The crisis, the total market and the “law shopping”

There is not much to add to what Alain Supiot writes in the last issue of the International Labour Review, just published by the ILO. The issue is about the global crisis and Supiot’s article makes a deep historical analysis of the utopia of the Total market, in which “people, signs and things can all be rendered commensurable and be mobilized in the cause of globalized competition, i.e. they can all be “liquidated” in the legal sense of this term“. By liquidation he means making something fungible by converting it into cash. However, he cannot but remind Zygmunt Bauman’s and even before Bauman, Karl Marx’s vision of the way everything can be turned, converted into cash.

IMF-ILO paper on the “Challenges of Growth, Employment and Social Cohesion”

The International Monetary Fund and the International Labour Organization have issued a stark assessment of the outlook for employment in the wake of the global financial crisis, saying that the world faces major challenges in creating enough quality jobs to sustain growth and development.

ILO and IMF Conference: a job-rich crisis recovery

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a joint conference to be hosted by the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, on 13 September 2010, in Oslo, to explore new ways of forging a sustainable, job-rich recovery from the global economic crisis.

The role of social security in crisis response and recovery, and beyond

The crisis has reinforced the perception that the extension of social security should be a high priority. While in many developing countries social security systems were previously considered unaffordable, they are now regarded as important investments to support sustainable economic growth. Furthermore, in times of crisis, social security systems are playing an essential role as economic stabilizers. Interview with Michael Cichon, Director of the ILO’s Social Security Department, about the UN Social Protection Floor Initiative and social security in times of crisis.

ILO Governing Body to examine Global Jobs Pact and sectoral impact of crisis

In its 307th Session (11-26 March) the ILO Governing Body is discussing implementation of the Global Jobs Pact adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 2009, including policies providing an effective response to the economic crisis. The meeting will also look at the impact of the crisis on various sectors, particularly on tourism, public services, education and health, as well as fundamental rights at work, including the latest report of the Committee on Freedom of Association. An advice for labour writers: follow the meeting and have a look at the document on “Recovering and sustaining growth and development: The contribution of the Global Jobs Pact (PDF)“.

What’s new in the ILO Committee of Experts’ latest report

International labour standards in times of economic crisis. This is one of the main issues of the 2010 ILO Committee of Experts’ Report on the application of Conventions and Recommendations. From the need to promote and extend collective bargaining to the protection of wages, the Committee focuses on the Conventions that can help governments to overcome the crisis, reduce poverty and inequity, increase demand and contribute to economic stability. Like every year, in the Report there is a detailed analysis of member states’ compliance with labour standards. Search for your country and find out the Experts’ observations and requests.

Employers’ organizations responding to the impact of the crisis

With the adoption of the Global Jobs Pact by the 183 member States of the ILO at the International Labour Conference in June 2009, the world’s governments, employers and workers have at their disposal an integrated portfolio of policies to address the global economic and social crisis. ILO Online spoke with Jean-François Retournard, Director of the ILO Bureau for Employers’ Activities, about a new report which shows that employers’ organizations played a major role in worldwide efforts to stem the crisis.

Kenya, child labour and the economic crisis

Kenyan children are out of school due to the economic crisis. But the situation is further compounded by food crisis, drought, high cost of food commodities and high fuel prices. And yet, no new measures have been announced by the government on direct intervention on child labour. An interview with Bernard Kiura, ILO National Coordinator in Kenya.

China: a resumption of tripartism and collective bargaining

By China Labour bulletin

Last month a magazine article exposed the extent to which labour relations in China had deteriorated over the last year, with enterprises deliberately taking advantage of the government’s leniency during the global financial crisis to exploit their workforce. The writer called on the government and trade unions to take concerted measures according to the ILO tripartite system and including the introduction of collective bargaining, to alleviate the growing conflict between workers and management. The article was published in Liaowang (瞭望), the magazine of the official Xinhua News Agency, which is widely read by senior government officials and policy makers. It seems that many policy advisors are now realizing that, as the Chinese economy recovers, there is an increasingly urgent need to restore the rights of workers that were systematically stripped away by government officials seeking to protect local enterprises during the financial crisis. The scholars and officials interviewed by Liaowang all agreed that enterprises had got away with too much, and that unless some balance was restored to labour relations, the conflict would only increase.

Tripartism in the times of neoliberalism

For much of the 1990s and the first half of the present decade, many developing countries seeking integration into the global economy adopted the type of market-oriented measures pushed forward by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Much has been written about the impact of these measures (known as the Washington Consensus) on governments, employers and workers in the developing world. Now a new book published by the International Labour Office (ILO) takes this issue forward and looks at how the process of consultation and negotiation between these three social partners – in other words, tripartism – altered the pace, sequence and content of these reforms. ILO Online spoke to the editor of “Blunting neoliberalism: Tripartism and economic reform in the developing world”, Lydia Fraile.