Full Coverage: Labour

29.12.2006 Efforts to develop cooperation between six industrial trade unions have advanced to a new phase. In mid- December the unions chose SAKÂ’s bargaining department head, Lauri Lyly, to examine the options for future relations between the six unions. The main alternatives lie between a full merger and closer cooperation.

28.12.2006 The site compiles comprehensive write-ups on the tsunami that inform about aid and assistance after the disaster, its social effects and the environmental lessons learnt from it.

20.12.2006 Employment of children is a criminal offence under Section 14 of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986. The employer can be jailed for not less than 3 months but which may extend to one year or with fine which shall not be less than Rupees ten thousand but which may extend to Rupees Twenty thousand or both

19.12.2006 GUALEGUAYCHU, Argentina, Dec 18 (IPS) - With a nativity scene and a big Christmas tree set up on the highway to the nearby bridge leading to Uruguay, residents of the Argentine town of Gualeguaychu plan to continue blocking traffic between the two countries until a pulp plant being built on the other side of the river moves elsewhere.

19.12.2006 Declining fertility rates have changed the age structure of India’s population, resulting in a “bulge” in the working age-group. This “demographic dividend” has improved the dependency ratio leading to the hypothesis that the bulge in working population will lead to an acceleration in growth argues C P Chandrasekar, Jayati Ghosh and Anamitra

18.12.2006 The UN General Assembly has adopted a landmark disability convention, the first human rights treaty of the twenty-first century and one that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said represents the "dawn of a new era" for around 650 million people worldwide living with disabilities.

12.12.2006 On the occasion of December 10, the International Human Rights Day, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Serbia invited all relevant social actors, especially the state institutions, to contribute to the fight against poverty through protection and strengthening of human rights culture.

11.12.2006 A number of factors have led to a steady increase in the use of children as soldiers. Technological developments and the proliferation of weapons, especially small arms, have made semi-automatic rifles light enough to be used and simple enough to be stripped and reassembled by a 10-year-old child.

06.12.2006 MSB, a company based in Gdansk in Northern Poland, is seriously in breech of labour legislation rules in regard to its work sites in Finland in what amounts to dumping working conditions. Polish electricians have been paid only 5 hours per hour, a third of the hourly rate laid down by the Finnish collective agreement.

06.12.2006 Ann Selin, president of the Service Union United, is not satisfied with the government's goal in narrowing the pay gap between women and men. In 2004, the average pay for women was 80 per cent of the average pay for men making the gap even wider than it was in 1999.