Women working in the health and care sector earn nearly 25 percent less than their male counterparts – a larger gender pay gap than in other economic sectors, two UN agencies said in a new report Wednesday. "The gender pay gap in the health and care sector: a global analysis in the time of Covid-19" was published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The report documents a raw gender pay gap of roughly 20 percentage points which jumps to 24 percentage points when factors such as age, education and working time are taken into account. While much of this gap is unexplained, the agencies said it is perhaps due to discrimination towards women, who account for nearly 70 percent of health and care workers worldwide. The report also revealed that wages in health and care tend to be lower overall when compared with other sectors, which is consistent with the finding that wages often are lower in areas where women are predominant. Also, even with the pandemic, and the crucial role played by health and care workers during the crisis, there were only marginal improvements in pay equality between 2019 and 2020. "The health and care sector has endured low pay in general, stubbornly large gender pay gaps, and very demanding working conditions. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed this situation while also demonstrating how vital the sector and its workers are in keeping families, societies and economies going," Manuela Tomei, director of the Conditions of Work and Equality Department at the ILO, said. The UN report also found a wide variation in gender pay gaps in different countries, indicating that these gaps are not inevitable and that more can be done to close the divide. Read: UN resident coordinator Gwyn Lewis meets Speaker Dr Shirin Within countries, gender pay gaps tend to be wider in higher pay categories, where men are over-represented, while women are over-represented in the lower pay categories. Mothers working in the health and care sector also appear to suffer additional penalties, with gender pay gaps significantly increasing during a woman's reproductive years and persisting throughout the rest of her working life. A more equitable sharing of family duties between men and women could lead to women making different job choices, according to the report. The analysis also examines factors that are driving the gender pay gaps in the health and care sector. Differences in age, education and working time, as well as the difference in the participation of men and women in the public or private sectors, only address part of the problem. The reasons why women are paid less than men with similar labour market profiles remain, to a large extent, unexplained by labour market factors, the report said. "Women comprise the majority of workers in the health and care sector, yet in far too many countries systemic biases are resulting in pernicious pay penalties against them," Jim Campbell, WHO's director of the health workforce, said.

The ILO country director in Bangladesh has welcomed the government’s plan to introduce paternity leave as encouraging as it allows fathers to share family responsibilities with mothers. "In Bangladesh, the labour law provides for maternity leave for four months at full pay for a maximum of two children in order to enable women's participation in the workplace,” said Tuomo Poutiainen on Monday. “It is also encouraging to know that the government is working to introduce paternity leave," said the ILO Bangladesh chief. His remarks came on a day when the International Labour Organization (ILO) released a new report on Care at work Monday. Persistent and significant gaps in care services and policies have left hundreds of millions of workers with family responsibilities without adequate protection and support, yet meeting these needs could create almost 300 million jobs by 2035, according to report. The report, Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender-equal world of work, finds that three in ten women of reproductive age, or 649 million women, have inadequate maternity protection that does not meet the key requirements of the ILO's Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183). Poutiainen said investing in the care sector is an important enabling factor for women’s participation in the workplace. At the same time highly skilled caregiver jobs are an important source of decent work employment accessible to women, which is why ILO supports the initiatives by the Government of Bangladesh in this sector, Poutiainen mentioned. The ILO, he said, is supporting the Government of Bangladesh in training highly skilled caregivers and referring them to decent work employment opportunities in Bangladesh and abroad. "So far, the demand by youth for these training opportunities in the care sector has been enthusiastic, and skilled employment in the care sector is expected to rise significantly, following long-term demographic and socio-economic trends," said Poutiainen. The ILO’s Maternity Protection Convention mandates 14 weeks minimum maternity leave on at least two-thirds of previous earnings, funded by social insurance or public funds. Eighty-two of the 185 countries surveyed for the report did not meet these standards, although "paid maternity leave or maternity protection is a universal human and labour right", the study says. At the current pace of reform it will take at least 46 years to achieve minimum maternity leave rights in the countries analyzed, which means the relevant target of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals will not be met. More than 1.2 billion men of prime reproductive age live in countries with no entitlement to paternity leave, although it would help to balance the work and family responsibilities of both mothers and fathers, the report says. Where there is paternity leave it remains short – a global average of nine days - creating a large "gender leave gap". The take-up of paternity leave entitlements is also low; a consequence, the report suggests, of low paternity pay, gender norms and policy design. The care at work report offers a global overview of national laws, policies and practices on care, including maternity, paternity, parental, child and long-term care. It highlights how some workers fall outside the scope of these legal protections.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has launched the "Behaviour Change Awareness Campaign" to identify and reduce the Covid-19 risks faced by readymade garment (RMG) workers in their workplaces and communities. Launched in June in collaboration with Brac, the campaign targeted at least 5,000 households in the RMG-dense areas of Gazipur and Chattogram, covering a population of more than 20,000 people, with at least 60% of the beneficiaries being women. Funded by Denmark and Sweden, the campaign is a part of the ILO's Social Dialogue and Industrial Relations project's Covid-19 response work, jointly with the Department of Labour, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Employers' Federation, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Workers Resource Centre. The campaign was developed based on the findings of a pulse survey conducted on 300 apparel workers to identify the gaps in their understanding of Covid-19 risks and preventive measures. For example, only 38.6% of the respondents recognised Covid-19 as a deadly disease, and over one-third of expectant and new mothers surveyed had the misconception that breastmilk can spread Covid-19. So, the survey findings suggested launching an integrated behaviour change campaign. With the tagline "Keep Corona away by knowing and complying," the campaign aims to inform RMG workers, their families and communities about Covid-19 symptoms. Special emphasis has been put on Covid-19 health tips for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. "As the second wave of Covid-19 continues to impact Bangladesh's apparel industry, personal and occupational protection against the disease has become a key component in every effort to build back better from the pandemic," Tuomo Poutiainen, country director of ILO Bangladesh, said. "The campaign will complement the ILO's ongoing support to the industry by creating awareness and providing advice to build safe and healthy practices that protect workers and encourage good public behaviour at large," he added. Featuring a series of awareness-raising videos, posters, leaflets, door-to-door meetings and public service announcements, the campaign will run till the end of October this year. Other features of the campaign are community-level engagements, distribution of hygiene kits, social media campaigns, and SMS and voice messages that are being disseminated through mobile phones.

The Walt Disney Company, which stopped sourcing from Bangladesh in 2013 amid the fire and building collapse disasters, has considered including the country in its permitted sourcing country list with International Labor Standard (ILS) audits.   The information came from a trusted source and the official notification of Disney is yet to be published, said the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Friday.   BGMEA President Faruque Hassan welcomed the timely move of Walt Disney in recognition of the progress and transformation in the industry – particularly in the area of workplace safety, social standards and environmental sustainability.    Also read: AAFA meeting: BGMEA stresses responsible supply chain, ethical sourcing Factories participating in the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Better Work Bangladesh programme will be entitled to become a vendor. They will also need to participate in the Nirapon or RMG Sustainability Council along with specific remediation fulfilment criteria.   Over the past years, the industry has made unprecedented efforts and investments to ensure safety covering fire, electrical and structural integrity, a robust follow up of factory remediation, to create a culture of safety while promoting the wellbeing of the workers. The entire safety transformation programme was supported and facilitated by the government, the ILO, international brands, manufacturers and the global unions.  Also read: UNDP & BGMEA pledge to continue collaboration on sustainable growth goals The Hong Kong-based supply chain compliance solutions provider "QIMA" ranked Bangladesh as the second-highest Ethical Manufacturing country in its recent report "QIMA Q1 2021 Barometer." The rating included performance against parameters like hygiene, health and safety, child and young labour, labour practices including forced labour, worker representation, disciplinary practices and discrimination, working hours and wages, and waste management.

Bangladesh has been reelected deputy member of the governing body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) from the Asia-Pacific region for the term 2021-2024.  The election was virtually held on Monday in Geneva during the ongoing 109th International Labour Conference (ILC). This is the third consecutive victory for Bangladesh in the ILO governing body. Also read: Bangladesh elected ILO Covid-19 Technical Committee chair Earlier, Bangladesh had served as a deputy member for the terms 2014-2017 and 2017-2021. Bangladesh secured the first position among the candidates of the Asia-Pacific region by bagging the highest 210 votes. Also read: ILO lauds progress in RMG sector A Bangladesh delegation, led by Begum Monnujan Sufian, State Minister for Labour and Employment, is virtually attending the ongoing ILC, which includes Labour Secretary KM Abdus Salam and Md Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh Ambassador and Permanent Representative in Geneva. Also read: ILO, UNICEF record first increase in child labour in two decades 

Child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide, an increase of 8.4 million in the last four years as countries are trying to turn the corner and break the cycle of poverty and child labour, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Unicef. They also warn that 9 million more children are at risk as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and this number could rise to 46 million if they do not have access to critical social protection coverage.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has underlined the need for enhanced global policy cooperation to provide decent work opportunities and foster sustainable business growth in "digital economy".

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on jobs worldwide, an impact worse than the 2008 recession, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has said.

Tentative signs of recovery are emerging in global labour markets, following unprecedented disruption in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, says the latest report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Monday.

The dramatic increase in working from home due to COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the poor working conditions experienced by many homeworkers who, prior to the crisis, numbered an estimated 260 million people worldwide.