The purpose of the course is to understand labor rights safeguards and how they need to be reflected in an environmental and social impact assessment.  The course will introduce labor safeguard requirements typified by IFC PS2 on Labor and Working Conditions. The scene will be set with labor terminology. Next the safeguard requirements will be presented: namely, the need to encourage healthy worker-management relationships; promote fair treatment, non-discrimination and equal opportunity; protect vulnerable workers; promote safe and healthy working conditions and the health of workers; avoiding the use of forced labor. How to implement a labor grievance mechanism and categorize labor grievances will be addressed. The difference between child labor and youth labor will be explained.

With an understanding of typical lender requirements related to labor rights as the basis, we will next address ways to integrate labor issues in the social impact process. Baseline characterization and typical data collection for employment and livelihoods will be identified.  Then, ways to determine impacts and attribute significance using magnitude and sensitivity criteria will be introduced. Issues related to labor force origin and skills levels will be highlighted.

With labor impacts identified, we will move to typical mitigation and enhancement measures. Typical problems that arise in infrastructure projects related to working hours, timekeeping, use of excessive overtime, sub-contracting, passport and personal identification retention, and worker accommodation and ways to address them will be discussed. We will look at occupational health and safety and workers’ accommodation using some bad and good examples. Typical management measures such as labor project commitments, worker codes of conduct and skills development activities will be presented.  

The training will be a mixture of presentation, individual exercises, small group work and plenary discussion.

Level:	Foundation
Prerequisites:	Interest in and enthusiasm for the issue
Language:	English
Duration:	1 day (3 April)
Price:	US$275
Min/Max:	10-30
Instructor(s):	Marielle Rowan, Principal Social Scientist, Mott MacDonald (Canada)

 

Marielle Rowan has 24 years of experience focussing on community development and the social impacts of infrastructure projects. She routinely addresses social impacts, land acquisition and resettlement, labour  management and working conditions, community health and safety, cultural heritage, indigenous peoples, stakeholder engagement, community resilience, livelihoods, equality, inclusion, gender and inclusion. Marielle has an academic background that covered the theories of how adults learn. She enjoys using participatory techniques in training activities that address theory, observation, practice and analysis.