Press releases

June 2000 

• ILO Director-General highlights need for strengthened maternity protection
  05 June 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Launching an appeal to the 88th International Labour Conference to strengthen maternity protection for women workers, Mr. Juan Somavia used his plenary address to the delegates to highlight "the need for a successful outcome to the revision of the ILO Standard on Maternity Protection". ...

May 2000 

• International Labour Conference opens
  30 May 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The 88 th Session of the International Labour Conference opened today and in its first act of business elected as its President, Mr. Mario Alberto Flamarique, Minister of Labour, Training and Human Resources of Argentina.
• ILO Conference to debate maternity protection health and safety in agriculture
  29 May 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Delegates to the 88 th session of the International Labour Conference, which gets underway in Geneva on Tuesday, 30 May 2000, are set to adopt a new International Convention on maternity protection and will begin debate on the development of possible new standards on safety and health in agriculture, one of the three most dangerous sectors in terms of health and safety in the w ...
• ILO roundtable to discuss learning and training for decent work
  29 May 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Office (ILO) will hold a Roundtable on "Learning and Training for decent work" on 30 May at 3 p.m. at the Palais des Nations, room XVI.
• Pioneering ILO Global report calls for more widespread respect for rights at work
  25 May 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - "Intimidation, threats and even murder still await many workers who attempt to organize in a number of countries around the world", says a new ILO report, Your Voice at Work, released today.
• ILO mission opens talks with Government in Myanmar (Burma)
  23 May 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - A technical cooperation mission of the International Labour Office (ILO) is expected to begin discussions on Wednesday in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) with the Government of Myanmar on the implementation of the recommendations of a 1998 Commission of Inquiry *, which found the use of forced and compulsory labour in that country to be widespread.
• Globalization forges revolution in transport equipment manufacturing (TEM)
  05 May 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Globalization is forging a revolution in the US$ 1.7 trillion transport equipment manufacturing (TEM) sector, with fierce competition leading to unprecedented mergers and acquisitions, increasing downward pressure on wages and unionized jobs, and "the end of the factory as we know it," according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO).
• ILO Director-General, addressing May first workers' jubilee in presence of Pope John Paul II, calls for "global coalition for decent work"
  01 May 2000 - ROME (ILO News) - Speaking in the presence of Pope John Paul II, Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Office (ILO), today urged representatives of workers, employers and entrepreneurs attending a "Workers' Jubilee" here to unite in the pursuit of "a global coalition for decent work". Addressing an estimated 200,000 participants marking the 1 st of May, Mr. ...

April 2000 

• Ninety per cent of world excluded from old age pension schemes. Many schemes badly managed. Problems foreseen in coping with ageing populations and diversifying risk
  28 April 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) – Some 90 per cent of the world’s working-age population is not covered by pension schemes capable of providing adequate retirement income, the International Labour Office (ILO) says in a new publication: Social Security Pensions: Development and Reform.
• Worker insecurities in Ukraine
  25 April 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Today the International Labour Office (ILO) is releasing the first results of a major survey of industrial enterprises in Ukraine covering over half a million workers. It tells a story of hardship and decline that has lasted throughout the first decade of the country's existence since the break-up of the Soviet Union. ...
• ILO study to highlight "widespread turbulence" in the world of pension schemes
  18 April 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Office (ILO) announces the publication of a major global study on pension funds, which finds, inter alia, that as much as 90 per cent of the world's workforce is unlikely to enjoy any sort of old age or retirement benefit due inadequate or nonexistent pension provisions and that pension funds in even the wealthiest countries are facing increasing financ ...
• ILO to hold meeting on educational trends
  07 April 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The changing roles of educational personnel and school and workplace learning changes in the 21 st century will be examined at a Joint meeting on lifelong learning in the twenty-first century to be held at the ILO from 10-14 April 2000.

March 2000 

• ILO Governing Body concludes 277 th Session
  31 March 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The Governing Body of the ILO concluded its 277 th session today after adopting conclusions on a wide range of subjects.
• Forced labour persists in Myanmar
  29 March 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - In an action unprecedented in the ILO's 80-year history, the Organization's Governing Body has set in motion a discussion in its June 2000 Conference, which could result in an appeal to its other 174 member States to review their relationship with the Government of Myanmar (Burma) and to take appropriate measures to ensure that Myanmar "cannot take advantage of such relations t ...
• ILO programme seeks to address labour market woes in West Bank and Gaza. Appeals to donors for funding
  23 March 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) – The Geneva-based International Labour Organization in appealing to the international community to fund a three-year, US$ 20 million programme with the goal of strengthening the job- and income-generating capacity of small- and micro-enterprises in the West Bank and Gaza strip.
• ILO symposium on gender to focus on decent work for women. Discussion to highlight progress since 1995 Women’s Conference and examine "glaring gender gaps"
  23 March 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) is to host a high-level discussion here to examine concerns over the impact of globalization on women in the world of work and how they can close what Director-General Juan Somavia has called "the glaring gender gaps in today’s world."
• ILO unveils assistance plan for East Timor
  21 March 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) ­ The International Labour Office (ILO) unveiled today a comprehensive plan for reconstruction, employment and skills training in East Timor.
• Declaration follow-up, Gender symposium and Myanmar on agenda of 277 th Governing Body session
  15 March 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Gender discrimination, forced labour in Myanmar and the follow-up to the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work are among the major agenda items on the 277 th session of the Governing Body, which gets underway at ILO headquarters in Geneva tomorrow. ...
• Migrants face "significant discrimination" in job markets
  08 March 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Immigrant workers and their families face major hurdles in obtaining jobs according to research published by the International Labour Office (ILO), which finds "significant and disturbing levels of discrimination in access to employment" in Western Europe and other parts of the industrialized world.
• First annual reports on Core Labour Standards released
  08 March 2000 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The first set of annual reports on core labour standards by States which have not yet ratified one or more of the International Labour Organization's (ILO) seven fundamental Conventions was made public today in anticipation of its examination by the International Labour Office's Governing Body, later this month.