In the presence of the
Prime Minister of Sweden and the President of Mauritius, the ILO has
launched a high-level international body to address the challenges of
the rapidly transforming world of work.
Jennings said, “The challenges we face are profound and the choices to
be made call for a collective effort. The ILO has the opportunity to put
policies in place that guarantee humanity comes first.
“We must ensure a just transition for working people into this Brave New
World of Work. Trade unions are showing that they are innovators and
facing up to the challenges of the digital revolution. It’s vital that
unions are given a seat at the table because in the end workers and the
creation of decent jobs will determine whether or not the Future World
of Work is a success or a failure."
The global body is expected to undertake an in-depth examination of the
future of work that can provide the analytical basis for the delivery of
social justice in the 21st century. The Commission will focus in
particular on the relationship between work and society, the challenge
of creating decent jobs for all, the organization of work and
production, and the governance of work.
Speaking at the launch, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder reminded the
audience that these were key issues of our time which increasingly
occupy political life and define hopes, and sometimes fears, of families
across the world.
“It is fundamentally important that we confront these challenges from
the conviction that the future of work is not decided for us in advance.
It is a future that we must make according to the values and
preferences that we choose and through policies that we design and
implement,” he said.
The ceremony was attended by two serving heads of state or government
co-chairing the Commission: Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius,
and Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden.
In her address at the launch, the President of Mauritius strongly
encouraged “all countries and stakeholders to come up with comprehensive
recommendations and novel ideas on how to address the opportunities and
challenges of the future of work. We can accomplish this by ‘putting
people first’, by recognising that labour is more than simply a
commodity in the labour market in the spirit of the ILO Constitution, or
even just a factor of production.”
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said, “We cannot stop development,
nor should we. What we need to do is come together: to harness
innovation to improve the daily lives of millions, to use new technology
to build cleaner and more sustainable societies, and at the same time
create new jobs with better conditions for everyone. These objectives
lie at the heart of this Commission."
The Commission was set up under the ILO’s Future of Work Centenary
Initiative launched by the ILO Director-General in 2013. The members of
the Commission will produce an independent report that will be submitted
to the Centenary Conference of the ILO in 2019.
Over the past 18 months, the ILO’s tripartite constituents -
governments, employer and worker organizations - have held national
dialogues in over 110 countries in the run-up to the launch of the
Global Commission. The outcome of these dialogues will feed into the
report of the Commission.
Watch the Commission launch here
