President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Global Commission on the Future of Work report that calls for “a human-centred agenda for the future of work”, by placing the people and the work they do at the centre of economic and social policy and business practice.
Ramaphosa points out that this year the ILO begins its second century of advancing social justice in the world of work and in furthering its mission to promote jobs and protect people.
The ILO’s report indicates that the human-centred agenda is forward-looking and focuses on developing the human capabilities needed to thrive in a carbon-neutral, digital age.
The three key pillars of human-centred agenda are: increasing investment in people’s capabilities; increasing investment in the institutions of work; and increasing investment in decent and sustainable work.
Ramaphosa comments: “Many of the advances of the past two centuries in the world of work – be it raised wage levels, improved working hours, unemployment insurance and other worker benefits – have been thanks to the international labour standards and social protection set by the ILO.”
The president adds that the ILO has been a force that has transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. “Inequality is rising. Millions of people around the world are in a working poverty trap. In many societies, working people still labour antiquated working conditions that have little regards to their rights, with forced indenture and even forms of servitude and bondage common.
“Elsewhere, rapid technological advance has had its own consequences for workers and communities, with digitisation and mechanisation of work processes giving rise to increased insecurity and job losses,” Ramaphosa says.
He warns that the impact of globalisation, demographic shifts, trade and other forms of protectionism, and climate change are bound to have consequences for future work processes.
Ramaphosa told delegates to be mindful that, in the 20th century, “we established that labour is not a commodity. In the 21st century, we must ensure it is not a robot.”
ILO director-general Guy Ryder says a number of changes are bound to happen in the world of work in future. He says these changes were coming not only from technological changes, but there were demographic changes caused by ageing, growth of youth and climatic changes – provoked by human activity. They are also generated by the forward march of globalisation.
Ryder advises countries to put strategies in place on the future of work.