Last year, thousands or workers, many of whom were trade unionists and union leaders, were illegally fired based on their political opinion and/or in violation of the right to freedom of association. In November, as a result of international pressure, an ILO tripartite committee was established to review the cases of dismissal with an aim of reinstating those workers who had been wrongly terminated for their involvement in the protests. While many workers in state-owned industries were reinstated, they were not necessarily reinstated to the same jobs on the same terms and conditions. Progress on reinstatement appears to have stalled. Workers in the public and private sector remain unemployed well over a year later.

The government has also committed to considering ratification of ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Convention 98 on Collective Bargaining. To date, we have seen no efforts to ratify those conventions or to bring the laws into conformity with those conventions.

Public vilification of the trade union movement continues, as billboards, articles and blogs baselessly accuse the GFBTU and specific leaders of acts including treason. This has created an extremely hostile environment for the trade union movement. In this context, the government has now supported the creation of a new, pro-government trade union with the aim of marginalizing the GFBTU.

The ITUC calls on the government to:

1. Immediately implement the tripartite agreement with regard to reinstatements and ensure all workers illegally fired are returned to their work at the same wages and conditions of work. The government should also work to ratify Conventions 87 and 98 and ensure that their laws are in full conformity. Recently-passed legislation does not accomplish this goal.

2. Immediately implement the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry.

3. Engage with trade unions and civil society in a good faith process of national reconciliation.

Failure to make these steps means that the ITUC will maintain its request for an ILO Commission of Inquiry under Convention 111.

“Ironically, only in developed economies are youth unemployment rates expected to fall in the coming years, but this follows the largest increase in youth unemployment among all regions since the start of the crisis,” said Ekkehard Ernst, the lead author of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO)’s paper, entitled Global Employment Outlook: Bleak Labour Market Prospects for Youth.

The paper forecasts the youth unemployment rate in developed economies dropping gradually, from 17.5 per cent this year to 15.6 per cent in 2017 – far higher than the rate of 12.5 per cent registered in 2007, before the crisis struck.

Much of the projected decline in the jobless rate is not due to improvements in the labour market, but rather to large numbers of young people dropping out of the labour force altogether due to discouragement, ILO noted in a news release, adding that these discouraged youth are not counted among the unemployed.

According to ILO, young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, and over 75 million youth worldwide are looking for work. The labour agency has previously warned of a “scarred” generation of young workers facing a dangerous mix of high unemployment, increased inactivity and precarious work in developed countries, as well as persistently high working poverty in the developing world.

The ILO paper notes that the global youth unemployment rate will reach 12.9 per cent by 2017 – up 0.2 percentage points from forecasts for 2012. Youth unemployment is projected to be highest in North Africa and the Middle East, with a 25 per cent rate forecast over the next years.

The labour agency notes that even in countries with early signs of a jobs recovery and where new vacancies are opening up, many unemployed youth still find it difficult to land a job. For example, a construction worker whose job was lost during the housing bust might not have the skills needed in sectors that are hiring.

“This leads to discouragement and rising NEET rates (“neither in employment, education or training”) among young people,” said Mr. Ernst, who also heads ILO’s Employment Trends Unit. “Schemes using employment guarantees and an emphasis on training could help get jobseekers off the street and into useful activities, providing a safeguard against further economic stress.”

According to the paper, such youth guarantees can come at very limited cost, less than half a per cent of gross domestic product among European countries.

“In times of constrained public finances, this may seem like a large additional burden, but it will be less than the additional costs that come from young unemployed people permanently losing touch with the labour market,” the paper states.

At its annual conference in June this year, ILO adopted a resolution calling for immediate, targeted and renewed action to tackle the youth employment crisis. The resolution provides a portfolio of tried and tested measures in five areas: macro-economic policies, employability, labour market policies, youth entrepreneurship and rights. It underscores the need for balance, coherence and complementarity across policy measures.

In its ‘World of Work Report 2012: Better Jobs for a Better Economy‘ report, ILO warns that recovery is not expected any time soon. It also warns that the global jobs crisis is likely to get worse due to several factors, including the fact that many governments, especially in advanced economies, have shifted their priority to a combination of fiscal austerity and tough labour market reforms.

Such measures are having “devastating” consequences on labour markets in general and job creation in particular, ILO stated in a news release. “The narrow focus of many Eurozone countries on fiscal austerity is deepening the jobs crisis and could even lead to another recession in Europe,” said the Director of the ILO Institute for International Labour Studies and lead author of the report, Raymond Torres. “Countries that have chosen job-centred macroeconomic policies have achieved better economic and social outcomes,” he added. “Many of them have also become more competitive and have weathered the crisis better than those that followed the austerity path. We can look carefully at the experience of those countries and draw lessons.”

Another factor leading to a worsening jobs crisis is that many jobseekers in advanced economies are demoralized and are losing skills, something which is affecting their chances of finding a new job. In addition, small companies have limited access to credit, which in turn is depressing investment and preventing employment creation. “In these countries, especially in Europe, job recovery is not expected before the end of 2016 – unless there is a dramatic shift in policy direction,” according to ILO.

Other factors include the fact that, in most advanced economies, many of the new jobs are precarious and there exists the possibility of increased social unrest in many parts of the world. According to the report’s Social Unrest Index, 57 out of 106 countries with available information showed a risk of increased social unrest in 2011 compared to 2010. The regions with the largest increases are sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa.

The report argues that if a job-friendly policy-mix of taxation and increased expenditure in public investment and social benefits is put in place, approximately two million jobs could be created over the next year in advanced economies.

Among the other findings of the report is that employment rates have only increased in six of the 36 advanced economies since 2007 – Austria, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Malta and Poland – and that youth unemployment rates have increased in about 80 per cent of advanced countries and two-thirds of developing countries.