If you have been following our blogs at Zycon, you are aware that international standards for safe working conditions are a concern at Zycon.  We have proposed that a voluntary system be adopted by manufacturers throughout the world to improve working conditions and pollution standards.  Other organizations also support the goal of worker safety, though most people in our country have never heard of them.

There is an organization that has worked in this field since the 1920’s.  It is the only surviving organization from the League of Nations, formed at the end of WWI, and is now part of the United Nations (UN).  The International Labour Organization is supported by countries from all over the world including the United States of America. It has recently concluded its 297th Session.  In that session, a report was presented on the need for ambitious reforms in labor inspection worldwide.  Some achievements were sited including:

• Brazil's recruitment of 150 new inspectors to tackle forced labor
• Turkey's training of 108 inspectors to fight child labor
• Greece's training for 81 newly recruited inspectors.
• Spain's increased number of inspectors from 1,500 to almost 2,000 over the last three years
• Latvia intents to recruit 39 new inspectors after January 2007.

In addition, following the killing of two labor inspectors in France in 2005, the French Government launched a new plan to tackle their organizational crisis in labor inspection. This includes structural and organizational reforms, improving the quality of inspections, and the recruitment of 700 new inspectors by 2010.

To read more about the ILO, go to http://www.ilo.org.