Monitoring International Labor Standards Techniques and Sources of Information (2004) / Chapter Skim
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2 Official and Nongovernmental Sources of Information
2 Official and Nongovernmental Sources of Information
Pages 33-68
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From page 33... ...
But the quality of both types of information is uneven and research methods for measuring compliance with international labor standards and acceptable conditions of work are still in the developmental stages. This chapter presents an overview of major information sources identified by the committee that cover all or most of the core labor standards and conditions of work.
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From page 34... ...
Although no source is ideal, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is the obvious starting point for information on member countries' laws and practices with respect to labor standards.
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From page 35... ...
For countries or standards not covered by ILO sources, other official sources, such as the United Nations, require similar country reporting under other relevant international conventions, such as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, that are also sometimes accompanied by third-party review. The World Bank is also beginning to pay attention to labor standards issues in its country reports, but not as systematically as the other international sources.
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From page 36... ...
Also, there are other sources of information that have yet to be tapped, such as information collected by national statistical agencies that is not compiled by international agencies, such as the ILO. Additionally, local NGOs may produce information on violations of a specific labor standard within a single country that could be identified and entered into WebMILS.
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From page 37... ...
Every nation has numerous newspapers, magazines, radio, and television stations that provide coverage on labor issues. The committee agreed that the media should not be viewed as a primary source of information on compliance with core labor standards and conditions of work.
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From page 38... ...
The Regular Supervisory System The ILO regular system of supervision examines member country compliance with international labor standards through member country reports to the ILO that are referred to its Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR)
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From page 39... ...
Additional sources of information are produced when the CEACR reviews the Article 22 reports submitted to the ILO. Based on its review, CEACR prepares a summary report highlighting both cases of progress and areas of concern, which it submits each year for consideration by the International Labour Conference Committee on the Application of Standards.
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From page 40... ...
, child labor (International Labour Organization, 2002) , and nondiscrimination in employment and remuneration (International Labour Organization, 2003)
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From page 41... ...
These reports, including those by the Committee on Freedom of Association, ad hoc committees, and a commission of inquiry, are usually more pointed than the CEACR observations on country reports because they respond to complaints and address concrete assertions about workers' rights violations. Together, the documents in the ILO databases from the regular and ad hoc supervisory mechanisms reflect the careful judgments of ILO delegates or independent experts on the status of a country's compliance with international labor standards.
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From page 42... ...
ILO language can similarly be used to identify lack of progress, as in "the committee therefore once again requests the government to take the necessary measures to amend the provisions which are in violation of the Convention," or "the committee expresses the firm hope that the government will find the most appropriate formula for amending the above provision." Article 24 and 26 representations and the reports of the Committee on Freedom of Association, ad hoc committees, and commissions of inquiry, which are available through the ILOLEX database, are important sources for WebMILS. ILO Umbrella Database on Labor Statistics The ILO umbrella database on labor statistics (LABORSTA)
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From page 43... ...
There are several inherent problems of comparability of data both over time and across countries. Although international institutions, including the ILO, encourage the use of consistent global definitions, many countries continue to use their own national definitions when collecting labor market data, e.g., definition of the economically active labor force, unemployment, or the age of majority for children.
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From page 44... ...
44 MONITORING INTERNATIONAL LABOR STANDARDS BOX 2-1 National Definitions of Unemployment International Labour Organization, LABORSTA Unemployment "National definitions of unemployment may differ from the rec ommended international standard definition. The national definitions used vary from one country to another as regards, inter alia, age limits, reference periods, criteria for seeking work, treatment of persons temporarily laid off and of persons seeking work for the first time." National Definitions ILO Sources and Methods South Africa "The unemployed are persons 15 years and older who: 1.
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From page 45... ...
KILM covers a large number of countries and is designed to be amenable to monitor new employment trends. KILM does not collect primary data; rather, it is composed of secondary data collected from eight data sources, which include: · the International Labour Office, · the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
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From page 46... ...
represents the efforts of the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) to generate comparable and comprehensive data on child labor in all its forms.
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From page 47... ...
For example, there are links to the full text of 61 different national labor codes on the ILO website, 27 in English, 17 in French, and 17 in Spanish, as well as links to national government sites in the original language for some countries. There are also links to other repositories of national constitutions.
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From page 48... ...
treaties contain provisions that are similar to the provisions in the core labor standards plus acceptable conditions of work:
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From page 49... ...
has generated a series of detailed reports that cover abuses of labor rights, among other human rights violations. Many of the country reports submitted to the United Nations, as well as specialized U.N.
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agencies, UNESCO accepts national data unconditionally.
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From page 51... ...
To take workers' rights into account in designing the country assistance strategy, the Bank instructs staff to contact ILO country offices and 7See "Core Labor Standards Toolkit Diagnosing Core Labor Standards in the CAS" at http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/HDNet/HDdocs.nsf/2d5135ecbf351de6852566a90069 b8b6/98df7256b3dd946185256946006b5256? OpenDocument [October 9, 2003]
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INFORMATION FROM NATIONAL AGENCIES U.S. Department of State The State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices provides a fundamental source of information on compliance with international labor standards.
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37) recommended providing more resources to the International Labor Affairs Office within the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, but the trend has been in the opposite direction with staffing at the office declining since the report was released.
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From page 54... ...
has been the source of many detailed reports assessing countries' compliance with international labor standards. From the late 1980s until the late 1990s, ILAB's Foreign Labor Trends series was a major repository of country information; it was supplanted by the Department of States' annual human rights report, with its Section 6 reports on workers' rights.
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of the U.S. Congress publishes occasional country reports that focus on compliance with core labor standards.
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From page 56... ...
follows the decisions of the TPSC when determining country eligibility for OPIC assistance.9 For countries not eligible for GSP benefits, however, OPIC is required to conduct their own evaluation of labor rights performance. This occurred in the late 1980s, for example, with China, Saudi Arabia, and Korea, which were not eligible for GSP status because China was communist, Saudi Arabia was a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and Koreas' level of development had "graduated" the country from eligibility for GSP benefits (Zimmerman, 1991)
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NAO reviews as infringements on Mexican sovereignty. Canadas' NAO has also conducted some detailed investigations on core labor standards complaints involving Mexico, occasionally producing more thorough reports than the U.S.
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INFORMATION FROM NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS WebMILS would make use of information from a number of NGOs on various aspects of core labor standards. NGO reports vary considerably in the validity and reliability of data reported.
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Although the Freedom House scores are not without problems, the committee considers them for inclusion in WebMILS as an associated factor because of the importance of democratic institutions in protecting the core labor standards, particularly freedom of association. In addition, although the Freedom House reports do not treat labor rights issues systematically or in much depth, some of the individual country chapters include qualitative information on labor rights that may be useful as a supplement to other sources.
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From page 60... ...
The HRW's annual report devotes only infrequent attention to workers' rights, but it also occasionally conducts in-depth country reports on labor rights issues. For example, recent studies have dealt with child labor in U.S.
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From page 61... ...
The Global Alliance has projects to assess workers' needs and provide training for managers to meet workers' needs at Nike and Gap supplier factories in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.14 Global Alliance researchers investigate general working conditions, focusing especially on health and safety and sexual harassment. However, in the course of investigating workers' needs, the organization produces information on compliance with international labor standards.
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From page 62... ...
NLC country reports have covered Bangladesh, Burma, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Most of the country reports have been short, punchy, popular-style calls to action by readers -- with a tone of exposé rather than systematic assessment-listing factory locations by name and identifying the U.S.
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From page 63... ...
Both groups' reports should be scrutinized for workers' rights information, with the caveat that they are haphazard in covering this field.17 Solidar is a European NGO that also deals with labor rights issues.18 Formerly named International Workers Aid (renamed Solidar in 1995) this Brussels-based organization is an alliance of European NGOs and trade unions that focuses on social justice, usually devoting attention to the relationship between the European Union and developing countries.
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From page 64... ...
affiliated with the ICFTU. It provides regular, updated reports on events within sectors of industry and within specific multinational corporations.26 Based in New Delhi, the Global March Against Child Labor produces the Status Report on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.27 Academic Research Scholars who work on international labor issues are often underused as a resource for assessing countries' compliance with core labor standards.
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From page 65... ...
But the journals in which such kinds of articles are likely to appear -- including Human Rights Quarterly, Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, and any one of a dozen more high-quality law journals devoted to global labor issues -- are rarely cited by the reporting bodies reviewed here.
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From page 66... ...
At the same time, however, the peer review process has the downside of delaying publication, so that data are often more than a year old. It is difficult to keep complete track of all academic sources and publications touching on international labor rights.
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From page 67... ...
. International labor standards: Quality of information and measures in progress in combating forced labor.
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From page 68... ...
Washington, DC: Bureau of International Labor Af fairs. Available: http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/apparel/main.htm [June 23, 2003]
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