Full Coverage: Labour

30.01.2008 PUCALLPA, Peru, Jan 30 (IPS) - Residents of the Amazon jungle town of Orellana in Peru have filed a complaint against a logging company for using their identity documents to commit tax fraud in illegal timber sales worth more than $200,000.

29.01.2008 Two documentaries, A Pinch of Salt and Warriors of Chinnaganjam, poignantly capture the plight and struggles of salt workers in southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. These are tales of survival on the fringes; as one elderly worker in one of the films put it succinctly: “Our life is a constant confrontation with death.”

28.01.2008 On January 26, while India was busy celebrating its Republic Day, some at its commercial capital Mumbai were taking out processions to mark the World Social Forum’s Global Day of Action to insist that ‘Another World is Possible’.

24.01.2008 A slowdown in economic growth could spur global unemployment by 5 million persons in 2008, with unemployment rates touching levels never seen before, predicts the International Labour OrganizationÂ’s annual Global Employment Trends (GET) report. The report also notes South Asia as having the highest share of vulnerable jobs and workers without a voice at work.

23.01.2008 International Labour OrganisationÂ’s new report says that ending poverty in South Asia will require labour market reforms coupled with economic progress. The report notes that instances of extreme poverty have impressively come down in the last decade but proportion of working poor continues to remain high in the region.

20.01.2008 Young children are forced into labour to produce unbaked bricks at nearly 6,000 brick kilns in Pakistan. Despite laws banning forced labour, the country has over 1.7 million bonded labourers, many of them children, says the International Labour Organisation.

18.01.2008 Recently named as Man of the Year by The Week, Baba Adhav is a veteran trade unionist working with porters in Maharashtra in western India. His sole mission now is to get the Bill for social security of unorganised sector workers passed in Parliament. In a freewheeling interview, he reminisces his life and times.

16.01.2008 The Indian fishing communities are upset with the Ministry of Environment and Forests on being left out of the consultation process over an Integrated Coastal Zone Management scheme under World Bank guidelines. They say the government is trying to bring in Special Economic Zones, tourist resorts and ports all along India's coastline.

15.01.2008 NEW YORK, Jan 15 (OneWorld) - Rights activists in the West are urging buyers and sellers of precious gems to reject rubies and jades mined in Myanmar (formerly Burma).

15.01.2008 A study conducted in Pune, a city in western Indian state of Maharashtra, shows that most of the waste-picking is carried out by children. Those who should be spending their time playing and attending schools are forced by circumstances to take up a hazardous profession at a tender age.

04.01.2008 Can an annual 9% plus growth in India be translated into reality for the 750 million living in extreme poverty? According to an editorial in the Economics Times, the solution may lie in access to bank accounts, where NREGA wages and payments for old age support can be the first step to financial inclusion.