With the world of work rapidly transforming through new technologies and practices, it is imperative that both employers and employees understand the hidden costs and vulnerabilities that come with progress.
To that end, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has established a high-level Global Commission on the Future of Work, tasked with undertaking an in-depth examination of the future of work to serve as the basis for delivering social justice in the 21st Century.
The new commission will be focusing 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.
“It is fundamentally important that we confront these challenges from the conviction that the future of work is not decided for us in advance,” said Guy Ryder, director-general of the ILO. “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.”
The commission has 28 members and four ex-officio members – Director-General Ryder and the officers of the ILO governing body. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius, and Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden, both co-chair the commission and were present at its inauguration.
“All countries and stakeholders [must] come up with comprehensive recommendations and novel ideas on how to address the opportunities and challenges of the future of work,” Gurib-Fakim said. “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.”
“We cannot stop development, nor should we even try,” said Löfven. “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.”
The Global Commission on the Future of Work was set up under the ILO’s Future of Work Centenary Initiative in 2013. Members of the commission will produce an independent report that will be submitted to the Centenary Conference of the ILO in 2019.
Related stories:
Deloitte to launch state-of-the-art work forecasting center in Singapore
DBS Bank invests $20m to transform 10,000 workers into ‘digital workforce’
