ILO Central and Eastern Europe Newsletter March 2024

Read the Newsletter online 

Beneficiary story

Alla Zhuravel, a beneficary of the ILO "Start and Improve Your Business" training in Kyiv, Ukraine, also a trainer herself by now.  

Note from the editor

The war in Ukraine enters its third year. The ILO and the government of Ukraine have agreed on a strategy to set the country on the path to decent work by investing in people, creating quality employment and sustainable enterprises, and improving labour market governance. The newly established ILO Country Office in Kyiv will ensure the necessary and timely onsite support, in collaboration with the UN and development partners. 

In Georgia and in Montenegro, tripartite constituents met in a workshop to discuss their objectives in terms of improving social dialogue, creating inclusive and productive employment,  improving working conditions and to set clear expected results for the two to four years to come. In Albania and Moldova, they met at the tripartite level to discuss the progress made in the implementation of their Decent Work Country Programmes, the hurdles on the way, and what more needs to be done to arrive at the desired outcomes.

The ILO have mobilised additional resources through technical cooperation projects, with the EU, SIDA, Austria, Liechtenstein, GiZ and the SDG Acceleration Fund as key development partners. 

New results

Step-by-Step: Albanian textile and footwear factories improve productivity and working conditions

New safety standards on chemicals expected to improve workers' health and support conflict recovery in Ukraine 

Georgia joins efforts to protect seafarers' rights by ratifying the Maritime Labour Convention 

ILO supports an improved normative framework and better capacities to combat child labour in Serbia 

Shaping migration narratives:  Insights from the ILO/OSCE E-MINDFUL project

How digitalization, paired with artificial intelligence, helps labour inspectors fight undetected work in Albania

VIDEO: Voices of beneficiaries: Local Employment Partnership Gradiska, Bosnia and Herzegovina 

New projects signed

Business partnerships and solutions for SDGs in Albania Phase 2

EU support to improved quality of VET education (EU4Employment and Education) in Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Skills for an environmentally sustainable transition in Moldova 

Digital, inclusive and transformative: Quality education for Montenegro 

Strengthening social dialogue in the Republic of Serbia 

Improving accessibility and effectiveness of grievance mechanisms for workers in Serbian enterprises in EU-based companies

Youth Guarantee Technical Facility Phase 2 

Three essential questions

How did the war impact the Ukrainian labour market? (Interview with Oleksandr Zholud, Chief Expert, Monetary Policy and Economic Analysis Department at National Bank of Ukraine)

Meet the Specialist

VIDEO: ILO Specialist Maria Jose Chamorro, Gender Specialist explains her strategy as she works to achieve an enabling environment for women who wish to engage in paid work. Magnus Berge, Workers' Activities Specialist talks about how the ILO assist trade unions so that they can promote better working conditions and rights for workers in the sub-region. 

Fresh off the printing press 

The gender pay gap in Montenegro. A statistical update and policy implications (also in Montenegrin) 

An evaluation of Montenegro's 2022 minimum wage and income tax reform 

Rapid assessment on child labour in agriculture in Kosovo (also in Albanian and Serbian) 

Analysis of care system expansion in post-Socialist EU members states: lessons learnt and good practices (also in Ukrainian) 

Reflections on the introduction of Universal Labour Guarantee in selected Central and Eastern European countries 

Workers' representatives in selected Central and Eastern European countries: Filling the gap in labour rights protection or trade union competition? 

Data mining and machine learning: Supporting labour inspectorates to address undeclared work

Guidelines for reinforcing the role of labour inspectors in addressing undeclared work

Regional Peer Review Report of the Labour Inspectorates of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (entity Federation of BiH--Sarajevo Canton and entity Republika Srpska), Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia

Informal employment and undeclared work in the Horeca sector: Findings from North Macedonia 

Staff news 

New staff joining the team