Revista de Trabajo (Labour Magazine)
Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Argentina. Nueva época, v.1, n. 1, 2005.

The decision to republish the Revista de Trabajo has to do with making the issues of employment and labour relationships a matter of public debate again. We say "again" because these issues had already been dealt with from the perspective of the social-labour paradigm that ruled during the first stage of its publishing, in the mid 90s. At that time, labour unprotection and the precarious relationship between employers and employees became the characteristic feature of Argentina and the region in terms of labour.

The Revista intends to give insight into what is going on in the international scenario within the framework of intellectual debates. The aim is to become familiar with the actual contributions made by multilateral bodies in their efforts to redefine their public action agendas by including the needs and aspirations of people in the core of their policies.

The first issue of the Revista de Trabajo in this second stage is devoted to employment in the debate of the Americas. The focus on this topic can be explained by its overriding importance and the need for the debate to go beyond national boundaries and because dealing with it has become urgent on account of the situation of the region.

Indeed, according to ECLAC, Latin America is among the most unequal places in the world: 40 per cent of the population receives less than 14 per cent of the income, while the richer 10 per cent of the population receives 36 per cent of such income. Only by generating decent work could the serious regional inequity begin to be fought - by strengthening the relationship between economic growth and formal employment within the framework of commercial strategies geared to goals related to agricultural and industrial development.

On this issue of the Revista de Trabajo job creation is not only analysed from a multidisciplinary perspective. It also includes dimensions linked to the social aspects of globalisation, the processes of regional integration and economic policy components. The condition of gender, labour training - particularly of the most disadvantaged sectors of the labour market -, the relationship between employment and social security and the issue of corporate social responsibility are all topics that are dealt with here.

This issue also presents three important documents signed by Ministers of Labour in Latin America: the Declaration of Buenos Aires by the Ministers of Labour of Mercosur (April 2004) and the Declaration of Tegucigalpa by the Ministers of Labour of Central America. The recent Declaration made at the 14th meeting of Ministers of Labour held in September 2005 in Mexico City and its action plan closes the group of documents. Both documents show the regional concern about achieving an equity-based development, creating quality jobs and the need to promote investment, innovation and the development of productive networks as a means of inserting small enterprises in the formal and competitive economy.


Contents

Carlos Alfonso Tomada
Presentation

Marta Novick
Editorial

Juan Somavia
Greetings to the Revista de Trabajo

Employment in the debate of the Americas
Employment on the focus of globalisation

Daniel Martínez
Quality employment generation and regional integration processes

Jacques Freyssinet
The European strategy for employment: an unstable commitment

Gerry Rodgers
To the enhancement of the social dimension of globalization

Jorge Notaro
Employment policies in Mercosur countries

Quality employment and development

Roberto Frenkel
A macroeconomic policy focused on employment and growth

Laís Abramo
Incorporating the gender dimension to employment policies. Experiences and challenges.

Julio Godio
The paradigm of the "labour society"

María Antonia Gallart
Employment, informality and training. Segmentation of labour and training opportunities.

Emilia Roca
Labour market and social security coverage

Flavio Fuertes, María Lara Goyburu and Bernardo Kosacoff
Corporate social responsibility: only a speech?

Interview

Interview to Jorge Taiana by Beatriz Cappelletti
The process of summits in the Americas

Publications

ILO. Creating decent work in Mercosur. Employment and growth strategy

Documents

Action Plan of Mexico

Speech by Dr. Carlos Tomada, Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, during the 14th Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour of OAS in Mexico City on 27 September 2005.

Tripartite declaration for the promotion of employment and decent work in Central America and the Dominican Republic, Tegucigalpa, 30 June 2005.

Declaration of the Ministers of Labour of Mercosur in the Regional Conference on Employment of Buenos Aires, 16 April 2004.

Statistics
Content topics
Methodological notes

Access to complete document (in Spanish) on pdf format: http://www.trabajo.gov.ar/files/revista1.pdf