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International Labour Office (international + labour_office)
Selected AbstractsThe development and Reform of Social Security Pensions:The Approach of the International Labour OfficeINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2000Colin Gillion The reform and the development of pension schemes are affected by the values society places on the provision of income security in old age and the resources it is prepared to allocate for the purpose. This paper examines those values and the issues arising from them. The objective is to propose reforms which will simultaneously provide full coverage with good governance, prevent poverty in old age, and result in indexed, guaranteed and reliable pensions for those onaverage incomes, all with minimum economic distortion or adverse economic effects. The question of the most appropriate design has to be weighed against these other factors, which will determine not only what is feasible and what is not, but also where the most desirable balance lies. The optimum structure would seem to involve a mix of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. [source] Choosing between alternative classification criteria to measure the labour force stateJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES A (STATISTICS IN SOCIETY), Issue 1 2007Erich Battistin Summary., Labour force counting relies on general guidelines that are set by the International Labour Office to classify individuals into three labour force states: employment, unemployment and inactivity. However, the resulting statistics are known to be sensitive to slight variations in operational definitions which are prima facie consistent with the general guidelines. We consider two interpretations of the general guidelines, operationalized by the criterion that is currently followed by Eurostat and a criterion that was followed by the Italian Statistical Office up to 1992. After showing that the labour force statistics resulting from the two criteria differ considerably, we compare individuals whose classification depends on the criterion that is adopted with individuals whose classification is common between criteria to study the boundary between unemployment and inactivity. An application of our strategy is presented using data from the Italian Labour Force Survey, painting a picture neatly against the criterion that is currently followed by Eurostat. [source] Airways obstruction among older construction and trade workers at Department of Energy nuclear sitesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 3 2010John M. Dement PhD Abstract Background A study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among 7,579 current and former workers participating in medical screening programs at Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons facilities through September 2008 was undertaken. Methods Participants provided a detailed work and exposure history and underwent a respiratory examination that included a respiratory history, respiratory symptoms, a posterior,anterior (P,A) chest radiograph classified by International Labour Office (ILO) criteria, and spirometry. Statistical models were developed to generate group-level exposure estimates that were used in multivariate logistic regression analyses to explore the risk of COPD in relation to exposures to asbestos, silica, cement dust, welding, paints, solvents, and dusts/fumes from paint removal. Risk for COPD in the study population was compared to risk for COPD in the general US population as determined in National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). Results The age-standardized prevalence ratio of COPD among DOE workers compared to all NHANES III data was 1.3. Internal analyses found the odds ratio of COPD to range from 1.6 to 3.1 by trade after adjustment for age, race, sex, smoking, and duration of DOE employment. Statistically significant associations were observed for COPD and exposures to asbestos, silica, welding, cement dusts, and some tasks associated with exposures to paints, solvents, and removal of paints. Conclusions Our study of construction workers employed at DOE sites demonstrated increased COPD risk due to occupational exposures and was able to identify specific exposures increasing risk. This study provides additional support for prevention of both smoking and occupational exposures to reduce the burden of COPD among construction workers. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:224,240, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Mortality among sheet metal workers participating in a medical screening programAMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 8 2009John Dement PhD Abstract Background The Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT) was formed in 1985 to examine the health hazards of the sheet metal industry in the U.S. and Canada through an asbestos disease screening program. A study of mortality patterns among screening program participants was undertaken. Methods A cohort of 17,345 individuals with 20 or more years in the trade and who participated in the asbestos disease screening program were followed for vital status and causes of death between 1986 and 2004. Data from the screening program included chest X-ray results by International Labour Office (ILO) criteria and smoking history. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) by cause were generated using U.S. death rates and Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate lung cancer risk relative to chest X-ray changes while controlling for smoking. Results A significantly reduced SMR of 0.83 (95% CI,=,0.80,0.85) was observed for all causes combined. Statistically significant excess mortality was observed for pleural cancers, mesothelioma, and asbestosis in the SMR analyses. Both lung cancer and COPD SMRs increased consistently and strongly with increasing ILO profusion score. In Cox models, which controlled for smoking, increased lung cancer risk was observed among workers with ILO scores of 0/1 (RR,=,1.17, 95% CI,=,0.89,1.54), with a strong trend for increasing lung cancer risk with increasing ILO profusion score >0/0. Conclusions Sheet metal workers are at increased risk for asbestos-related diseases. This study contributes to the literature demonstrating asbestos-related diseases among workers with largely indirect exposures and supports an increased lung cancer risk among workers with low ILO profusion scores. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:603,613, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization: On the Cross-Border Movement of PeoplePOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 2 2004Article first published online: 4 APR 200 The globalization of the world economy can be measured in terms of increases in international trade, greater levels of foreign investment and technology transfers, and the liberalization of financial markets. Accompanying and facilitating these trends have been institutional innovations and reforms, creating regimes under which international economic relationships can be managed and disputes resolved. The role of the World Trade Organization is an evident case in point. The rising scale of international migration can also be seen as a globalizing trend. Here, however, with the exception of the special case of refugees, there is no governance regime in place or in prospect at the international level. Occasional past efforts by UN agencies to stimulate formal discussion of what such a regime might look like have led nowhere: countries are simply unwilling to contemplate any weakening of their sovereign right to control entry. Proposing how to fill this perceived lacuna in the international system is one of the tasks on the agenda of the Global Commission on International Migration. The Commission, an independent body set up in 2003 by a small group of UN member states, plans to present a report to the UN Secretary-General in mid-2005. In the meantime, the subject has been explored by another group,the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization. This commission was set up by the International Labour Office in 2002. It was co-chaired by Tarja Halonen, president of Finland, and Benjamin William Mkapa, president of Tanzania. Its 24 other members included economists (among them Deepak Nayyar, Hernando de Soto, and Joseph Stiglitz), politicians, and business and labor leaders, as well as a number of ex-officio ILO representatives. After several meetings and an extensive series of consultations held during 2002 and 2003, its report, A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All, was issued in February 2004. The report argues that the benefits of globalization must be more equitably distributed. To this end, the globalizing trends in the world economy should be matched by similar advances in social and political institutions. One of the features of the existing imbalance is that "goods and capital move much more freely across borders than people do." In addition to the many other recommendations the Commission has for what it terms the governance of globalization are proposals on the management of international migration. "Fair rules for trade and capital," the Commission argues, "need to be complemented by fair rules for the movement of people." The long-run objective should be "a multilateral framework for immigration laws and consular practices,,,that would govern cross-border movement of people," paralleling "the multilateral frameworks that already exist, or are currently under discussion, concerning the cross-border movement of goods, services, technology, investment and information." The Commission's thinking on migration is in some respects reminiscent of the views of the ILO's first director, Albert Thomas, in the days of the League of Nations. Writing in 1927, Thomas envisioned, if only as a distant ideal, "some sort of supreme supernational authority which would regulate the distribution of population on rational and impartial lines, by controlling and directing migration movements and deciding on the opening-up or closing of countries to particular streams of immigration." (See the Archives section of PDR 9, no. 4.) The excerpt below consists of §428,§446 of the report, a section titled The cross-border movement of people. [source] | ||||||||||