the two organizations in the field of social protection in health with a view to establishing health systems based on the principles of equity, efficiency, solidarity, responsibility and sustainability;
• the need for further research at the national and regional levels on social exclusion and the extension of social protection in health;
• the identification of local initiatives for the extension of social protection in health;
• the dissemination at the national and international levels of the results of the meeting; and
• the execution of activities taking into account social dialogue and participation of all the interested parties.

 Financing was also obtained for pilot projects in Haiti and Chile.

A similar initiative will be launched in Asia in 2000, for which some project development activities were carried out towards the end of the biennium.

Technical assistance for the development of social security schemes

Technical assistance was provided to constituents in over 40 countries. A special area of focus was South-East Asia, where the financial crisis exposed weaknesses in the social protection systems, including their limited population coverage; the absence of income security for the poor, the unemployed and the old; and the tendency to rely on lump-sum benefits rather than periodic payments. A number of reviews were carried out and several countries have taken steps, with ILO support, to improve matters. In Thailand, a feasibility study was completed relating to the possible introduction of unemployment insurance benefit schemes. This study showed that such schemes could be introduced at a cost of only 2.5 per cent of the payroll to provide benefit at 50 per cent of previous earnings for 12 months for insured workers who become involuntarily unemployed. The effectiveness of such schemes is, however, dependent on administrative capacity. A linkage would need to be made between benefit entitlement and the employment services to ensure that beneficiaries identify and seek work opportunities.
 

Strengthening social protection in Malaysia Following the Asian financial crisis, the ILO provided assistance to Malaysia to examine the possibility of extending the scope and level of its social security benefits. The proposals which have been developed and costed include: the partial conversion of the provident fund system, which provides lump-sum payments based on predetermined contributions to pension schemes, into schemes providing pensions throughout the contingencies of old age, death of the breadwinner (survivors' pensions) and disability, in accordance with the relevant ILO standards; and the extension of income security schemes to cover the self-employed for the contingencies of disability, death and employment injury.

The social impact of the crisis was particularly severe in Indonesia, where the social protection system is both limited and subject to a range of governance and structural weaknesses. As a consequence of a comprehensive review of the social security schemes, in which the ILO has played a major role, a consensus is emerging among policy-makers and the social partners, based on proposals for a major restructuring of formal sector schemes. Special attention will also be given to the need to develop schemes for the informal sector.

New social security systems designed with the ILO's assistance were introduced in Namibia and the United Republic of Tanzania, and are awaiting implementation in Botswana, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Zambia. Major projects to reform the administration of social security systems were commenced in Gabon and Cameroon. At the request of France, a report was also produced analysing strategic planning and consultative processes for social security reform in various industrialized countries.⁽¹⁶⁾

Training for social security planners and managers is both an important component of technical assistance programmes and a significant activity in its own right. In this respect, a set of training manuals has been prepared and published on social security principles, administration and financing and pensions and a final manual on social health insurance, and a trainers' guide will shortly be published to complete the set. The manuals are in English but will be published in French and Spanish in the near future. They are intended to assist social security administrators in developing training programmes.

Financial and actuarial evaluation

The viability of national social protection systems depends largely on the sound financial management of individual social protection schemes, such as pension and health care schemes, as well as of the system as a whole, including unemployment benefit and social assistance schemes. The ILO continued to provide assistance to constituents in order to improve the quantitative governance of their social protection schemes through advisory services, the development of tools for quantitative management and capacity-building activities.

Around 30 countries benefited from technical cooperation or advisory activities during the biennium. The assistance provided ranged from short diagnostic or advisory missions to traditional actuarial or financial evaluations of pensions and other social security schemes. In certain cases, such as those of Panama, Poland and Ukraine, complex social budget exercises were undertaken to analyse the overall financial situation of national social protection systems and their likely future development. The majority of these activities included a training component with a view to the transfer of the respective quantitative evaluation technology to constituents.
 

Introduction of the social budget model in Poland The ILO's social budgeting methodology was transferred to Poland during the course of 1998. The Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy had signed an agreement with the Gdansk Institute for Market Economics making it responsible for developing the model, implementing it in the Ministry and maintaining it in the future. A working group of specialists and researchers was established to build the model and develop its various modules, which were fine-tuned and linked at a two-week workshop held in the Turin Centre in the summer of 1998. The Polish social budget model was installed in the Ministry of Labour at the beginning of 1999 and has already been applied in order to: analyse the social policy consequences of various economic and fiscal scenarios prepared by the Ministry of Finance; simulate the medium-term developments in social expenditure resulting from the reforms in pension and health care financing introduced at the beginning of 1999; and simulate the financial and social consequences of various options for the adjustment of benefit policy. The introduction of the model in Poland fulfilled the three conditions which, in the ILO's experience, have to be met to ensure a viable outcome. These are: the commitment by the Government to the implementation and institutionalization of medium- and long-term planning of overall social expenditure and its financing; the major role played by national experts in the development and maintenance of quantitative tools; and the commissioning of the development work to a national research institution in cases where the government agencies responsible for social protection policy and its financing are understaffed. Following the implementation of the project, Polish experts are now introducing the techniques in the Republic of Moldova and Lithuania, and are expected to do so in Estonia in the near future.

Internet version of the social budget model

One of the highlights of the biennium in this field was the publication on the ILO's website of the first generic version of the ILO social budget model, which is a unique and innovative tool for the analysis of national social protection systems. This tool is now freely available over the Internet to all interested social security practitioners and researchers. Some 30 institutions have signed licensing agreements with the ILO for the use of its software in this field. The results of ILO social budget exercises are currently also being used as a basis for debates on the reform of social protection in such countries as Panama and Ukraine. In Ukraine, legislation has been adopted making the establishment of a social budget a formal requirement in the government budgeting process. The ILO is also providing assistance for the establishment of a social budget unit in the Ministry of Labour.

In collaboration with the International Social Security Association (ISSA), a start was made on compiling a series of textbooks on quantitative methods in social protection. The series is intended as a type of encyclopaedia on the subject, which it is hoped will become standard reading for social protection practitioners.⁽¹⁷⁾

Equality for women in employment

This section draws together a number of the activities carried out to promote equality of treatment for women workers, particularly as a follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995). However, the gender dimension became increasingly mainstreamed during the biennium throughout the work of the ILO, and gender issues are therefore addressed in the activities described in each part of the report.

The dissemination of information was furthered through the revision and updating of a guide to women workers' rights and gender equality,⁽¹⁸⁾ as well the preparation of training materials.⁽¹⁹⁾ A compendium was also produced of ILO programmes and projects which are either specific to women or contain a gender component.⁽²⁰⁾

Towards the end of the biennium, a number of activities were organized in preparation for the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly devoted to Beijing +5, to be held in the year 2000. In addition to participating in the preparatory meetings organized by the United Nations regional commissions on this subject, specific meetings were held by the ILO in a number of regions covering Beijing +5 and Copenhagen +5 to be held in Geneva in June 2000. A paper was prepared at the end of the biennium on the ILO's contribution to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Mainstreaming gender issues throughout the work of the ILO

The process of mainstreaming gender issues throughout the work of the ILO was given the highest priority with the arrival of the new Director-General. In only his second address after taking up office, on the occasion of International Women's Day (8 March 1999), Mr. Somavia pledged to speed up the pace of and strengthen the commitment to gender mainstreaming in the ILO, both within its own walls and through its global activities. He has also insisted that, in formulating its policies and programmes, the ILO must combine the principles of gender equality and equity to combat persistent problems of discrimination.

During the process of restructuring the Office, a concerted effort was therefore made to strengthen gender mainstreaming in all aspects of the ILO's work, thus substantially increasing the potential of its activities to promote equitable development. Significant efforts were made in the closing months of the biennium to reinforce this strategy through gender training and capacity-building activities.

The ILO Action Plan on Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in the ILO:
Institutionalizing gender issues within the ILO

One of the means by which the ILO had ensured that gender issues were included in its work in previous biennia had been the gender focal point system. A research project was carried out in 1998 with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), based on questionnaires and interviews with the focal points, to evaluate the system and develop recommendations on how to improve the integration of gender concerns throughout ILO activities and practices. The consensus among focal points at headquarters and in the regions was that gender mainstreaming needed to be institutionalized as an Office-wide strategy.

Based on these activities and the findings of the research project, task teams were set up to develop an Action Plan on Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in the ILO. The action plan was adopted by the Director-General and the Senior Management Team in December 1999 after broad consultation. The plan lays out the institutional framework for establishing gender as a cross-cutting issue within the ILO's four strategic objectives, and comprises the following main elements:

• strengthen institutional arrangements for gender mainstreaming;
• introduce accountability and monitoring mechanisms and allocate adequate resources for gender mainstreaming;
• build up staff competence on gender issues; and
• improve the gender balance among staff at all levels.

The time frame for the plan is approximately two years (2000-01), although many items will be carried into the following biennium. It will be evaluated on a six-monthly basis and revised as necessary.

The implementation of the plan requires coordinated efforts throughout the Office. At the heart of the plan is making the ILO's knowledge base, services and advocacy work truly reflect the realities of men's and women's experiences and their strategic gender needs, thus improving the quality of the ILO's output.

Gender issues at the International Labour Conference

At the 86th Session of the International Labour Conference, held in June 1998, a gathering was organized with a panel discussion on women's participation in ILO meetings. The discussions clearly showed that, although some progress has been made in this area, much remains to be done to improve the situation of women in the work of the ILO.

At the 87th Session of the Conference in 1999, the event was upgraded to an Informal Tripartite Meeting at the MinisterialLevel on "Let's make gender equality a reality". The meeting was opened by Ms. R. Dreifuss, President of the Swiss Confederation, and the speakers included ministers, representatives of employers' and workers' organizations and the Chairperson of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

There was broad consensus on the importance of gender as a cross-cutting issue and of gender mainstreaming as a strategy for achieving equality. The speakers also emphasized the important role of governments and employers' and workers' organizations in promoting equality between men and women in a context of rapid globalization.

Training and information dissemination on women workers' rights

An interregional project on training and dissemination of information on women workers' rights continued to be implemented in 1998 and part of 1999. The project covered ten countries (China, Egypt, El Salvador, Hungary, India, Mali, Suriname, Ukraine, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe). In the countries concerned, national tripartite steering committees were set up and a tripartite-plus participative process, involving the social partners, women's associations and other institutions of civil society, set in motion to develop and implement joint action plans for the promotion of women workers' rights and gender equality.

Groups of trainers and resource persons were established from counterpart agencies. The ILO's training package on women workers' rights was translated and adapted to national conditions and needs,⁽²¹⁾ and posters, leaflets and other information and awareness-raising materials were developed. After the programme came to an end in March 1999, the institutions set up in many of the participating countries continued to function.
 

Interregional project on training and information dissemination on women workers' rights: Examples of impacts in China, El Salvador, India and Suriname China The former project coordinator maintained regular contact with the members of the steering committee after the project terminated in February 1998. The Ministry of Labour continued to exchange views with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the China Enterprise Directors' Association (CEDA) and the All China Women's Federation (ACWF) in follow-up to common initiatives concerning female workers who had been laid off. All members of the committee organized specific workshops on issues related to women workers and gender equality in their specific target groups. The Ministry of Labour established a coordination group on women workers in August 1998, responsible for collecting information and providing guidance to local labour departments and bureaux. The ACFTU adapted the modular training package produced by the project to its needs, reproduced it and disseminated it among local trade unions. CEDA produced and distributed several brochures presenting the ILO's view on women workers' rights to its female entrepreneur members. El Salvador The members of the steering committee maintained frequent informal contact amongst themselves and with the project coordinator after the project ended in March 1998. El Salvador's steering committee was the only one from the interregional project which formulated a fully fledged follow-up project proposal. However, the lack of financial resources made it difficult to maintain more formal links for common activities. The Ministry of Labour distributed the brochures on women workers' rights produced within the framework of the project. Officials (mostly labour inspectors) trained by the project from this Ministry, and from the Ministry of the Interior, maintained their activities. India After the project activities terminated in April 1999, the project coordinator received a remarkable amount of positive feedback in appreciation of the training package, the bibliography on women workers' rights and the publicity material, from trade unions, research foundations, institutes of labour studies, institutes for rural development, gender resource centres and other women's NGOs, as well as from various associations of professional women. All of these institutions were using these materials in their work. Meanwhile, the training package on women workers' rights was translated from English into Hindi and Kannada. Suriname The steering committee set up by the project continued to meet at the request of the Ministry of Labour in order to: implement the workplan drafted at the end of the project in November 1998; discuss a wide range of gender issues of priority to the country, from the impact of globalization to specific cases of sexual harassment; and share information on forthcoming events, including ILO seminars. The individual members of the steering committee continued to be actively involved in women workers' rights and gender equality issues. Some of them participated in advisory boards and contributed actively to gender projects and seminars of the ILO, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and national organizations. Others took part in commissions dealing with such issues as the preparation of an interpellation proposal on sexual harassment at work to be presented to the National Assembly. The training module on women workers' rights was used in the training of personnel of several departments of the Ministry of Labour. There were many requests for the brochure "Female employees know your rights" produced by the project.

 

Interregional project on training and information dissemination on women workers' rights: Recommendations for the promotion of women workers' rights in Ukraine The information materials published in Ukraine on women workers' rights include a number of recommendations to strengthen the observance of these rights. These include: completing the ratification by Ukraine of international and European human rights instruments, and in particular the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women; creating special agencies on the investigation of cases of human rights violations, including those of women's rights; educational and training activities relating to human rights and the observance of women's rights, with compulsory consideration of the gender factor; analysis of national legislation from the gender perspective, with a view to elaborating proposals on bringing the legislation on women's rights into conformity with international human rights standards; implementing the recommendations of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the relevant ILO Conventions; and media coverage of women's participation in social and economic transformations and decision-making.

Action against HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS has been emerging as a serious social and labour problem in the world, especially in Africa. The pandemic is impacting negatively on employment, especially in small-scale enterprises and the informal sector, and on the overall supply and quality of labour. Large sections of Africa's experienced labour force are decimated by the pandemic. The problem of child labour is exacerbated by the large number of orphaned children. Young women of childbearing age are especially affected, thereby worsening the social and economic situation of women. Social security systems are seriously threatened.

In response to a growing concern among African member States and a request made by the Labour and Social Affairs Commission of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the ILO organized a Regional Tripartite Workshop on Strategies to Tackle Social and Labour Implications of HIV/AIDS which took place in Windhoek, Namibia, in October 1999. In response to the demands and interests elicited by the Windhoek meeting, a number of informative and analytical documents were published.⁽²²⁾

Migrant workers

National policies on migrant workers have been placed under increased strain by the growing volume of unauthorized migration, the rise in xenophobia in migrant-receiving countries and anxieties about migration pressure. Arrangements for the management of migration which have proven effective in the past, such as bilateral agreements, are being increasingly bypassed by the complexities and problems involved in globalized markets, in which a large proportion of migration for employment is organized by profit-making commercial agents. Moreover, a greater volume of migration is taking place under clandestine conditions in order to evade the tighter restrictions which are being placed on the legal entry and employment of foreign workers.

The objective of ILO action in the field of international migration for employment is the design and implementation by constituents of policies and measures which provide effective protection to migrant workers, combat discrimination and improve the management of migrant flows, particularly in terms of reducing irregularities and integrating established migrants into their host societies. To this effect, ILO action focused on three main areas:

• evaluating the experience of the more advanced countries in using various policy instruments to manage migration and the integration of immigrants;
• developing a global database on international labour migration which can be accessed easily by constituents and the public at large; and
• providing technical support for a regional cooperation effort among countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the field of migration policy.

Immigration quota systems

Among the policy instruments that were examined during the biennium are immigration quota systems which aim to limit numbers and bring greater selectivity to bear in the admission of foreign workers; employers' sanctions intended to curb the employment of undocumented foreigners; and amnesties and regularization programmes which could remove the vulnerability of many to exploitation on account of lack of legal status. The experience of some countries in administering a quota system for the temporary admission of professional, technical and similar workers with a view to filling niches in the labour market has been instructive in showing how difficult it is to identify real shortages, to avoid fraud and to prevent discrimination against older workers and minorities. In the case of employers' sanctions, a comparative study of the experience of France, Germany and the United States reveals the importance of political support for the policy at local levels and the need for closer supervision of standards governing minimum wages and other terms and conditions of employment for all workers, regardless of nationality and immigration status.

Integration policies for migrant workers

Previous work on integration policies had included research on the difficulties faced by immigrants and minorities in gaining access to employment in industrialized economies. Studies conducted during the biennium in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States reveal that, despite the existence in every country of anti-discrimination policies and programmes, a very large proportion of immigrant and minority job applicants still encounter discrimination in access to jobs. The first and most common form of discrimination tends to occur in the first contact with the employer, when applicants of immigrant or minority origin are simply told that vacancies have already been filled. Those who manage to make it to interviews sometimes find that they are asked for additional qualifications, unlike national applicants. At a third level of discrimination, inferior jobs are offered to immigrants or ethnic minority workers compared to national applicants with equal qualifications.

What the ILO sought to develop from these studies are insights into how existing anti-discrimination policies and programmes might be strengthened by voluntary measures taken by employers and workers' organizations, including staff training, as well as by legislative measures.

Reports on this research will be presented at a High-level Meeting on Achieving Equality in Employment for Migrant Workers, to be held in Geneva in early March 2000. The meeting will seek to establish an inventory of anti-discrimination and equality-promotion measures in 13 advanced countries which have taken part in the programme, identify good practices for application elsewhere and help the ILO define the elements for a future action programme at the global level.

General Survey on migrant workers

A General Survey on the ILO's standards and activities relating to the protection of migrant workers was undertaken by the Committee of Experts in 1998.⁽²³⁾ On the whole, it was concluded that the relevant ILO standards (Conventions Nos. 97 and 143 and their accompanying Recommendations, Nos. 86 and 151) have fulfilled their role in orienting national laws and regulations in certain areas, including the organization of migration flows. However, the mechanisms for disseminating information between countries and to potential users could be strengthened. In some cases, difficulties in applying the Conventions are due to misunderstanding of some of their provisions. The objections raised by some countries centre on certain Articles, notably the right of migrant workers to be freely mobile in the labour market after two years of legal stay.

The points of divergence lie in key areas of the instruments: recruitment of migrant workers, rights afforded to those in an irregular situation and the principle of equality of opportunity and treatment. The review of national law and practice reveals some discrepancies between certain principles laid down in basic texts or ratified Conventions and the measures actually taken and applied to control migration flows. Moreover, protection of the fundamental rights of migrant workers in an irregular situation is illusory. The methods by which States carry out their obligation, under Article 3(a) of Convention No. 143, to "suppress clandestine movements of migrants for employment and illegal employment of migrants" are not specified in the Convention, but some of the measures taken in practice may, in certain circumstances, constitute violations of the fundamental rights of workers. Although measures to ensure equality of treatment between migrant workers and national workers as regards conditions of work, social security and access to social services seldom raise difficulties in principle, the same cannot be said for the promotion of equality of opportunity.

The General Survey also raised the issue of whether the ILO's instruments on migration for employment should be revised to adapt them to the current conditions of international labour migration, particularly in view of the feminization of migration for employment, the increase in temporary migration in place of migration for permanent settlement and the rise in the volume of illegal migration. This question was discussed by the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards in June 1999 and the Governing Body in November 1999.

Database on international labour migration

Information on migration for employment, and statistics in particular, is currently widely dispersed and not readily accessible. With a view to facilitating access to information and comparable statistics on international migration, a database was launched on the ILO's website in 1999. The on-line international labour migration (ILM) database, drawn from contributions from member States, contains information on legislation and statistics on migration trends. In addition to helping constituents manage migration issues more effectively, the ILM database should facilitate the work of international and regional agencies responsible for monitoring and reporting on international labour migration, making accessible to them a large body of quantitative information which is currently widely dispersed.

The ILO's work in the field of international labour migration has brought it recognition as one of the lead agencies in combating discrimination against migrant and ethnic minority workers. During the biennium, the ILO's collaboration with international agencies included chairing the inter-agency committee which organized the United Nations Technical Symposium on International Migration and Development, held in The Hague in June-July 1998. The symposium reviewed the effectiveness of policy approaches to managing migration, particularly in the context of implementing the Cairo Programme of Action.
 

Improving the rights of migrant workers from Central and Eastern European and the CIS countries in the European Union Over the past three years, the ILO has been implementing a technical cooperation project to strengthen the policy, implementation and research capacities of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) on international migration questions. In 1999, one of the studies carried out under the project addressed the question of what measures would be necessary to protect the nationals of CEECs who are working and living in the European Union (EU). The study pointed out that: although bilateral agreements between CEECs and the EU are still active, they will be of decreasing importance as new powers over immigration in general are exercised by the EU; CEECs would be well advised to make use of their association councils with the EU to promulgate subsidiary legislation in the form of decisions which improve the status of their migrant workers on the territory of the EU Member States; and both agreements and subsidiary legislation can include standstill clauses which prevent the diminution of rights of workers of third countries within the territory of the Member States.

Persons with disabilities

The number of persons with disabilities continues to increase. Some 10 per cent of the world's population of 6 billion are affected by disability. Many of those with the capacity to work are either unemployed or working under precarious or substandard conditions. The cost of providing benefits for this large and growing group would be enormous. It is therefore in both the social and the economic interests of society to invest in persons with disabilities so that they can more easily become active contributors to the community, rather than passive recipients of benefits.

The ILO's principal objective in this regard is greater respect for the rights of persons with disabilities and the development of a more supportive environment for their social and economic integration. The main guidance in this area is provided by the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention (No. 159), and Recommendation (No. 168), 1983. Convention No. 159 was ratified by Bahrain, Côte d'Ivoire, Kuwait, Madagascar, Mongolia, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe during the biennium, bringing the total number of ratifications up to 80 by the end of 1999. Several other member States, including Mexico and Ukraine, also indicated that they would ratify the Convention in the near future.

Based on the reports provided for the General Survey on Convention No. 159 and Recommendation No. 168 carried out by the Committee of Experts in 1997 and examined by the Conference in 1998, a study is being undertaken on national strategies and action to enhance the access of persons with disabilities to training and employment. It will explore the strong link that exists in many countries between vocational rehabilitation services and employment services. Governments are promoting the use by persons with disabilities of the services provided for the rest of the workforce and are taking affirmative action by encouraging employers to train workers with disabilities. Nevertheless, the study points out that, despite the progress made in many countries in terms of affirmative action and equality legislation, the unemployment rate for persons with disabilities is unacceptably high, and special consideration is often not given to the particular problems of women with disabilities.

Technical assistance and advice were provided to over 20 countries during the biennium to promote the ratification and application of Convention No. 159 in law and practice. Technical cooperation activities were also undertaken in a broad range of countries to build up national vocational rehabilitation systems, assist in the integration of trainees with disabilities into vocational training institutions for the general workforce and establish or develop community-based rehabilitation programmes. These included pilot projects to develop national vocational rehabilitation centres in the Russian Federation and Ukraine. A pilot project was also developed in Bosnia and Herzegovina covering the establishment of a national rehabilitation centre, the training of national instructors and the creation of employment-generation programmes, mainly for ex-combatants and civilians disabled as a result of armed conflict. Another project focused on the development of systems to help persons with disabilities in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam find employment.
 

Progress in the application of Convention No. 159 The countries which received technical assistance from the ILO during the biennium to promote the ratification and application of Convention No. 159 included: Argentina, where the Office's legal comments on a preliminary draft decree on the integration of persons with disabilities were under consideration at the end of the biennium; Colombia, where a national forum has developed the general framework of a national plan of action for the socio-economic integration of persons with disabilities, the detailed provisions of which are being formulated; Mexico, where a technical committee of the National Congress is examining the benefits of ratifying the Convention; and Trinidad and Tobago, where, with the encouragement of a national committee for persons with disabilities, the formalities for the ratification of the Convention are nearing completion.

 

Integration of persons with disabilities into vocational training systems Technical cooperation activities resulted in important progress being made in the integration of persons with disabilities into general vocational training systems in several countries, including: Brazil, where a model for the integration of persons with disabilities into the vocational training system has been developed and applied in one province, and a national model is under development; Colombia, where three regional models have been developed and a circular issued and budgetary provisions adopted for its application at the national level; and Uruguay, where national trade unions and associations of persons with disabilities have stimulated the creation of a joint body which is very active in ensuring that disability issues are integrated into national labour policies, through its participation in the tripartite National Labour Commission and the governing bodies of the social security system.

Code of practice on the management of disability --
Related issues in the workplace

In recognition of the increasing difficulties experienced by persons with disabilities in finding and keeping employment, a start was made during the biennium on the development of an ILO Code of practice on the management of disability-related issues in the workplace. The code will emphasize workplace prevention and rehabilitation measures as standard elements of good human resource management practices. It will focus on the inclusion and retention of persons with disabilities in the workplace at a time when their risk of social exclusion is aggravated under the prevailing conditions of structural unemployment, heightened competition and greater constraints on public spending on support programmes.

One of the major inputs in the process of developing the code of practice will be the findings of a research project involving nine industrialized countries and covering the employment paths of persons who become disabled during their careers. The findings of the first phase of the project were examined at an International Symposium on Job Retention and Return to Work Strategies for Disabled Workers (Washington, DC, May 1998), organized in collaboration with the ILO. The symposium discussed the policies and programmes which work efficiently and are cost-effective and identified a number of areas in which more information and research is required.

Mental disabilities and the workplace

Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the world. At the workplace, they have serious consequences for the individuals concerned, as well as for enterprise productivity, safety and human resources management. However, in many cases, mental disorders can respond to preventive measures and, once they have occurred, can often be successfully treated; this is particularly true of the depressive disorders. The workplace is a good environment for raising awareness of the issues involved and the preventive and remedial measures which can be taken.

A situation analysis was carried out in six countries (Finland, Germany, Poland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States) to determine the scope of the problem, its impact on workers and the workplace and the types of action that are being taken. The findings of this work will be used as a general information tool for public agencies, employers, employees and other professionals who require more information and resources on this topic. The reports will be presented and discussed at the World Mental Health Day in October 2000.
 

Mental disorders at the workplace ILO research on mental disorders at the workplace revealed two main approaches to the problem. In some countries, emphasis is placed on preventing discrimination in employment against those suffering from mental disorders, while in others it is seen more as a health issue related to stress and burn-out of workers. Preliminary findings of the research include the following: as awareness of mental disorders has risen, particularly with the recent declaration by the WHO that depression is the world's leading mental disorder, promoting good mental health is just starting to become a major workplace issue in many countries; more and more enterprises, and large companies in particular, are seeking to address the problem through various employment and work retention strategies; the number of recognized cases of mental disorder has been increasing, partly as a result of greater public awareness and knowledge and lessening of the stigma associated with mental health problems; despite the wealth of information on mental disorders, there is a lack of tools that are culturally and geographically sensitive for addressing the issue at the workplace as well as a gap in the availability of direct mental health services. Source: Occupational Safety and Health Branch, Working Conditions and Environment Department, 1999; "Global burden of disease", in C.J.L. Murray and A.D. Lopez: Global comparative assessments in the health sector: Disease burden, expenditures and interview packages (Geneva, WHO, 1994).

Notes

1. Recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases: An ILO code of practice, 1996.

2. Fundamental principles of occupational safety and health, by B. Alli (forthcoming).

3. Safety and health in agriculture, Report VI(1), International Labour Conference, 88th Session, 2000.

4. Safety and health in agriculture, Report VI(2), International Labour Conference, 88th Session, 2000.

5. Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety (fourth edition), J. Stellman (ed.), 1998. See also the Encyclopaedia website at http://www.ilocis.org/iloencyc.html.

6. Safety and Health at Work: ILO-CIS Bulletin, Vol. 12 - 1998 and Vol. 13 - 1999 (six issues per year).

7. Improving working conditions and productivity in the garment industry, J.C. Hiba (ed.), 1998.

8. Violence at work, by D. Chappell and V. di Martino, 1998.

9. Management of alcohol- and drug-related issues in the workplace: An ILO code of practice, 1996.

10. World Labour Report 2000: Income security and social protection in a changing world, 2000.

11. Social security for the excluded majority: Case studies of developing countries, W. van Ginneken (ed.), 1999.

12. Social security pensions: Development and reform, by C. Gillion, J. Turner, C. Bailey and D. Latulippe, 2000.

13. The contribution of mutual health organizations to financing, delivery, and access to health care: Synthesis of research in nine West and Central African countries, by C. Atim, Abt Associates Inc., 1998; Contribution actuelle et potentielle des mutuelles au financement, à la fourniture et à l'accès aux soins de santé, Etudes de cas au Bénin, by F.P. Diop, 1998; Contribution of mutual health organizations to financing, delivery, and access to health care, Nigeria case study, by C. Atim, 1998; Contribution of mutual health organizations to financing, delivery, and access to health care, Ghana case study, by C. Atim, 1998; Contribution actuelle et potentielle des mutuelles au financement, à la fourniture et à l'accès aux soins de santé, Etudes de cas au Sénégal, by N. Massiot, 1998; Contribution actuelle et potentielle des mutuelles au financement, à la fourniture et à l'accès aux soins de santé, Etudes de cas au Mali, by D. Evrard, 1998.

14. Overview of the exclusion of social protection in health in Latin America and the Caribbean: Out-of-pocket health expenditure in Latin America and the Caribbean; Elements for the comparative analysis of extension of social protection in health in Latin America and the Caribbean; Synthesis of case studies of micro-insurance and other forms of extending social protection in health in Latin America and the Caribbean, ILO/PAHO, Mexico, 1999.

15. Extending social protection in health to excluded groups in Latin America and the Caribbean: The search for effective answers to a growing problem, ILO/PAHO, Mexico, 1999.

16. Social dialogue and pension reform: United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Italy, Spain, E. Reynaud (ed.), 2000.

17. Modelling in health care finance: A compendium of quantitative techniques for health care financing, Quantitative methods in social protection series, by M. Cichon, W. Newbrander, H. Yamabana, A. Weber, C. Normand, D. Dror and A. Preker, 1999; Actuarial mathematics of social security pensions, Quantitative methods in social protection series, by S. Iyer, 1999; Social budgeting, Quantitative methods in social protection series, by W. Scholz, K. Hagemejer and M. Cichon, 2000.

18. ABC of women workers' rights and gender equality, 2000.

19. Guidelines for organizing gender training: Gender training as a tool to enhance mainstreaming, 1998.

20. A partnership of equals, C. Bangasser (ed.), 2000.

21. See, for example, Women workers' rights in India: Issues and strategies -- A reference guide, A. Kapur (ed.), New Delhi, 1999; Women workers' rights in Ukraine, ILO/State Committee of Ukraine for Family and Youth Affairs and Ukrainian Institute for Social Research, Bilingual publication in Ukrainian and English, Kyiv, 1999.

22. Action against HIV/AIDS in Africa: An initiative in the context of the world of work, 2000. Four discussion papers on HIV/AIDS and the world of work: ILO initiatives on HIV/AIDS; The labour implications of HIV/AIDS: An explanatory note, by J.M. Sehgal; Policy and legal issues relating to HIV/AIDS and the word of work, by J. Hodges-Aeberhard; ILO action against HIV/AIDS: A framework for global and regional initiatives.

23. Migrant workers: General Survey on the reports on the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised) (No. 97), and Recommendation (Revised) (No. 86), 1949, and the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention (No. 143), and Recommendation (No. 151), 1975, Report III (Part 1B), International Labour Conference, 87th Session 1999.

Updated by SD. Approved by RH. Last update: 30 May 2000.