NEWSLETTER
ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and
Country Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
#1(56) March 2014
ILO project to help Georgia improve
compliance with labour laws
The Government of Georgia and the International Labour Organization launched a project
entitled “Improved compliance with labour
laws in Georgia”.
The project is funded by the U.S. Department
of Labour, and it will be implemented over
the period of three years by the ILO in close
coordination with the Government, trade unions and employers’ organizations of Georgia.
The project will support the Government in
adopting a three-year strategy and action plan
to enforce the labour legislation and comply
with international labour standards. It will promote the Labour Code, as amended in 2013,
through tripartite cooperation. The project
will also assist in establishing a Labour Inspection in conformity with international labour
standards and practice.
Another objective of the project is to
strengthen the effectiveness of the Georgian
Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC) and
its afﬁliates in representing workers’
rights and interests and negotiating
their working conditions.
Employers will be strongly involved in
the implementation of this important
project and will be engaged in bipartite
and tripartite activities.
“The aim of this project is to strengthen the guarantees for decent minimum
labour standards and combine them
with the practice of collective negotiations, in order to achieve a balanced
development of the Georgian market
economy,” said Kari Tapiola, Special
Adviser of the Director-General of
the ILO who has been closely involved
with the ILO activities in Georgia
since 2006.
Speaking at the project launch, Mr. Tapiola
praised the transition that the GTUC and the
Georgian Employers’ Association had been
making into real and independent actors.
He stressed the role of international standards
that were there not to stop or curtail the market economy and impede investments but “to
facilitate the pursuit of prosperity, happiness
equally for all.”
“It is often said that international labour
standards are like road signs. If you do not
know the rules of the road, you will hurt yourself and others”, Kari Tapiola said.
Dimitrina Dimitrova, Director of the ILO
Decent Work Technical Support Team and
Country Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said that the key objectives of the
project were to support the establishment of
effective labour law enforcement mechanisms
in Georgia through labour inspection coupled
with the promotion of effective tripartite cooperation, which were central to the functioning of market economy.
She thanked the U.S. Department of Labour,
as well as the Dutch government for cooperation with the ILO in the establishment of
labour mediation services in Georgia.
The project launch was attended by representatives of the Georgian Government, Workers’
and Employers’ organizations, the parliament,
UN agencies, embassies and the media.
March 1 - Zero Discrimination Day
Zero Discrimination Day, marked on
1 March, is a worldwide call to promote and celebrate everyone’s right
to a full life with dignity – no matter
what they look like, where they come from
or whom they love.
On February 27, Michel Sidibé, Executive
Director of the Joint UN Programme on
HIV/AIDS, launched Zero Discrimination
Day with strong calls for tolerance, unity and
compassion. Working with Nobel Peace Prize
winner and UNAIDS Global Advocate for
Zero Discrimination Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
the agency launched the #zerodiscrimination
campaign in December 2013 on the World
AIDS Day, adopting the butterﬂy as the transformative symbol for zero discrimination.
We remind that on the World AIDS
Day in 2012 the ILO together with the
UNAIDS and the World Health Organization launched a campaign “Getting to zero at
work.” Moving towards the goal of “Getting
to zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS related deaths” the ILO
acts in close collaboration with its constituencies: governments, employers’ and workers’
organizations, UNAIDS, civil society, including organizations of people living with HIV,
and all development partners.
Many international celebrities have joined
the call for zero discrimination, recording
video messages and taking photographs with
the butterﬂy sign. The personalities include
UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Annie Lennox, Princess Stephanie of Monaco and
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, who
says: “Employment is not only a right, it
is a part of treatment.”
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder joins campaign
Newsletter
#1(56) March 2014
On January 27-31,
a Direct Contacts
Mission of the
International Labour Organization
visited Belarus. The
mission was mandated by the International
Labour Conference in June 2013 and accepted
by the Government. It reviewed the implementation by Belarus of the recommendations
of the 2004 Commission of Inquiry on trade
union rights in Belarus.
The mission was carried out by Mr. Halton
Cheadle, a distinguished South African labour
law expert and Member of the ILO’s Committee of Experts on the Application of
Conventions and Recommendations. He was
accompanied by Mr. Kari Tapiola, Special
Adviser to the ILO Director-General, and
Ms. Oksana Wolfson and Mr. Franco Amato
from the International Labour Standards
Department.
The mission met with the Minister of Labour and Social Protection, Ms. Marianna
Shchetkina, the Minister of Justice Mr. Oleg
Slizhevsky, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr.
Anatoly Tozik, leaders of the Federation of
Trade Unions of Belarus and the Belarusian
Congress of Democratic Trade Unions and
the two employers’ organizations of Belarus.
The mission also had a meeting with Deputy
Foreign Minister Mr.Valentin Rybakov.
Source: www.mfa.gov.by
ILO mission visits Belarus
ILO experts at the meeting with Belarusian Deputy Foreign
Minister Valentin Rybakov
In deciding to request a mission to Belarus,
the 102nd session of the International Labour
Conference in Geneva last June considered
that Belarus had failed to ensure the right of
workers to establish organizations of their
own choosing and organize their activities and
programmes free from interference by the
public authorities in law and in practice.
The Commission of Inquiry, which visited
Belarus in April 2004, issued 12 recommendations. Some of these have been fulﬁlled,
in particular as regards the acceptance of
trade union pluralism. However, the Direct
Contacts Mission in January 2014 concluded
in its report that «while the situation of trade
union rights had evolved, there has been no
fundamental change or signiﬁcant progress» to
implement the remaining recommendations.
According to the mission, some problems
have been solved but others have arisen.
Role of trade unions in
ensuring decent wages
In late December
last year Moscow
hosted a subregional conference
focusing on trade
unions’ role in ensuring decent wages. It was organized by the
Pan-European Regional Council of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUCPERC) and the ILO.
Eighty-ﬁve delegates from 17 countries discussed effective wage-setting mechanisms and
put forward trade union initiatives to ensure
decent wages in CIS member-states in compliance with the ILO recommendations.
Deputy Director of the ILO Bureau for Workers
Activities Anna Biondi and president of the Federation of
Independent Trade Unions of Russia Mikhail Shmakov
2
Anna Biondi, Deputy Director of the ILO
Bureau for Workers Activities (ACTRAV),
addressed delegates with opening remarks,
stressing the need for joint fruitful actions of
trade unions towards ensuring decent wages.
Mariko Ouchi, Senior Social Security Specialist of the ILO DWT and Country Ofﬁce for
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, read out
to conference participants the Global Wage
Report 2012-2013.
The new report demonstrated that the labour
income share was declining both in industrialized and developing countries. “To restore
balance” it was necessary to strengthen the labour market and social security at the national
and global levels, Ouchi said.
Mikhail Shmakov, president of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia,
emphasized that a decent wage was one of the
key elements in the ﬁght for decent work.
One of the conference’s sessions was devoted
to the ILO’s Termination of Employment
Convention, 1982 (No. 158) and the process
of its ratiﬁcation and implementation in countries of the region. ■
Source: www.fnpr.ru
In particular, in light of the information it
received the mission considered that it was
necessary to develop “a dispute resolution
mechanism which would contain fact-ﬁnding
and mediation functions.”
The mission met with the members of the
tripartite Council set up in 2009, following a
tripartite seminar on trade union rights. This
Council is chaired by the Minister of Labour
and Social Protection, and it is to deal with the
implementation of the recommendations of
the Commission of Inquiry. It has also dealt
with individual conﬂicts.
The mission suggested certain activities to
strengthen the role and functioning of the
Council, through cooperation with the International Labour Organization. It considered
that the modalities of collective bargaining in
enterprises with multiple trade unions could
be examined and developed. In addition, ways
of resolution of conﬂicts through mediation
and agreement could be developed with ILO
expertise.
At its March 2014 session the Governing
Body of the ILO discussed the report of the
mission. The Government was urged to begin
taking concrete steps suggested by the mission
without delay.
There will probably be a discussion at the
103rd session of the International Labour
Conference, which starts on May 28, 2014. ■
New General Agreement
signed in Russia
In late December last year Russia’s government, associations of employers and trade
unions signed the General Agreement for 20142016. Signatures to the document were put by
president of the Federation of Independent
Trade Unions of Russia Mikhail Shmakov,
Labour and Social Protection Minister Maxim
Topilin and president of the Russian Union
of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander
Shokhin.
The agreement sets common principles for
regulating social and labour relations, connected with them economic relations at the federal level and signatories’ joint actions for their
implementation.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended the
signing ceremony. ■
ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
ILO supports visit of German employers to Russian
Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs
In mid-December
the All-Russian
Association of Employers of Electric
Power Industry received a delegation
of the Confederation of German Employers’
Associations (BDA) at the head ofﬁce of the
Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow and organized a seminar
focusing on German employers’ experience in
regulating relations with employees and on the
results of a seminar on practices of regulating
social and labour relations in Germany.
The Russian side was represented by director of the Russian Union of Industrialists
and Entrepreneurs’ labour market and social
partnership department Marina Moskvina,
heads of main departments of the All-Russian
Association of Employers of Electric Power
Industry led by Director-General Arkady Zamoskovny, employers’ representatives of some
member-organizations of the All-Russian
Association of Employers of Electric Power
Industry. The ILO was represented by Senior
Specialist for Employers’ Activities of the ILO
DWT and Country Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe
and Central Asia Jelena Kocmur.
The German delegation paid a return visit
to Moscow with support of the ILO and the
Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs after member-organizations of the AllRussian Association of Employers of Electric
Power Industry visited Germany last October,
also with support of the ILO and the Russian
Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
The seminar was opened by Marina Moskvina,
who briefed guests on the Russian Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs’ activity on
promoting social partnership in different areas
of the Russian economy.
The German delegation included deputy executive director of the Federal Association of
Employers of Electric Power Industry and
Utilities (VAEU) Uwe Gassmann, chief executive ofﬁcer of the Federation of Metallurgic
and Electric Power Industry (Nordmetall)
T. Schmidt and Nordmetall international relations director H. Manske.
April 28 -
Jelena Kocmur focused on the ILO measures
to support social partnership development in
Russia and Eastern Europe and on employers
and their associations’ opportunities for participating in the ILO activities.
During the seminar Uwe Gassmann made a
comprehensive report on characteristics and
state of the current negotiations to conclude
tariff agreements with trade unions in Germa-
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
Safety and health in the use of chemicals at work
This year’s theme of the
World Day for Safety and
Health at Work is “Safety
and health in the use of
chemicals at work.”
Continual development of
production and use
of the chemicals in workplace represents a
real challenge for the society, as well as for the
world of work. Finding
appropriate balance
between the beneﬁts of
chemical use and the preventive and control measures of potential adverse
impact on workers,
workplaces, communities and environment
must represent a permanent concern and, in
the same time, preoccupa-
tion for governments, employers and workers
and their organizations.
In this regard, concerted efforts must be orientated to offering a coherent global response
to the continuous scientiﬁc and technological
progress, global growth in chemicals production and changes in the organization
of work in this ﬁeld.
In support of this campaign,
the website of the World Day
for Safety and Health at
Work has been updated
with promotional materials in English, French
and Spanish. In addition, the ILO Decent
Work Technical Support Team and Country Ofﬁce for Eastern
Europe and Central
Asia will provide the Russian version of the report
on its website. ■
From right to left: director of the Russian Union of
Industrialists and Entreprenuers’ labour market and social
partnership department Marina Moskvina, ILO Moscow
Senior Specialist for Employers’ Activities Jelena Kocmur
and RaEl Association director-general Arkady Zamoskovny
ny’s energy sector and introduced Russian colleagues to enterprise level collective bargaining
mechanisms. Moreover, he focused on issues
that evoked the strongest interest among
representatives of member-organizations of
the All-Russian Association of Employers of
Electric Power Industry during their visit to
Germany. In particular, Gassmann explained
how German energy companies paid for employees’ shift work, compensations for hard
working conditions, supplementary pensions
and other allowances.
In his presentation, H. Manske spoke of Germany’s vocational education system and its
common principles.
After the seminar VAEU, the All-Russian Association of Employers of Electric Power
Industry and the Union of Employers of
Nuclear Power Industry, Energy Sector and
Science signed a cooperation agreement. ■
Source: www.rael.elektra.ru
Russian Business
Week 2014
On March 19, Moscow hosted the conference entitled “The labour market and social investments:
the interaction of business and government”
within the framework of the Russian Business
Week 2014, organized by the Russian Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).
Opening remarks to delegates were made by
RSPP president Alexander Shokhin, Deputy
Prime Minister Olga Golodest, Labour and
Social Protection Minister Maxim Topilin and
FNPR president Mikhail Shmakov.
Delegates addressed such pressing issues as lack
of skilled workforce, problems of single-industry towns and social responsibility of business.
Dimitrina Dimitrova, Director of the ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country
Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe and Central Asia,
spoke of the ILO position on sustainable enterprises and social investments. She emphasized
that investments based on environmental, social
and good governance criteria will help create
stable and decent jobs.■
3
Newsletter
#1(56) March 2014
Partnership for youth employment
in CIS member-states
Three Russian regions
become ILO project
participants
Action plan for ILO
youth employment
project in Azerbaijan
Russia’s Perm Territory, the Republic
of Kalmykia and
the Khanty-Mansi
Autonomous District became participants of the ILO project “Partnerships for
youth employment in the CIS” for 2013-2016.
Under the project ﬁnanced by the Russian oil
company LUKOIL these three regions different from the point of view of economy and
geography will develop youth employment
pacts.
Youth employment pacts are mechanisms for
coordinating actions of the interested parties such as regional administrations, social
partners, private sector and non-governmental
organizations. The pacts are targeted at promoting youth employment and supporting
decent work initiatives for young people.
ILO Moscow experts, Sergeyus Glovackas,
Senior Specialist in Workers’ Activities, and
On February 19,
Minister of Labour
and Social Protection of Population
of Azerbaijan
Salim Muslimov
held a meeting with ILO Moscow Senior Employment Specialist Olga Koulaeva and Chief
Technical Adviser of the project “Partnerships
for youth employment in the CIS” Mikhail
Pouchkin to discuss an action plan for youth
employment partnership.
Muslimov said Azerbaijan attached great
importance to the creation of mechanisms
to introduce ﬁnancial and tax incentives for
employers attracting young specialists, coordination of the education system with growing
demands of the country’s economy, enhancement of vocational education and creation of
job fairs and job exchange for the youth.
ILO experts focused on the ILO activity
within the project, in particular on launching
the Active Labour Market Programme – Apprenticeship Programme for Young Graduates
and Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas.
During the mission to Azerbaijan Pouchkin
also held meetings with representatives of
the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs
(Employers) of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan
Trade Unions Confederation. Taking part in
the meeting with Azerbaijani employers was
also ILO Moscow Senior Specialist for Employers’ Activities Jelena Kocmur. ■
Source: www.trend.az
Mikhail Pouchkin, Chief Technical Adviser
of the project, name three reasons hindering
youth to enter the labour market - mismatch
between skills and demands, non-coherence
between education and labour, and high expectations of young people entering labour
market. Young people could not cope with
these problems alone, the ILO experts said,
stressing the need for partnership among the
authorities, employers, education institutions
and trade unions.
There is no universal solution, but the ILO
is ready to share its recommendations and
methods. For instance, other country of the
subregion, Kazakhstan, where the project
has also been implemented, has examples of
successful work. Kazakh enterprises training
youth are given loans and tax incentives under
a state programme.
The ﬁrst step towards the project’s implementation will be assessment of the pilot regions’
economic and social situation that will be
conducted by the ILO Decent Work Technical
Support Team and Country Ofﬁce for Eastern
Europe and Central Asia. This analysis will
become a starting point to develop youth employment pacts. ■
Source: www.nakanune.ru, www.rg.ru
Kazakhstan’s parliament ratiﬁes two
ILO conventions on wages
On March 20, the
Senate, the upper
house of Kazakhstan’s parliament,
ratiﬁed two ILO
conventions – the
Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) and the Protection of
Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95).
Convention No.26 is aimed at securing the
right to maintain wage ﬁxing machinery by the
authorities.
Each member of the International Labour
Organization which ratiﬁes this Convention
undertakes to create or maintain machinery
whereby minimum rates of wages can be ﬁxed
for workers employed in certain of the trades
or parts of trades (and in particular in home
working trades) in which no arrangements
4
exist for the effective regulation of wages by
collective agreement or otherwise and wages
are exceptionally low.
The aim of the Protection of Wages Convention is to ensure timely payment of wages in
money by employers. Wages payable in money
shall be paid only in legal tender, and payment
in the form of promissory notes, vouchers or
coupons, or in any other form alleged to represent legal tender, shall be prohibited.
The payment of wages in the form of liquor
of high alcoholic content or of noxious drugs
shall not be permitted in any circumstances.
At present, the Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention has been ratiﬁed by
103 ILO member-states, including such CIS
member-countries as Armenia and Belarus.
The Protection of Wages Convention has
been ratiﬁed by 97 member-states, including
such CIS member-countries as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan and Ukraine.
The ILO Conventions enter into force one year
after the instrument of ratiﬁcation is registered by
the Director-General of the International Labour
Organization. ■
Source: www.parlam.kz
ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
February 20 - Wold Day of Social Justice
As the world marked the Day of Social Justice
on February 20, ILO Director-General Guy
Ryder urged policy-makers to converge on
the ambition of a real global socio-economic
recovery – a recovery for all – and a Post-2015
Development Agenda that helps lift all out of
poverty.
“Today, an entire generation of young people
faces the prospect of a more uncertain, less
prosperous future than did their parents. Many
are already in desperate situations hardly able
to fall any further,” said Guy Ryder.
“Social protection measures are essential elements of the policy response. Countries with
strong social security systems have reduced
their poverty rates by more than half, through
social transfers and have signiﬁcantly reduced
inequality,” he said. “Social protection is both
a human right and sound economic policy.
Social security enables access to health care,
education and nutrition.”
“Well-designed social protection systems support incomes and domestic consumption,
build human capital, and increase productivity,” the ILO Director-General said.
“Yet over 76 percent of the world’s population
continues to live without adequate health and
social protection coverage,” he noted.
In 2009, the ILO and the United Nations
launched the Social Protection Floor Initiative advocating social protection ﬂoors for all.
Then, in June 2012 the International Labour
Conference adopted the path-breaking ILO
Recommendation Concerning National Floors
of Social Protection (No. 202). It provides
good guidance.
On the occasion of the World Day for Social
Justice, the Permanent Mission of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United Nations and the
International Labour Organization convened
a special event that examined the challenges
women, men and youth faced in accessing opportunities for a better life and decent work.
The moderated panel entitled World Day of
Social Justice: Inclusive Growth and Decent
Work explored how an adequate supply of
decent jobs combined with adequate social
protection created the foundation of sustained
and growing prosperity, inclusion and social
cohesion.
Guy Ryder:
“Social protection is
both a human right
and sound economic
policy. Social security
enables access to health
care, education and
nutrition.”
Panellists, including Talaibek Kadyrov, Permanent Representative of the Kyrgyz Republic to
the UN, Jane Stewart, Special Representative
to the UN and Director of the ILO Ofﬁce for
the United Nations in New York, Raymond
Torres, Director of the ILO’s International
Institute for Labour Studies, and others,
discussed how various approaches could be
tailored to promote employment, especially
for youth, and how access to services such as
social protection and relevant education and
training programmes proved vital in the transition to decent work. ■
Kyrgyzstan discusses ILO
Social Security Convention
Russia to ratify ILO
Paid Education
Leave Convention
On February 20,
Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Social Development discussed
the ILO Social
Security (Minimum
Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) and
Social Protection Floors Recommendation,
2012 (No.202).
The discussion brought together representatives of the Ministry of Social Development,
the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Youth,
the National Confederation of Employers, the
Federation of Trade Unions of Kyrgyzstan
and social funds.
On February 11,
the Russian government submitted
to the State Duma,
the lower house
of Russian parliament, for consideration a bill ratifying the ILO
Paid Educational Leave Convention, 1974
(No. 140).
In compliance with the convention that is
legally binding for all member-states of the
ILO paid leave should be granted to a worker
for educational purposes.
“Ratiﬁcation of the convention will provide
additional legal guarantees for observing
workers’ rights to paid education leave,” the
government’s press service said in a statement.
Ratiﬁcation of the Paid Education Leave
Convention requires no amendments to be
submitted to the effective legislation, as Russia’s Labour Code already envisages guarantees
and compensations for workers combining
work and full-time and extramural education
on basic, higher education and vocational programmes, post-graduate and residency training
courses. ■
Source: www.duma.gov.ru
Mariko Ouchi:
“For ratifying Convention No.102 a ﬁrm
commitment to improve the national social security system is
required.”
ILO Moscow Senior Social Protection Specialist Mariko Ouchi said none of the CIS member-states had ratiﬁed the Convention No.102
yet, although it was adopted in 1952.
“Convention No.102 covers nine branches of
social security. For ratifying this convention a
ﬁrm commitment to improve the national social security system is required,” Mariko Ouchi
said. “New ILO Social Protection Floors
Recommendation No.202 covers health care
and three types of basic income guarantees at
the national level. Income guarantees include
income security for children, elderly people
and people who are at working age but cannot
engage at work.” ■
Source: www.kg.akipress.org
5
Newsletter
#1(56) March 2014
new child
Russia’s Labour Ministry to develop ILO’s
labour survey
occupational safety rules
in Kyrgyzstan
543 workers died, agriculture, where 278 fatalities were reported, motor transport with 80
fatalities, timber logging and wood working
industry with 73 fatalities, minerals processing
with 71 fatalities, food industry with 56 fatalities and housing and public utility sector with
36 fatalities.
Sergei Velmyaikin:
“One of the reasons
for a high rate of occupational accidents is
that today the occupational safety rules have
become obsolete.”
Russia’s Ministry
of Labour and Social Protection will
develop occupational safety rules
for seven most
hazardous industries, ﬁrst deputy minister Sergey Velmyaikin
told reporters on January 22.
“Seven industries have been reported most
hazardous by the number of occupational fatalities for eleven months of last year,” he said.
These industries include construction, where
“One of the reasons for a high rate of occupational accidents is that today the occupational safety rules for the above-mentioned
industries have become obsolete. They
remain narrowly specialised and do not correspond to modern occupational safety laws,”
Velmyaikin said.
The occupational safety rules will be harmonized with common principles and norms
of the international law in compliance with
provisions of the Programme of Cooperation
between the Russian Federation and the ILO
for 2013-2016. ■
Bijoy Raychaudhuri said the survey would take
place from March, 2014, to March, 2015. It
will bring together representatives of different
interested ministries and agencies, including
the Social Development Ministry and the national statistics committee. ■
Source: www.tpp-inform.ru,www.itar-tass.сom
Source: www.kabar.kg
ILO Subcommittee adopts resolution
raising seafarers’ wages
On February 28, the Subcommittee on Wages
of Seafarers of the ILO Joint Maritime Commission agreed on a Resolution raising the
minimum monthly basic wage ﬁgure for able
seafarers from US$585 to US$592, as of January 1, 2015, and US$614, as of January 1, 2016.
2013), decided to convene a meeting of the
Subcommittee on Wages of Seafarers of
the Joint Maritime Commission in 2014 to
update the ILO minimum basic wage of
able seafarers.
The minimum monthly basic wage ﬁgure for
able seafarers has most recently been included
in the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention,
2006 (MLC, 2006).
The Convention, known as the “seafarers’
bill of rights”, entered into force on August
20, 2013, and has been ratiﬁed by 56 ILO
member-states representing over 80 percent
of world shipping tonnage.
The mechanism for setting the minimum
monthly wage for able seafarers is the only
one in the ILO for setting the basic wage for
any industry.
The Governing Body of the International
Labour Ofﬁce, at its 317th Session (March
6
The ILO will conduct a child labour
survey in Kyrgyzstan. This information became
known on January
18 at the meeting between Kyrgyz Social Development Minister Kudaibergen Bazarbayev
and expert of the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
(ILO-IPEC) Bijoy Raychaudhuri.
“In general, child labour exerts negative impact on socio-economic development of the
country. To eliminate child labour and draft
concrete measures, we need to conduct a comprehensive survey,” Bazarbayev said.
The Joint Maritime Commission is the only
permanent bipartite standing body of the
ILO. It dates back to 1920, and is composed
of ship-owner and seafarer representatives
from across the globe.
The Subcommittee was established by the
Governing Body at its 280th Session (March
2001) to meet every two years for the purpose
of updating the basic pay or wages of able
seafarers. ■
Russia-Belarus Union
State creates trade union
association
Last December trade unions of the RussiaBelarus Union State signed in Moscow a
memorandum to create a trade union association. The document was signed by president of the Federation of Independent Trade
Unions of Russia Mikhail Shmakov, president of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions Alexander Yaroshuk and
president of the Confederation of Labour of
Russia Boris Kravchenko.
The association’s main task is to harmonize
Russian and Belarusian laws on labour relations, ensure their compliance with the ILO
fundamental conventions - the Freedom of
Association and Protection of the Right to
Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining
Convention, 1949 (No. 98) and with the two
countries’ constitutions.
The memorandum is open for signing by
other trade unions of Russia and Belarus. ■
Source: www.fnpr.ru
ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Our PUBLICATIONS
All publications can be found at our website www.ilo.ru
Maternity Protection and Childcare Systems in the Republic of Azerbaijan
In English
Maternity protection, aiming to protect the health of mother and child as well as women’s economic and
employment security, was identiﬁed as one of the priority areas agreed by the tripartite constituents in the
Republic of Azerbaijan in 2011.
This report was prepared under the framework of the Finland funded project “From the crisis towards
decent and safe jobs”. It consists of introduction, four analytical chapters and conclusions which also include recommendations. Chapter 1 provides the socio-economic and demographic overview and Chapter
2 further reviews national laws, policies and programmes related to maternity protection. In Chapter 3, the
report further focuses on the discussions of the speciﬁc features of maternity protection and childcare
systems in Azerbaijan and Chapter 4 explains the role of various actors in policy implementation, including
the role of Azerbaijani social partners.
The ILO DWT and Country Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe and Central Asia plans to translate this publication
into the Azerbaijani language.
Labour Dispute Systems: Guidelines for improved performance
In Russian
This guide is a part of the ILO’s effort to strengthen the prevention and resolution of labour disputes
by providing advice to both ILO constituents and industrial relations practitioners interested in dispute
resolution. It provides advice on the steps to be taken to either revitalize an existing system, or establish
an independent institution, ensuring that they operate efﬁciently and provide effective dispute resolution
services. The aim of the practitioner’s guide is to improve the effectiveness of dispute resolution and
prevention by establishing or revitalizing institutions and administrative units for mediation and voluntary
arbitration, so as to reinforce consensus-based processes and reduce the systemic need for social partners
to resort to adjudicative processes.
This guide is a collaborative effort between the Industrial and Employment Relations Department of
the ILO and the Social Dialogue, Labour Legislation and Labour Administration Programme of the
International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, Italy.
Comparative review of unemployment and employment insurance experiences
in Asia and worldwide
In Russian
The report presents an overview of unemployment insurance and employment insurance schemes in
place in 14 countries, as a means of providing partial income replacement to insured workers while they
are between jobs, and looking for new employment. The countries chosen for the comparative review
cover not only a wide geographic range, but also a range of economic development stages. Two of
these countries are located in North America (Canada and the United States), two are in South America
(Argentina and Chile), three are in Europe (Denmark, France, and Germany), one is in the Middle East
(Bahrain), two are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Thailand and
Vietnam), and ﬁnally four are located in East Asia (China, Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea).
The research was conducted under the project “Promoting and Building Unemployment Insurance and
Employment Services in ASEAN”. The purpose of the report is to highlight the main features and
practices applied in these unemployment insurance schemes rather than offering a detailed review of all of
their characteristics and parameters.
Advisory report on vocational rehabilitation and employment of people
with disabilities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
In Russian and English
Beginning with a brief historical background on disability issues, the report provides an overview of
the current labour market situation of people with disabilities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and
identiﬁes the main challenges they face. It then discusses the main UN and ILO standards related to the
rights of people with disabilities. The report further draws on information from ILO-commissioned
country studies in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and the Russian Federation to review national legislation
and policies regulating/protecting and promoting employment of people with disabilities. The report
analyses the relevant national legislation of these four countries and its compliance with international
labour standards. On the basis of this analysis as well as international experience, it provides advice for the
region on desired amendments to legislation that would ensure better protection of people with disabilities
against discrimination, and improve the regulation and promotion of their vocational education and
training, vocational rehabilitation and employment.
7
News in BRIEF
The assessment will be held no less frequently
that once in ﬁve years.
Source: www.news.mail.ru
Global Employment Trends
2014
The weak global economic recovery has failed
to lead to an improvement in global labour
markets, with global unemployment in 2013
reaching almost 202 million, the ILO said in a
new report.
The Global Employment Trends 2014 report
said employment growth remains weak, unemployment continues to rise, especially among
young people, and large numbers of discouraged potential workers are still outside the
labour market.
Proﬁts are being made in many sectors, but
those are mainly going into asset markets and
not the real economy, damaging long-term
employment prospects.
The report stressed the pressing need to integrate young people into the labour force. At
present, some 74.5 million men and women
under the age of 25 are unemployed, a global
youth unemployment rate of over 13 percent
– over two times more than the overall global
unemployment rate.
Russia classiﬁes jobs into four
categories
At the end of December last year Russian
President Vladimir Putin signed a law on
special assessment of working conditions,
introducing classiﬁcation of job categories in
the country.
The law introduces four categories – optimal, permissible, hazardous and dangerous.
Compensation for workers’ hazardous and
dangerous working conditions as well as the
size of employers’ insurance contributions will
depend on these categories.
Under the document, an independent organization that has attested experts and necessary
measuring equipment will assess working conditions in a company.
ILO publication translated into
Tajik language
At the end of last year “A handbook on
HIV/AIDS for labour inspectors” was translated into the Tajik language and published
with ﬁnancial support of the ILO DWT
and Country Ofﬁce for Eastern Europe and
Central Asia for further use and adaptation
by the State Labour Inspection as a practical
guidance on how to effectively respond to the
HIV epidemic and prevent discrimination at
the workplaces and as a tool to promote the
ILO Recommendation concerning HIV and
AIDS and the world of work, 2010 (No. 200).
Over 200 copies were dispatched to the State
Labour Inspection of Tajikistan.
Kazakhstan together with ILO
to develop new approaches
for calculating minimum
subsistence level
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Labour and Social
Protection of Population together with the
ILO planned to develop new approaches to
methods of calculating the minimum subsistence level, chairman of the statistics agency
Alikhan Smailov said on February 17.
In the near future the ministry would bring up
approaches to calculate the minimum wage for
public discussion, he said.
Source: www.regnum.ru
Workshop on anticipation of
skill needs in Baku
On February 19, the ILO and the European
Training Foundation organized a workshop
on anticipation and matching of skill needs in
Baku. The workshop targeted the Azerbaijani
experts, policy makers, social partners and
practitioners.
The International Labour Organization’s contribution to the workshop was made within
the framework of the ILO project “From the
crisis towards decent and safe jobs”, which
was funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
of Finland.
The ILO commissioned a Review of Data,
Tools and Analytical and Institutional Capacities for Skills Anticipation in Azerbaijan (Muravieva, A., ILO 2013).
The workshop discussed the ﬁndings of the
review and options for further development
based on international practices for skills
anticipation.
March 8 - International
Women’s Day
“Stubborn gaps in gender equality in the
workplace still remain. We need to assess the
effectiveness of existing policies so we can
renew strategies and take concrete action to
improve women’s working lives,” said ILO
Director- General Guy Ryder on the occasion
of the International Women’s Day.
When the International Labour Organization
was founded in 1919, most women around the
world did not have the right to vote and most
in paid work had little or no collective voice to
advocate for their workplace rights.
Nearly a century on, female participation in
the labour market has signiﬁcantly increased,
along with progress on their rights at work.
However millions still face signiﬁcant barriers
in accessing equal opportunity and treatment
in their jobs.
Tajikistan’s remittances from
Russia top list
The Central Bank of Russia said in JanuarySeptember 2013 the volume of remittances
through money transfer systems from Russia
to CIS member-states exceeded $15 billion.
Tajikistan tops the list by the number of transactions with 26 percent. Uzbekistan with 24
percent and Kyrgyzstan with 15 percent come
next, while Ukraine with 14 percent rounds
out the list.
For the nine month of last year remittances to
Tajikistan have exceeded $3 billion.
Source: www.news.tj
Newsletter is published four times a year in Russian and English. It is distributed free of charge.
Editor: Elena Iskandarova
All correspondence should be addressed to: 107031, Russia, Moscow, 15 Petrovka st., ofﬁce 23
Tel: +7 (495) 933-0810 Fax: +7 (495) 933-0820
E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ilo.ru
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ILO News RUS Facebook: www.facebook/ILO.rus.news
ISSN 1811-1351

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