ITUC-CSI-IGB - Education - News

World Day Against Child Labour

2013-06-12T12:29:13Z

The ITUC is calling on governments to step up commitment to the global fight against child labour, with new evidence from the ILO that progress is slowing. 215 million children are still at work instead of in school.

“The two ILO Conventions on child labour have been ratified by the vast majority of governments, but tens of millions of children are experiencing the exploitation and misery of child labour when they should be getting a decent education. The economic crisis, and the obsession with austerity, are severely hampering efforts to get the children out of work and into school,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

177 governments have now ratified ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, while 165 have ratified Convention 138, which is the main global reference point for the age at which people under the age of 18 can begin work experience, apprenticeships or enter work full-time.

A special focus on the World Day Against Child Labour this year is the situation of children trapped in domestic servitude, facing some of the most severe exploitation and physical and psychological abuse. So far, 10 countries have ratified Convention 189 on Domestic Work, adopted by the ILO just two years ago.

“Out of sight, out of mind, can no longer be the reality for children in domestic servitude or indeed in any other form of exploitation. The global community needs to boost action directed specifically at tackling child labour, and also focus on quality education, social protection and labour inspection, instead of the erosion of these crucial services to satisfy subjective fiscal targets that are tearing communities apart,” said Burrow.

The union movement is concerned that much of the focus for action on child labour has been on specific projects, without governments putting comprehensive policies in place. An overall government policy and programme approach is essential. Without this, sustained impact from individual projects to tackle child labour in particular locations or sectors is difficult or even impossible.

For more information, see:
ILO-IPEC

Global March Against Child Labour

12 x 12 campaign

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2 224 02 04 or +32 476 621 018

Photo: Damien Halleux Radermecker

We stand with the children and teachers of pakistan!

2013-04-03T16:30:04Z

The assassination of a teacher of an all-girls school in the Khyber tribal district on 25 March and the murder of the principal of the Baldia Town school in Karachi on 30 March, are a stark reminder to the world of the persistence of threats, intimidation, arson attacks and sometimes even murder that are the weapons used in a war against girls accessing educational opportunities. On-going attacks on teachers and schools have caused outrage in the international community, in Pakistan itself and among educators worldwide.


We stand with the children and teachers of pakistan!

ITUC's reaction to the World Bank's report on jobs

2012-10-02T07:46:20Z

Responding to the launch today of the World Bank's World Development Report 2013, devoted to the theme of “Jobs”, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow welcomed the publication as recognition by the world's largest development institution that it must focus on employment creation as a priority goal.

Sharan Burrow stated: “The WDR's proposal that policies need to be re-examined through a ‘jobs lens' is a big step forward for the World Bank and an acknowledgement that working people have often paid the price of development policies that ignored the employment and distributional impact. I encourage the Bank to draw the appropriate conclusions from the report, and modify its policies and practices accordingly.

Chief among these are to definitively take labour issues out of the Doing Business report, which for years encouraged countries to eliminate all workers' protection rules, and to review the generous loans the Bank gives to extractive industry projects, which the report shows do very little to create stable and sustainable jobs as compared to other programmes the Bank should support.”

The WDR 2013 contains a thorough examination of economic evidence about the impact of employment protection legislation and finds no support for previous long-held claims of the Bank's highest-circulation publication, Doing Business, that countries with completely deregulated labour markets have higher job growth than those that require employers to abide by certain rules on wages, hours, non-discrimination and recourse against dismissals.

Burrow took issue with some points of the WDR 2013, starting with the report's decision to promote a concept of “good jobs” as a substitute for the well-established ILO objective of Decent Work: “The goal of Decent Work, adopted almost a decade-and-a-half ago and backed by many international institutions and governments, sets out clear criteria of what are productive and fulfilling jobs that development strategies should strive to create. The concept of ‘good jobs' is confusing and in some aspects problematic, since it includes informal economy jobs. I am also perplexed by the decision of the WDR, in its section on what it calls “social insurance”, to ignore the Social Protection Floor objective, even though it has been endorsed by the UN, the G20, the IMF and other major organisations.”

The WDR 2013 explains how the 2008 economic crisis increased the global employment deficit and added to the number of “working poor” and how the vast majority of unemployed receive no benefits. It provides several useful recommendations for enhancing the employment-intensity of development strategies. However some parts of the report seem to reflect deeply ingrained biases of the World Bank that impair the overall analysis.

For example, despite the WDR's emphasis of the importance of investments in education, infrastructures and an efficient judicial system in order to create quality jobs, the report refers pejoratively to “bloated” public agencies, at three places, when referring to the public sector:
“Rather than parroting stereotyped comments about public service workers,” said Burrow, “the WDR would have done better to focus on the ‘bloated' financial sector which brought the world economy to its knees in 2008 and is responsible for the global surge in unemployment that occurred. It is unfortunate that the report did not deal with the need to create a properly regulated financial sector that supports jobs in the real economy instead of being a source of instability and abuse.”

For further information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2 224 0204 or +32 476 62 10 18

Photo: John Connel

Teachers' strike in Benin

2012-03-27T07:27:57Z

The ITUC has firmly condemned the government's handling of the strike underway in the country. The authorities are deregistering striking teachers, gagging freedom of speech and arresting trade unionists.

Since 20 March, Benin has seen two teachers arrested for violating the ban on meetings in the workplace and 14 others manhandled and arrested at their director's request for taking part in a sit-down strike.

Two trade union representatives, Jules Amoussouga and Cécil Ayadokoun, were also arrested for holding discussions with their colleagues regarding the continuation of the strike action. Although the teachers were subsequently released, these arrests are illustrative of the climate of repression in Benin.

On 14 March, the Council of Ministers decided on a range of measures including the deregistering of all teachers taking action or in any way involved in the strike. The government has, moreover, started to hire military conscripts to replace striking workers. "This situation is intolerable," said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. "Such actions are in breach of workers' fundamental rights."

The expulsion of striking workers from the public sector, their replacement with other workers and the prohibition of strike action constitute serious violations of Convention 87 (on freedom of association), Convention 98 (on collective bargaining), and of Benin's constitution, which guarantees the right to strike.

In a letter to the Beninese authorities, the ITUC urged President Boni Yayi to take every action necessary to bring an end to the harassment, intimidation and arrests and to ensure that the right to strike can be exercised under normal and respectful conditions.

For any further information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2 224 0204 or +32 476 621 018

Photo: Felix Krohn

New Report Puts Spotlight on Corporate Tax Avoidance

2011-11-28T15:06:07Z

A new report released in London today by the Global Union Federation, Education International, documents the massive revenues lost to governments through corporate tax avoidance and the impact of this on education and other vital public services which are at risk from government expenditure cuts.

“Hundreds of billions of dollars are lost each year as corporations find new and intricate ways to avoid paying their taxes, and governments compete to attract multinational investment by cutting company tax ever lower.

Governments are effectively cheating their own people of corporate tax revenues which could be put to good use in ensuring quality public services. They need to focus on ensuring companies pay their fair share, instead of cutting back government services, reducing wages and reducing peoples' rights at work through misguided fiscal austerity measures,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. “This report will help bring the scandal of corporate tax avoidance into the public spotlight.”

The report, Global Corporate Taxation and Resources for Quality Public Services, was prepared by the Education International Research Institute on behalf of the Council of Global Unions, which brings together The Global Union Federations with the ITUC and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD.

For more information

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on the following numbers: +32 2 224 020 or +32 476 62 10 18

Photo: Tripu

Employers and Unions unite at world forum to condemn “worst form” of child labor in Uzbekistan

2011-06-10T12:43:57Z

The UN's labor agency, the International Labor Organisation, this week heard disturbing reports from both workers and employers in regards to millions of children forced from school into hazardous work in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan.

Unions estimate that in the 2010 harvest, up to 2 million children aged between 10 and 16 years were forced to work in hazardous and dangerous conditions, with heavy lifting, exposure to pesticides and incidences of rashes, respiratory diseases, and cases of meningitis and hepatitis.

The ILO also heard that children and families who refused to take part where punished by Government officials with economic sanctions such as the removal of welfare subsidies or the cutting off of gas and electricity.

“This Sunday is World Day Against Child Labor, and the international union movement calls on Uzbekistan respect fundamental labour rights and to allow an independent committee under the auspices of the ILO to observe the next harvest,” the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Ms. Sharan Burrow said today.

Ms. Burrow said that Uzbekistan was one of the world's biggest cotton exporters.

“We will continue to highlight this state abuse of young people, and the profiteering by world cotton buyers on the backs of children forced from their school to work in appalling conditions,” Ms. Burrow said.

“We ask responsible retail clothing companies to find out where their cotton is coming from, because we will be working with international groups to track this terrible trade,” Ms. Burrow said.

The Government of Uzbekistan argued that it had put in place laws to prohibit child labor, and that they were monitoring the situation. But the Committee at the ILO, comprised of unions, employers and Governments from around the world expressed its serious concerns about the continuation of the organised child labor in the cotton fields, and called on the Governments on Uzbekistan to allow a high level international observer mission to investigate the child labor issue.

For more information, and to arrange interviews comments by the ITUC General Secretary, Sharan Burrow, please contact Mathieu Debroux on +32 476 621 018 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +32 476 621 018 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +32 476 621 018 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +32 476 621 018 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or +32 2 224 0204 or email mathieu.debroux@ituc-csi.org or press@ituc-csi.org

Photo: The International Labor Rights Forum

More Teachers Murdered in Colombia

2011-06-06T10:16:55Z

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has once again condemned and expressed its deep sorrow at the murders of two more Colombian teachers, Carlos Julio Gómez Freddy, on 26 May, and Antonio Cuadrado Núñez, on 29 May. Their killings add to the long list of trade unionists and teachers murdered this year.

Carlos Julio Gómez, who taught at the General Santander school in Cali and was a member of the education workers' union SUTEV (Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Educación del Valle), was attacked by unknown assailants with firearms on the morning of 26 May. Brother Gómez was seriously injured and taken to the Clínica Rey David hospital in Cali where he died on 29 May.

Brother Freddy Antonio Cuadrado Núñez, who taught at the Isaac J. Pereira school, was killed on Friday 27 May in Ciénaga, Magdalena. He was shot in the head by a hired gunman whilst celebrating his 46th birthday.

In a letter to President Santos, the ITUC urged the Colombian authorities to ensure that all those responsible for these crimes be immediately found and punished with the full force of the law. The Colombian authorities must take every action necessary to end this constant violence against the trade union movement, as well as the impunity surrounding these crimes," said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

The Colombian trade union confederation CUT has called for Colombia to be included in the list of 25 countries that most violate human and trade union rights, which will be discussed within the Committee on the Application of Standards at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, given the persistent trade union rights violations in Colombia and the anti-union murders that are constant in the lives of Colombia's workers.

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2 224 0204 or +32 476 621 018

Photo:Jenny Giraldo

IMF 's Strauss-Kahn backs ITUC analysis on global threat of unemployment and inequality

2011-04-14T11:52:05Z

As the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and G20 finance ministers meet this weekend to discuss the state of the global economy and priorities for development cooperation, the international trade union movement is calling on the international financial institutions (IFIs) to change course in their policy directions and to pay as much attention to employment deficits as they do to fiscal deficits by taking coordinated action to support job creation as well as education and skills training.

Parallel to these meetings, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow took part in a debate in Washington with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Wednesday to voice trade union views about the IFIs' responsibility to adopt economic recovery programmes consistent with a more equitable and sustainable growth and development model.

Emphasizing the failure of G20 countries to reduce the number of unemployed, which is currently at the highest level ever recorded, Burrow said: “The G20 in 2011 must mark the defining moment that things start to change, or otherwise the world will see just another failure in global governance.” She challenged the G20 and all IMF member countries to incorporate employment targets into national economic programmes and to work in establishing a global social protection floor, for which she invited the IMF and the ILO to jointly develop sustainable financing mechanisms.

Burrow further urged the IMF to recognize “the growing political momentum in favour of financial transactions taxes” and to support the FTT so that the financial sector makes a contribution to public revenue “to match the costs it imposes each time it triggers a crisis in the real, productive economy.”
Burrow's speech

At the debate, Strauss-Kahn noted the record levels of unemployment and inequality and stated: “Just as we managed to tame inflation in the 1980s, this decade should be the one that takes full employment seriously once again.” To combat growing inequality, Strauss-Kahn emphasized the importance of “strong social safety nets combined with progressive taxation, … investment in health and education, and collective bargaining rights … especially in an environment of stagnating real wages.” He spoke of the joint work that the IMF has undertaken with the ILO in the past year and said that “employment and equity are the building blocks of stability and prosperity,” which go “to the heart of the IMF's mandate.”
Strauss-Kahn's speech

A statement from Global Unions to the IMF/WB spring meetings as well as the G-20 Finance Ministers' meeting puts forward specific trade union recommendations on how the IFIs can begin to adopt a new approach for achieving more equitable and sustainable growth. In such a model, workers, pensioners and the unemployed – the principal victims of the global economic and financial crisis – should not disproportionately bear the burden of national “fiscal consolidation” plans. Such plans should only be applied when national recovery is well under way and they should not focus overwhelmingly on expenditure reductions, as has been the case in many countries, but comprise tax measures that have least impact on employment levels and help reduce inequality. They should include new sources of revenue, notably financial transactions taxes, which for the first time would ensure substantial contributions from the financial sector for resolving the economic and fiscal crisis that it caused. Oxfam's release on Wednesday of signatures from one thousand economists around the world is a sign of the global momentum in favour of the adoption of such a tax for financing employment creation, development goals and climate finance commitments.

More robust social protection systems should be developed to mitigate the impacts of the continuing employment deficit, and the World Bank and the IMF should collaborate with the International Labour Organization's initiative, endorsed by the entire UN system, to establish a global social protection floor. To achieve equitable and sustainable growth, both IFIs must act responsibly to protect quality public services vital to societies' development, such as education and health care. Furthermore, the IFIs must ensure that their operations comply with core labour standards and contribute to efforts to achieve climate resilience and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: 32 2 224 02 04 or 32 476 621 018

Photo: ITUC

United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

2011-02-23T11:10:44Z

An eighty-strong delegation of trade union women from ITUC, EI, PSI, BWI and ITF are participating in the 55th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW55) in New York, from 22 February to 4 March, 2011.

This year's priority theme is of special importance to trade unions, as it deals with women and girls' access to education and training, particularly in science & technology (S&T), and linkages with employment and decent work.

“Despite progress, structured discriminations continue to affect the opportunities of the girl child along the pathway from education and training to decent work,” said Sharan Burrow, ITUC general secretary. “Governments must invest significantly in quality public services, focusing on gender inclusive education at all levels, in order to overcome these barriers. The financial crisis must not be used as an excuse to cut back on critical public sector expenditure for the empowerment of women and girls.”

“Events in Tunisia and Egypt have proved that quality education must go hand in hand with decent work opportunities,” commented Regine Laurent, speaking on behalf of PSI. “Quality public services are key to enabling women to access decent work. Governments must pay attention to this, rather than making cynical cuts to public spending."

Trade union women will be lobbying hard for strong Agreed Conclusions of this 55th CSW, including these and other key messages. They will be calling for full recognition of trade union rights guarantees and protections for domestic workers, through Member States' firm support for the upcoming adoption of a Domestic Workers' Convention at the 100th International Labour Conference in June, 2011
Jan Eastman, deputy general secretary of EI, will deliver a Statement to the CSW plenary session, in which she will emphasise the key ingredients to achieve quality, gender-inclusive education that motivates relevant, life-long learning, while improving the cadre of teachers in quantity and quality, with a focus on S&T, through pre- and in-service teacher education and training, adequate remuneration, and due consideration paid to teaching and learning conditions.

Eastman will be calling on Member States at the CSW55 to introduce and strengthen policy interventions that incorporate the ILO's core equality Conventions and the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals. “The aim must be to ensure full opportunities for education and training for girls and women, at all stages of the education continuum, leading to productive employment and decent work for women, thus enabling them to participate fully in the economic, trade union, social and political spheres, as citizens in democratic societies.”

See the full text of the ITUC/EI/PSI Statement to CSW55

For regular updates on trade union participation in CSW55, visit our Blog

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2 224 0204 or +32 476 621 018

Democracy, Fundamental Rights and Freedoms at Risk in USA As Wisconsin and Other States Attack Unions

2011-02-21T14:58:02Z

Workers across the world are shocked to see the rights of teachers, health workers and other public employees attacked in the 'Land of the Free'. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and other Republican Party state governors including in Indiana and Ohio have launched a major assault on the rights of public sector workers to union representation and collective bargaining, with heavy pay cuts and new obstacles to freedom of association. Demonstrations have taken place in several US states over recent days, as opposition grows to the coordinated anti-union onslaught, which has its roots in the ultra-conservative “tea party” movement.

“Violating these fundamental democratic rights in other countries such as China, Egypt, Guinea or Mexico is rightly condemned by the US, so what are people to make of such abuse of power in the US itself?” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. “The rights to organise and bargain collectively for fair wages and conditions are cornerstones of any democracy, and removing these rights means democracy itself is under attack.”

Moreover, the economic and employment crisis will not be fixed by taking away workers' incomes. These moves will destroy, not create jobs, as household incomes fall and economic demand falls even further. This is just as true in the US as it is in anywhere else in the world.

Governor Walker's threat to mobilise the Wisconsin National Guard, which he said were “fully prepared to handle whatever may occur”, has provoked outrage. “This threat is simply incredible especially if we look to those countries today which have mobilised military and security forces against peaceful demonstrators,” said Burrow.

“Teachers, nurses and other public employees provide vital services to the public, and the offensive against them is also an attack on the community, children in schools, the sick and infirm in medical care, and the most vulnerable in society who rely on public services. The USA was built on the foundations of freedom and democracy, but will certainly lose its claim to be the Land of the Free with this kind of extremist agenda,” said Burrow. “Opposition to these attacks is growing in the US, but it is a fight for fundamental freedoms which has implications well beyond the borders of the country. The entire international trade union movement stands in solidarity with these American workers whose rights are under such heavy attack, and we will do everything we can to support them.”

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2 224 0204 or +32 476 621 018

Photo: UGBW Admissions