ILO Commission's Future of Work Report Released
Among the report's 10 recommendations are a universal labor guarantee that protects fundamental workers' rights, an adequate living wage, limits on hours of work, and safe and healthy workplaces.
The Global Commission on the Future of Work released its report Jan. 22. The document calls on governments to take steps to address the challenges caused by unprecedented transformations going on in the world of work.
Among the report's 10 recommendations are a universal labor guarantee that protects fundamental workers' rights, an adequate living wage, limits on hours of work, and safe and healthy workplaces.
Other recommendations include:
- A universal entitlement to lifelong learning
- Managing technological change to boost decent work, including an international governance system for digital labor platforms
- Increased investments in the care, green, and rural economies
- Reshaping business incentives to encourage long-term investments
"Countless opportunities lie ahead to improve the quality of working lives, expand choice, close the gender gap, reverse the damages wreaked by global inequality. Yet none of this will happen by itself. Without decisive action we will be sleepwalking into a world that widens existing inequalities and uncertainties," the report states.
It discusses challenges caused by new technology, climate change, and demography and calls for a collective global response to the disruptions they are causing in the world of work. It states that artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics will lead to job losses as skills become obsolete, but these technological advances, along with the greening of economies, will also create millions of jobs if new opportunities are seized.
"The ILO Global Commission Report on the Future of Work is a vital contribution to global understanding of the changes occurring – and that will continue to unfold – in the world of work," said Commission Co-chair Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president. "The report should stimulate engagement and partnerships within and between national and regional jurisdictions to ensure that the global economy and global society becomes more equitable, just, and inclusive. At the same, it should inspire global action to contain or eliminate challenges that humanity has inflicted on itself in the course of history."
The 27-member commission has been working on the report since August 2017.