Notes
1 For a full discussion of these trends and issues,
see ILO: Special protective measures for women and equality of opportunity
and treatment. Meeting of Experts on Special Protective Measures for Women
and Equality of Opportunity and Treatment, document no. MEPMW/1989/7 (Geneva,
1989).
2 The Protocol of 1990 to the Night Work (Women)
Convention (Revised), 1948 (No. 89), retained the prohibition of night work for
women workers during a period before and after childbirth of at least 16 weeks,
of which at least eight weeks must be before the expected date of childbirth,
but allowed for the lifting of this prohibition at the express request of the
woman worker concerned on the condition that neither her health nor that of her
child would be endangered.
3 Conditions of Work Digest. Woman workers.
Protection or equality? (Geneva, 1987), Vol. 6, No. 2.
4 Council Directive 92/85/EEC of 19 October 1992 on
the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health
at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are
breast-feeding, in Official Journal of the European Communities
(Brussels, 28 November 1992), Vol. 35, No. L.348, pp. 1-7.
5 Originally adopted in 1951 and still valid today.
6 Council Directive 92/85/EEC of 19 October 1992 and
its annexes, op. cit.
7 International Atomic Energy Agency:
International basic safety standards for protection against ionizing
radiation and for the safety of radiation sources. Safety Series No. 115
(Vienna, 1996), pp. 35-36. These standards were jointly sponsored by the ILO,
FAO, IAEA, OECD/NEA, PAHO and WHO.
8 United States Department of Labor, Occupational
Safety and Health Administration: Reproductive hazards at
http://www.osha.gov/oshinfo/priorities/reproductive.html, 14 March 1997,3 pages.
9 See ILO: Protection of workers’ personal
data: An ILO code of practice, Geneva, 1997. For an extensive review of
policies and practice with regard to privacy issues, see ILO: Conditions of
Work Digest, three-part series on workers’ privacy [Part I:
Protection of personal data (Vol. 10, No. 2, 1991); Part II: Monitoring
and surveillance in the workplace (Vol. 12, No. 1, 1993): and Part HI:
Testing in the workplace (Vol. 12, No. 2. 1993)].
10 The World Health Organization recommends that
infants should be fed exclusively on breastmilk from birth up to the age of 4 to
6 months: they should be given no other liquids or solids than breastmilk (not
even water) during this period.
11 P. van Esterik and L. Menon: Being
mother-friendly: A practical guide for working women and breast-feeding
(Penang, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, 1996), pp. 10-12.
12 “Costs of NOT breast-feeding: Kaiser
Permanente Study”, at http://www.winternet.com/~artmama/kaiser.htm, 29
April 1997, 4 pages.
13 Wellstart Intl. and UNICEF: Investing in the
future: Women, work and breast-feeding, video presentation on lactation
support programmes in the workplace (Washington,
1995).
