19 August, 2009Precarious work has come to be identified as a major problem undermining the gains of the working class and eroding trade union organisation. The IMF has started a global campaign to tackle the issue of precarious work and much of IMF action programme and implementation strategy aims at addressing this issue at various levels and through different methods. What we need to keep in mind though is that conditions are not the same the world over and as affiliates in Africa there is a need to think about and identify issues on precarious work that are most critical to this region and how these issues should be addressed in the broader IMF action programme and implementation strategy. In this article we focus in on some of the key issues that make the experience of precarious work in Africa different from other parts of the world particularly the more industrialised and so called developed nations.
29 April, 2009After years of strong criticism by trade unions, the World Bank has finally instructed its staff to stop using the labour indicators of its "Doing Business" flagship publication that gives higher rating to countries with the lowest workers' protection.