International Labor Organization - ILO

The International Labour Organization is the specialised agency of the United Nations which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognised human and labour rights.It was founded in 1919 and is the only surviving major creation of the Treaty of Versailles which brought the League of Nations into being and it became the first specialised agency of the UN in 1946. The ILO formulates international labour standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations, setting minimum standards of basic labour rights; freedom of association, the right to organise and collective bargaining, abolition of forced labour, equality of opportunity and treatment, and other standards regulating conditions across the entire spectrum of work related issues. It provides technical assistance primarily in the fields of vocational training and vocational rehabilitation; employment policy; labour administration; labour law and industrial relations; working conditions; management development; co-operatives; social security; labour statistics and occupational safety and health. It promotes the development of independent employers' and workers' organisations and provides training and advisory services to those organisations. Within the UN system, the ILO has a unique tripartite structure with workers and employers participating as equal partners with governments in the work of its governing organs.

STRATEGIC
The four strategic objectives of the ILO are: Promote and realize fundamental principles and rights at work

OBJECTIVES:

Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all Strengthen Tripartism and Social Dialogue

These are supported by 16 operational objectives cutting across the mandate of the Organization which are implemented through In-focus programmes.

MAJOR

FUNCTIONS:

formulate international policies and programmes aimed at promoting fundamental human rights, improving living and working conditions and developing employment opportunities Establish international labour standards aimed at directing national action towards the implementation of fundamental principles and rights at work Develop a wide technical cooperation programme at the international level Implement training, education, research and publication programmes in support of other means of action. PROJECTS/PROGRAMME AREAS

Labour and employment intensive programmes for infrastructural development Elimination of child labour

 Promotion of Social Security and Mutual Health Insurance Schemes Poverty eradication through employment programmes Small and Microentreprise development Skills development and strengthening of vocational training institutions Labour laws and Legislation Tripartism and Social dialogue International Labour Standards and promotion of fundamental principles and rights at work Capacity building for labour relations institutions

International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)

The ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was launched in 1992 with the aim of strengthening national capacities to work progressively and systematically towards the eventual elimination of child labour. Tanzania has been participating in the programme since 1994. The programme supports national efforts to combat child labour by building permanent capacity in individual countries to tackle the problems. It inspires, guides and supports national initiatives on child labour, with priority given to the urgent elimination of the worst forms of child labour.

Child labour
The term child labour is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that:

is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities often at a very early age. Whether or not particular forms of "work" can be called child labour depends on the child's age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries. Many consumers in developed countries are outraged to think that the products such as clothes of household goods they use might be the efforts of child labour from developing countries.Strong international treaties are taking place to legalize child labour. Yet long cultural traditions and deprived economies do not respond readily to moral lectures pushed by international bodies. Resistant to many comprehensive development strategies, child labour shows less hope of becoming history. [24] Not all work done by children should be classified as child labour that is to be targeted for elimination. Childrens or adolescents participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These kinds of activities contribute to childrens development and to the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life. [edit]ILOs

response to child labour

The ILOs International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was created in 1992 with the overall goal of the progressive elimination of child labour, which was to be achieved through strengthening the capacity of countries to deal with the problem and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labour. IPEC currently has operations in 88 countries, with an annual expenditure on technical cooperation projects that reached over US$74 million, 50 million in 2006. It is the largest programme of its kind globally and the biggest single operational programme of the ILO. The number and range of IPECs partners have expanded over the years and now include employers and workers organizations, other international and government agencies, private businesses, community-based organizations, NGOs, the media, parliamentarians, the judiciary, universities, religious groups and, of course, children and their families. IPEC's work to eliminate child labour is an important facet of the ILO's Decent Work Agenda. [25] Child labour not only prevents children from acquiring the skills and education they need for a better future, [26] it also perpetuates poverty and affects national economies through losses in competitiveness, productivity and potential income. Withdrawing children from child labour, providing them with education and assisting their families with training and employment opportunities contribute directly to creating decent work for adults.

The term "sweatshop labor" literally means a factory or workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions. Sweatshop labor is rampant all throughout the United States and the world. The real problem with sweatshop labor is that it drastically affects clothing production. Most major retailers in the USA have their clothing and other products manufactured by factories outside of the country. The indiviuals employed in sweatshops often live in destitute conditions and are just trying to get by. In the United States, they often come into a low-wage job with little to no education and don't know how to speak English very well. In this way, the employers can take advantage of them. An employee that can't speak English and has little to no education won't know exactly when their employer is taking advantage him or her. Substantial evidence has been revealed that along with mistreatment in the workplace for factories that manufacture apparel for different universities, factories (sweatshops) that manufacture apparel for Nike, Reebok, and Russell Athletic have been weeded out and pushed to find better methods and buy clothes from "sweat-free" manufacturers. The United Students Against Sweatshop Laborconvinced all Sports Authority retail stores in the U.S. to pull all of their merchandise made by Russell Athletic of the racks because of worker's rights violations in the sweatshops used to make their apparel in Honduras. The methods that were proposed revolved around the idea of the "Designated-Supplier program,

Sweatshops and Child Labor

Children like this young girl are prized in the carpet industry for their small, fast fingers. Defenseless, they do what they're told, toiling in cramped, dark, airless village huts from sunrise until well into the night.

Sweatshops
There is no single definition of what a sweatshop is. The US Department of Labor defines a sweatshop as a factory that violates two or more labor laws, such as those pertaining to wages and benefits, child labor or working hours. In general, a sweatshop can be described as a workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage or benefits, poor working conditions, and arbitrary discipline, such as verbal and physical abuse. Since sweatshop workers are paid less than their daily expenses, they are never able to save any money to improve their lives. They are trapped in an awful cycle of exploitation. Defenders of sweatshops often bring up the fact that even though sweatshops are bad, they at least give people jobs they wouldn't have had otherwise. However, the type of jobs sweatshop workers receive are so bad that they rarely improve their economic situation. For more information on what a sweatshop is, I encourage you to read the What to Know about Sweatshops by Green America and Frequently Asked Questions: "Free Trade" and Sweatshops by Global Exchange. These articles give a very good overview of what a sweatshop is and why sweatshops simply aren't acceptable.

Carpet weavers like this family are usually Dalits or "Untouchables," the lowest caste in South Asian society. In many instances, the children are helping a family member, or someone else in their village who has fallen into debt. An offer is made to place a loom in their hut so they can pay off their debt, but this only ensures their enslavement, sometimes for generations.

Child Labor
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has estimated that 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen work in developing countries. 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America. Many of these children are forced to work. They are denied an education and a normal childhood. Some are confined and beaten. Some are denied the right to leave the workplace and go home to their families. Some are even abducted and forced to work.

A 9-year-old girl toils under the hot sun, making bricks from morning to night, seven days a week. She was trafficked with her entire family from Bihar, one of the poorest and most underdeveloped states in India, and sold to the owner of a brick-making factory. With no means of escape, and unable to speak the local language, the family is isolated and lives in terrible conditions.

Which products are made in sweatshops?

All kind of products can be made in sweatshops.

Some of the biggest problem industries are:

Shoes
Many types of shoes are made in sweatshops. However, the biggest problem is found with sneakers and athletic shoes. Most athletic shoes are made in sweatshops in Asian countries. Child labor is also very common in the shoe industry.

Clothing
Clothing is very often made in sweatshops and with the use of child labor. In the U.S. the majority of garment workers are immigrant women that work 60-80 hours a week, usually without minimum wage or overtime pay. Overseas, garment workers routinely make less than a living wage, working under extremely oppressive conditions.

Rugs
A lot of child labor is used in the rug industry. Nearly one million children are illegally employed making hand-knotted rugs worldwide. Approximately 75% of Pakistan's carpet weavers are girls under 14.

Toys
A lot of toys are made in sweatshops and by child labor. Especially toys made in countries like China, Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam. The average North American toy maker earns $11 an hour. In China, toy workers earn an average of 30 cents an hour.

Chocolate
43% of cocoa beans come from the Ivory Coast where recent investigators have found child slavery. In addition, cocoa workers who are paid, receive wages that leave them at the edge of poverty and starvation.

Bananas
Banana workers are some of the most exploited workers in the world. They have to work long hours, get low pay, are forced overtime and are exposed to dangerous pesticides.

Coffee
Coffee is the second largest US import after oil. Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the cost of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt.

Young men sew beads and sequins in intricate patterns onto saris and shawls at a "zari" workshop in Mumbai, India. The boys, who arrive by train from impoverished villages across India, often work from six in the morning until two in the morning the next day. Some sleep on the floor of the workshop. If they make the smallest mistake, they might be beaten. All say they work to send money back to their families, but some employers are known to withhold their meager pay.

What do workers want?

Workers need to be paid a living wage, enough to meet their basic needs and to enable them to plan a better future. They need to be educated about their rights, including local labor laws. They also need the opportunity to achieve an education for themselves and their children. And workers need to be able to freely associate and advocate for rights and improvements to their working conditions, pay and benefits without fear of reprisal. Outside of the factories, they should have the right to form cooperatives or worker-owned enterprises in their communities.

Monitoring Problem
Most factories are monitored by inspectors who are paid by the industry. Often, they'll call ahead to arrange a visit. This will give the factory management time to make the place look nice, get rid of the child workers and coach the workers about what to say. Two independent monitoring organizations are GoodWeave and Verite.

How can we end sweatshops?

There needs to be full public disclosure. Companies must disclose the treatment and pay of workers and how and where products were made. This disclosure needs to be backed with independent monitoring of working conditions and pay. Violations that are discovered must be corrected in a way that protects workers and their jobs. This includes paying for education for child workers found in factories and paying parents a living wage.
Job Analysis is a systematic exploration, study and recording the responsibilities, duties, skills, accountabilities, work environment and ability requirements of a specific job. It also involves determining the relative importance of the duties, responsibilities and physical and emotional skills for a given job. All these factors identify what a job demands and what an employee must possess to perform a job productively.

What Does Job Analysis Involve ?

The process of job analysis involves in-depth investigation in order to control the output, i.e., get the job performed successfully. The process helps in finding out what a particular department requires and what a prospective worker needs to deliver. It also helps in determining particulars about a job including job title, job location, job summary, duties involved, working conditions, possible hazards and machines, tools, equipments and materials to be used by the existing or potential employee.
However, the process is not limited to determination of these factors only. It also extends to finding out the necessary human qualifications to perform the job. These include establishing the levels of education, experience, judgment, training, initiative, leadership skills, physical skills, communication skills, responsibility, accountability, emotional characteristics and unusual sensory demands. These factors change according to the type, seniority level, industry and risk involved in a particular job.

Importance of Job Analysis

The details collected by conducting job analysis play an important role in controlling the output of the particular job. Determining the success of job depends on the unbiased, proper and thorough job analysis. It also helps in recruiting the right people for a particular job. The main purpose of conducting this whole process is to create and establish a perfect fit between the job and the employee. Job analysis also helps HR managers in deciding the compensation package and additional perks and incentives for a particular job position. It effectively contributes in assessing the training needs and performance of the existing employees. The process forms the basis to design and establish the strategies and policies to fulfill organizational goals and objectives. However, analysis of a particular job does not guarantee that the managers or organization would get the desired output. Actually collecting and recording information for a specific job involves several complications. If the job information is not accurate and checked from time to time, an employee will not be able to perform his duty well. Until and unless he is not aware of what he is

supposed to do or what is expected of him, chances are that the time and energy spent on a particular job analysis is a sheer wastage of human resources. Therefore, proper care should be taken while conducting job analysis. A thorough and unbiased investigation or study of a specific job is good for both the managers and the employees. The managers get to know whom to hire and why. They can fill a place with the right person. On the other hand, existing or potential employee gets to know what and how he is supposed to perform the job and what is the desired output. Job analysis creates a right fit between the job and the employee.