‘Building coalition needs to ensure social justice to fight inequalities’

International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo has emphasized the need to build a coalition for social justice to fight growing inequalities.

He also stressed the need to “systematically integrate the social agenda into all major international, regional and national” policies and actions to fight growing economic disparities.

Houngbo came up with the remarks while addressing the 111th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) held from June 5-16 in Geneva.

The conference brought together worker, employer and government delegates from the ILO’s 187 member states, fully face-to-face for the first time since 2019.

Delegates addressed a wide range of issues, including a just transition towards sustainable and inclusive economies, quality apprenticeships, and labour protection at the conference that have a long-term impact on the world of work.

Houngbo said, “My message is simple. No one should bury their head in the sand” when it comes to facing the challenges shaking up the world of work.”

“The fourth industrial revolution which promises a radical transformation of production methods, the demographic upheavals, and the imperative need to decarbonize the economy are opportunities for a better future for us all.”

“But at the same time … 4 billion of our fellow citizens have no social protection and 214 million workers earn less than the poverty line…. A large number of job-creating micro and small enterprises have gone bankrupt. And how can we explain the fact that women earn on average 20 per cent less than their male colleagues?” said the ILO DG.

To position social justice as the keystone of the global recovery and ensure that the future is human-centred, ILO DG stressed the need to launch a global coalition that will bring together a broad range of international bodies and stakeholders.

The Global Coalition for Social Justice would aim to, “balance environmental, economic and social considerations in the global conversation, including in the reform of the international financial architecture” and “advocate policy coherence and investment in social protection and decent work,” Houngbo said.

Presenting his report, Advancing Social Justice, ILO DG also said, “Faced with the risks of division, the risks of entrenchment and the risks of polarisation of different opinions, we have a duty and a moral obligation to maximise the use of diplomacy to bring the points of view of different groups closer together.”

Mentioning the situation of workers in the occupied Arab territories, Houngbo underlined that the poverty rate in Gaza had risen from 59 per cent to 65 per cent.

The agendas of the conference included a second standard-setting discussion on quality apprenticeships, a recurrent discussion on the strategic objective of social protection (labour protection), a general discussion on achieving a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all, including consideration of industrial policies and technology, a proposed Convention and Recommendation concerning the partial revision of 15 international labour instruments, following the inclusion of a safe and healthy working environment in the ILO’s framework of fundamental principles and rights at work.

Achieving equality between women and men at work, which is the focus of the General Survey of the Committee on the Application of Standards.