Knowledge Centre : Human Rights : Freedom for Decent Work : Page 3
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- Employment@ (15) new
- Corporate Responsibility@ (146)
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Links
- Time for Equality at Work: ILO Report (PDF)
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Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Time for equality at work argues that the benefits of eliminating discrimination in the workplace transcend the individual and extend to the economy and to society. Workers who enjoy equal treatment and equal opportunities improve the efficient use of human resources and diverse talents. This improves workforce morale and motivation, leading to better labour relations with positive implications for overall productivity. A more equal distribution of job opportunities, productive resources and assets, including education, between men and women of different races, religions or ethnic origins, contributes to higher growth and political stability. The elimination of discrimination at work is an indispensable component of any strategy for poverty reduction and sustain-able development. It lies at the heart of the ILO's mandate and the notion of decent work.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/decl/publ/reports/report4.htm
(Added: Mon Jun 09 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 22 2006 Hits: 171)
- Trade Imbalance Masks a Struggle to Get By in China
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The hopes and fears of a surging Chinese economy, the warnings of catastrophic trade imbalances, the million-dollar salaries of American retail executives - the story begins here, on the factory floor where Wang Haiyun hunches over her sewing machine and stitches about 600 pairs of boots a day, all bound for customers in the United States, and many in sizes she can hardly fathom.(Thomas Fuller, International Herald Tribune, August 3, 2006)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/03/business/produce.php
(Added: Thu Sep 21 2006 Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007 Hits: 140)
- Trade in the Americas: Women Central to the Debate (pdf)
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This report looks at US plans for trade agreements with Latin American countries. It oulines the common criticisms of these: that they are the wrong model for regional integration; that they lack democracy (accountability, transparency and meaningful dialogue); that they threaten food security, food sovereignty and agriculture; that they threaten human rights, access to essential medicines and essential services such as water; and the effects of foreign investment. It explains how women's vocies are missing from the debate. (Alexandra Spieldoch, Center of Concern, January 2006)
http://www.igtn.org/pdfs//TradeintheAmericas.pdf
(Added: Mon Jul 10 2006 Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007 Hits: 260)
- Tragedy spurs action against slave labour in Argentina
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Denunciations of sweatshops operating in the Argentine capital have piled up over the past few years in the city government and the courts. The association of dressmakers estimates that there are nearly 400 clandestine sweatshops. 'The owners of the factories pay off inspectors and the police', said Gustavo Vera, president of the La Alameda Cooperative in Bajo Flores, a working-class neighbourhood on the west side of Buenos Aires, where 60 percent of the poorest residents are from Bolivia. Only after six undocumented immigrants - including four children - died in a fire on 30 March, did the authorities announce measures to crack down on the clandestine textile factories that use slave labour. (Marcela Valente, Terra Viva Europe, 4 April 2006)
http://www.ipsterraviva.net/Europe/article.aspx?id=3186
(Added: Tue Apr 11 2006 Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007 Hits: 109)
- UN human rights body approves guidelines for multinational corporations
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UN News Service, 13 August - In an important step forward in developing human rights standards for corporations, an expert subsidiary panel of the top United Nations rights body today approved a set of ethics guidelines bringing together a range of legal obligations for companies drawn from existing human rights, labour and environmental standards.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=7991&Cr=commission&Cr1=rights
(Added: Thu Aug 14 2003 Modified: Tue Dec 06 2005 Hits: 219)
- UN Human Rights Norms for Businesses
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(Amnesty International) Human rights organizations have addressed concerns to businesses for a number of years. Recognizing that economic globalization has expanded the reach of corporate power, advocates have struggled to ensure that companies, no less than other significant actors, are brought within the framework of international human rights rules. A significant step in this direction was taken in August 2003 by the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights when it approved the UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights (also known as UN Norms for Business or UN Norms). The Norms restate existing internationally recognized standards of human rights. They set out in a comprehensive way the key human rights responsibilities of companies. In doing so, they create a powerful tool for advocacy and at the same time provide a useful checklist for those companies keen to improve their human rights record. Some companies have already showed willingness to "road test" the application of the UN Norms during their business operations.
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/ec-unnorms_2-eng
(Added: Fri Nov 11 2005 Hits: 156)
- Unions, Innovation and Sustainable Development
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From the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, this document outlines their arguement for a social development approach to development rather than an economic growth strategy which increases income disparities, simply allows profits to flow offshore, and increases social tensions. CTU booklet launched on 15 August, 2002
http://www.union.org.nz/files/policy/files/Innovation.pdf
(Added: Fri Aug 23 2002 Modified: Wed Jan 10 2007 Hits: 106)
- Unprotected Migrants: Zimbabweans in South Africa's Limpopo Province
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This 54-page report, documents how state officials arrest, detain and deport undocumented foreign migrants in ways that flout South Africa's immigration law. It also documents how commercial farmers ignore basic employment law protections even when they employ documented foreign migrants. (Human Rights Watch, August 2006)
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/southafrica0806/index.htm
(Added: Tue Aug 08 2006 Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007 Hits: 179)
- War on Want: Sweatshops & Plantations Programme
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Across the developing world, hundreds of free trade zones have been created. Known as export processing zones (EPZs), they are industrial areas where, typically, factory owners pay no tax, the minimum wage is suspended and safety is neglected. Twelve-hour shifts are the norm and trade unions are often illegal. The organisation, War on Want, fights poverty in developing countries in partnership and solidarity with people affected by globalisation.
http://www.waronwant.org/?lid=107
(Added: Mon Mar 19 2007 Hits: 124)
- Workers' Representation Insecurity in Brazil: Global Forces, Local Stress (PDF)
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Author(s): Cardoso, A.M. Produced by: International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS), ILO (2002) This paper assesses the situation of unions in Brazil. It argues that the demise of the conditions that favoured adversarial strategies, and the emergence of favourable conditions for class compromise both at the local and national level, should arguably have been sufficient to provoke the dislocation of the centre of power from CUT unions to Força Sindical unions. But this apparently has not happened (PDF 215Kb).
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/ses/download/docs/represent.pdf
(Added: Mon Sep 22 2003 Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007 Hits: 120)
- World Day for Decent Work: 7 October 2008
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As part of the 50 days of action this autumn, the world trade union movement is holding a World Day for Decent Work on Tuesday 7 October. The day will focus on Rights at Work; Solidarity; and Ending Poverty and Inequality.
(Added: Wed Jul 09 2008 Hits: 15)
