Hi everyone, this week's topic is on international labour standards and it didn't take me long to find an interesting article regarding this topic while searching the web.

It's interesting that when you google the topic of 'international labour standards' a lot of the pages and articles you find are focused on countries who have some of the worst labour standards etc. I found an article which talks about the 10 worst countries for child labour in the whole world. It is disturbing to read and see that this is still prominent around the majority of the world.

The List included:

10. Ethiopia
09. Pakistan
08. Burundi
07. Afghanistan
06. Zimbabwe
05. Democratic Republic of Congo
04. Sudan
03. Somalia
02. North Korean
01. Myanmar

Have a read for yourself :)


Now these are the top 10 countries for child labour in the world which mostly include children who are put to work in factories and fields from a very young age. But the article goes on to also explain how some of the top countries on this list such as Sudan, Somalia and Myanmar mainly employ children in to the military and militia for the countries use which is even worse having children exposed to such things so young.

Furthering my reading to the ILO (Check it out) website I found:

• 246 million children worldwide aged 5-17 (which is 1 child in every 6) are involved in child labour.
• 8.4 million children are caught in worst forms of child labour including slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labour.

The fact that child labour happens often in countries who are politically and economically unstable makes it really hard to find a solution for. But I think out of any sort of international employment standard, child labour has to be the most abused type of labour and needs an ongoing solution to try and fix it as quickly as possible. Lastly, I just wanted to say that not all child labour just happens in majorly unstable countries, the United States actually has a law which exempts 'farm workers' from having a minimum age requirement like most other jobs have. It is reported that many Latino children can be found forced to be working long hours out in hot fields all day.

2nd Blog Post

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the lateness of this blog but I had trouble logging in to my gmail and blog account, but I have got it working now :)

This week we are looking at employment relations in Europe. I found the European Working Time Directive to be quite interesting, which regards laws on the maximum number of hours employees can work each week at their workplace. Right now the European Working Time Directive states that an employee does not have to work for any more than 48 hours per week. But if the employee wants to work for additional hours beyond the 48 hours, he/she can opt out of the 48 hour agreement with their employer but this must be voluntary and in writing as well.
Working Time Directive Laws
I found a lot of useful information about working time laws at the website above.


European Working Time Directives and Opting Out

Above is one short video I found which talks about the Working Time Directive and how employees can also choose to opt out on whether they want to work above the maximum weekly hours for their job. The video also interestingly discusses how from a safety perspective the working time directives are a real positive as well. With studies to show, workers who stick to the maximum working hours make less mistakes in their job than they do when working beyond the maximum hours required.

I think this is a positive way for countries within the European Union to look at the the Working Time Directives especially when employee's safety comes in to the question. But at the same time this is interesting because in Australia the maximum numbers of working hours for an employee by law is 38 hours, which is quite a big difference to the European Unions 48 hour maximum.

Is 48 hours to much? Or is 38 hours to less? Tell me what you think.

Thanks everyone!

1st Blog Entry

Hi everyone, my name is Jonathan and this is my first blog post for the semester. I hope you enjoy reading what I have to say.... (you guys probs wont)

Anyways.. This weeks topic is focused around multi-nation corporations which you already may know, and I understand that everyone probably knows what a multi-national corporation is, but I will just re-enlighten you all (in which case I may receive some bonus marks of somekind Andrzej!?). A multi-national corporation is a company with a clear national home base but operating in several countries, which is almost every company you can think of these days. But today I don't think I am going to be 'blogging' and engaging the meanings/understandings and the what, why, when and how of what a multi-national corporation is, I think i may go with a more modern example closer to myself.

In Nicholas' presentation during our tutorial on Tuesday, he talked a lot about how these days entrepreneurs (mostly the good ones) barely have to do any work but merely produce a bright and innovative idea to get some sort of investor/buyer interested. Mark Zuckerberg would throw a measily 1-2 billion dollars at you for just making him smile (as it would seem). These ideas that Nicholas talked to us about got me interested (must of been the guitar) and thinking, and it came to my mind a good example that I will quickly share today. This example is of a close acquaintance of mine, and proves the fact that because of huge multi-national corporations today taking over the world, entrepreneurs can make a lot of money fast, and then move on to the next without much hassle.

This close friend of mine created a company called e2o along with two other partners. This business specializes in the oil and gas industry. Within 3 years of being created the company was bring in huge earnings and pulling in big contracts within the industry including Wheatstone, Origin and Gladstone projects. they were bought out by Clough (another big player in the industry). For me this sheds a light on how quickly a business or even a good idea can be picked up by a big multi-national corporation, and for a business 3 years of actually operating before being offered a big pay out is not a very long time. And now that they have been bought out, two of the owners are already looking in to their next project, whereby no doubt they are expecting to make some more money by a multi-national corporation.

If you want to have a quick read about my short story, the link is below:

http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/38930/clough-acquires-commissioning-specialist-e2o-for-14m-38930.html


I hope everyone enjoyed my first blog, I'm sorry but I have never done it before to be honest.