International news
Migrant population face widespread unemployment
Governments and multilateral organisations need to work together to create
more jobs in countries with high unemployment and to stem a growing tide of
economic migration, according to a new International Labour Office (ILO)
report. It says that more than half of the 175 million international migrants
registered by the year 2000 are unemployed, with numbers projected to increase.
"If you look at the global economy from the perspective of people, its biggest
structural failure is the inability to create enough jobs where people
live," said ILO director-general, Juan Somavia. "We should consider
ways of providing decent work to this vast flow of migrants through
multilateral actions and policies." The office said that the number of
migrants worldwide is causing a ‘brain drain’, with nearly 400,000 scientists
and engineers from developing countries going to work on R&D in
industrialised countries. www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc92/pdf/rep-vi.pdf
September 11 compensation cases still unsettled
New claims for worker compensation relating to illnesses alleged to be
related to the September 11 attacks are continuing to be filed in the US. To
date, the total number of claims related to the World Trade Center attacks
submitted to the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board have been 10,109.
Of these, 2,199 were death claims, of which 97 per cent have been settled.
Another 7,910 injury and exposure claims were filed, with 86 per cent of them
being settled. Jon Sullivan, spokesperson for the board, said any claims being
dealt with now were mostly from people with late-developing occupational
injuries, such as respiratory illness.
Nine month deadline to agree on how to tackle WTD
EU employers and employee organisations have been given nine months by the
European Commission (EC) to negotiate agreements dealing with problems arising
from the standard EU working time directive. In a new policy paper, the EC has
defined what these talks should focus on. Following recent judgments at the
European Court of Justice on time spent on-call by health professionals,
Brussels wants to clarify how this should be counted as working time. Second,
concerning employee flexibility, the EC wants the period over which the 48-hour
weekly average is calculated extended from the current four months. Finally, it
wants agreements changing the way the directive allows opt-outs to ensure the
system is truly voluntary. If negotiations do not happen, the EC would "propose
a new version of the working time directive in the near future," based on
the paper. http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/labour_law/index_en.htm
