[stop-imf] ILO says globalization costs jobs

[Robert Weissman]

ILO: Report Says Globalization Causes Job Losses 
>From the World Bank's Development News, June 21, 2000

                Increasing trade liberalization and the effects of
globalization have resulted in job
           losses and less secure work arrangements, the International
Labor Organization said
           in a study released yesterday. Some 75% of the world's 150
million jobless have no
           unemployment benefits and the vast majority of populations in
many developing
           countries has no social protection whatsoever, the report
added.

                According to the ILO's "World Labor Report 2000," most
industrialized
           countries have reduced unemployment insurance, limiting
eligibility and cutting
           benefits in the past decade. Among the countries providing less
worker benefits and
           belonging to a second-tier position globally were Australia,
Canada, Ireland, Japan,
           New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
                Many European countries over the past 10 years have lead
in assuring
           unemployment benefits, even though European governments have
reduced their
           assistance programs. Critics of unemployment programs and other
social protection
           schemes have argued that countries with high levels of
benefits, like those in Europe,
           are so burdened with social costs that they cannot compete with
economies
           providing less assistance.
                The report's chief author, Roger Beattie, called such
criticism "naive," arguing
           that countries can simultaneously protect their workers and
expand their economies.

                "Countries can increase social security spending, and it
will take out only 20% of
           future real increases in earnings," he said (Elizabeth Olson,
International Herald
           Tribune, 21 Jun).
                The study warns of the dangers of reducing or eliminating
jobless benefits.
           "Alarmist rhetoric notwithstanding, social protection, even in
the supposedly
           expensive forms to be found in most advanced countries, is
affordable in the long
           term," says ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in the report's
introduction. "It is
           affordable because it is essential for people, but also because
it is productive in the
           longer term. Societies which do not pay enough attention to
security, especially the
           security of their weaker members, eventually suffer a
destructive backlash," he said
           (ILO release, 21 Jun).
                The report also takes into account underemployed and
informal sector workers,
           noting that these people "earn very low incomes and have an
extremely limited
           capacity to contribute to social protection schemes." For these
workers, the ILO
           study suggests that governments should provide assistance by
employing them in
           labor-intensive infrastructure programs, such as road
construction or land
           reclamation. The report notes India's Jawahar Rozgar Yojana and
Maharashtra
           Government's Employment Scheme as examples of employment
guarantee
           programs (Chennai Hindu, 20 Jun).
                The report highlights several trends and issues affecting
social protection services
           today:

                The number of people living in extreme poverty has risen
by 200 million in the
                past five years, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, Central
Asia, Eastern Europe
                and Southeast Asia.
                850 million people earn less than a living wage or work
less than they want.
                Poverty is a major factor in driving 250 million children
into the labor force,
                jeopardizing their education.
                In several developed countries, divorce rates have
increased up to 500%
                over the past 30 years, creating more single-parent
households.
                In many of these same countries, births to unmarried women
jumped up to
                six times in the same 20-year period, creating even more
single-parent
                households.
                Poverty rates for households headed by a single mother are
at least three
                times higher than for two-parent households in a number of
developed
                countries.
                Social security spending as a percentage of gross domestic
product has risen
                in most countries from 1975-1992, with several exceptions,
mainly in Africa
                and Latin America.
                Changes in family structures, as well as rising
unemployment and income
                inequality, have caused an increase in child poverty rates
between the 1960s
                and the 1990s.
                Due to falling fertility rates worldwide, more women are
able to enter the
                work force. The drop in fertility has also created a
population that is rapidly
                aging, reducing the ratio of workers to retired
individuals.

                The report outlines measures for improving income security
for women:

                Programs such as maternity benefits, child care facilities
and parental leave,
                that allow men and women to combine employment and child
rearing as well
                as improving women's access to work.
                The extension of social security to all employees,
including those in categories
                in which women are heavily represented -- domestic and
part-time workers;
                Recognition of unpaid child rearing work through the
endowment of credits
                via contributory systems or by providing universal
benefits (ILO release).


This summary is prepared by the External Affairs Department of the World
Bank. All material is taken directly from published and copyright wire
service stories and newspaper articles.

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