UN labour agency creates prize for ‘decent work research’

The United Nations’ labour agency today created a new annual award for an individual making an “outstanding contribution to the advancement of knowledge” about its “central goal of decent work for all” and called for nominations.

Winners of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) “Decent Work Research Prize” will be honored for a major specific publication or a lifetime’s contribution to the central concerns of the UN body, including job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue.

The laureate, to be chosen by a jury of five eminent international experts in labour and social policy issues, will win an $10,000 honorarium, be made an honorary fellow of the ILO research centre, the International Institute for Labour Studies, and be invited to give a lecture to a global audience.

Only individuals qualify as candidates. They can be nominated by individuals or institutions but must have a supporting letter from at least one representative of the ILO's tripartite constituency - governments, workers' and employers' organizations - and one leading labor or social policy academic.

Created by the ILO’s International Institute for Labour Studies, the prize will be awarded for the first time during the ILO’s next annual meeting, the International Labour Conference, in June 2007 in Geneva. The deadline for a completed nomination is 31 December 2006 and the winner will be announced in March.

The ILO is a specialized agency of the UN promoting of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights and is headquartered in Geneva. Founded in 1919, it is the only major creation of the Treaty of Versailles, which brought the League of Nations into being, to survive. It became the UN’s first specialized agency in 1946.

It is composed of 28 government members, 14 employer members and 14 worker members. Ten of the government seats are held permanently by states of chief industrial importance. Representatives of other member countries are elected at the Conference every three years, taking into account geographical distribution. The employers and workers elect their own representatives respectively.