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The World Day of Social Justice (20 Feb) supports efforts to achieve sustainable development, poverty eradication, the promotion of full employment and decent work, and access to social well-being and justice for all. As the digital economy transforms the world of work, the global pandemic has also exacerbated the growing digital divide within and across developed and developing countries. This year’s observance aims at highlighting what’s needed to overcome the digital divide, provide decent work opportunities, and protect labour and human rights in the modern era of digital technologies.

The latest analysis of the labour market impact of COVID-19 by the , records massive damage to working time and income, with prospects for a recovery in 2021 slow, uneven and uncertain unless early improvements are supported by human-centred recovery policies. New annual estimates in the confirm the massive impact that labour markets suffered in 2020. The latest figures show that 8.8 per cent of global working hours were lost for the whole of last year, four times than in the 2009 global financial crisis. Women have been more affected than men by the pandemic’s labour market disruptions.

Learning how to cook is about changing your life. This is just what Paola Carosella hopes to achieve with “Kitchen & Voice”. The joint initiative of the Brazilian Public Ministry of Labour and the helps give the most marginalized people – the homeless, abused women, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people – the chance to have a real job. Paola Carosella is a world-renowned Argentine chef who lives in Sao Paulo. She has been working with the ILO since 2017 on “Kitchen and Voice”, a project that promotes labour market access for vulnerable groups in Brazil.

Those working from home, whose number has greatly increased due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, need better protection, says the International Labour Organization () in a new . Since homeworking occurs in the private sphere it is often “invisible.” In low- and middle-income countries for instance, almost all home-based workers (90 per cent) work informally. 
They are usually worse off than those who work outside the home, even in higher-skilled professions. In the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 an estimated one-in-five workers found themselves working from home. 

The new examines the evolution of real wages around the world, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region.

welcomes 2021 with a new multimedia platform that focuses on first person stories taking readers on a journey into the world of work and reflecting its human-centred approach.

A has found that monthly wages fell or grew more slowly in the first six months of 2020 in two-thirds of countries and they are expected to fall further.

Wedding season hits a hitch in Kosovo

The of the International Labour Organization has taken the exceptional action of adopting a Resolution to address the dire situation of seafarers trapped at sea because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The problems faced by seafarers resulting from efforts to contain the virus have lasted unacceptably long”, said ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder. “These key workers continue to transport the food, medicines and goods that we need, but their extended periods at sea, and the inability of seafarers ashore to relieve them, are simply unsustainable.

COVID-19 outbreak has provocated stigma and discrimination against people perceived to have been in contact with the virus or people with certain ethnic backgrounds, nationalities and migrants. How trade unions can address stigma and discrimination at the workplace?

Fundamental rights at work can play a vital role in building effective, consensus-based responses towards the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and build back a better, more just world of work, according to the . However, the paper also warns that the crisis has placed these freedoms and rights at work at risk, as countries face increases in poverty, inequality and vulnerability.

Masked opportunities

Sitting at her laptop in Jakarta, Indonesia, Laura Lesmana Wijaya is busy building her first online shop. The portal will be used to promote and sell household products made by local blind and deaf people. The 29-year-old, who is herself deaf, was one of 19 people with disabilities selected to take part in ILO training programmes on creating online shop applications and online shop administration. The aim was to improve incomes and create more sustainable livelihoods in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Rapid assessments examining the immediate impact of the on vulnerable workers and enterprises in fragile Arab states, show a significant reduction in jobs and incomes for both Syrian refugees and host communities. Limited financial capacities to cope with the crisis have led to a deterioration in living and working conditions of all workers, the assessments found. The studies, conducted by the ILO in collaboration with a range of development and humanitarian partners, show that Syrian refugees, informally employed workers, women and younger workers have been disproportionately affected by the crisis in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

Countries that are already experiencing fragility, conflict, climate change and forced displacement will continue to face multiple burdens as results of the COVID-19 pandemic.