Speech of Rosa Pavanelli

In 1930, Keynes predicted for the 21st century an “age of leisure and abundance” with 15 working hours a week thanks to new technologies. In 1980, André Gorz said “the abolition of work is … already underway … The manner in which is to be managed … constitutes the central political issue of the coming decades.”

The reality is that it is still impossible to imagine a society without work.

Moreover, work has intensified, it is more precarious, and it is less and less a source of income and livelihood.

PSI welcomes the Commission’s report for its coherent, comprehensive, and balanced approach to guide the ILO constituents in the discussions on the Future of Work.

PSI agrees with the calls for universal social protection for all, a new social contract, the dire need for fair fiscal policies, respect for equality and diversity, sustainable growth and development in all societies.

Technologies and science have improved our lives, but creativity, innovation, and progress are not virtues of the private sector alone. It is thanks to the public institutions – universities, hospitals, research institutes, the military, and others if we can enjoy Internet, GPS, smartphones, speech recognition, Google and much more. They still play a key role in innovation and development.

In the era of algorithms, we need more transparency, accountability and regulation. Powerful businesses base their actions on secret agreements, proprietary and gag rules, while our own lives are increasingly becoming open books. This is a threat for workers, for people, but more important, for our democracies. A jobless future decided by few technology firms is neither desirable nor inevitable. Instead, it requires the guidance and responsibility of governments on the whole process, regulating the role of IT companies, ensuring strong, democratic governance, and protecting data as public goods.

Changes do not occur at the same pace in all the places.

Almost half of the world’s population still lives in rural areas and depends on the rural economy.

The majority of women continues to work in agriculture.

Ten years of austerity and neoliberal policies, for most people meant a reverse journey to poverty and even exclusion, and it’s not technology and lack of investment to blame, but ideology and politics.

The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights has criticised how the Financial Institutions, corporates and even the UN have aggressively promoted privatisation of public services, regardless to the human rights implications or the consequences for the poor. Failing to address these issues now will lead not to a brighter but to a dark, dangerous future.

Yet, the OECD estimates that public services account for 76% of the disposable income for the poorest.

Implementing the SDGs will require to hire 13 million healthcare workers, 69 million teachers – where women account for 70% of the workforce. And millions of new green decent jobs can be created to prevent disasters and build resilient communities, or in ensuring universal social protection. This requires strong public investments and regulations, fixing the broken global tax system and reduce the power of corporates over governments and international institutions, including in the ILO, to reduce injustice, repristinate fairness in our societies where the public interest is ensured by the State and the private sector contributes to the economic growth of our communities.

Peace is threatened by conflicts, racism, xenophobia and fascism. It is imperative to address the root causes of social injustice, as ILO Constitution states.

Respect of workers’ rights, freedom of association, collective bargaining and right to strike, must be ensured to all workers, no matter if permanent or temporary contracts, if working in the real or digital economy, if natives or migrants or refugees.

During one century, the ILO has helped improving workers’ and people’s lives. To peacefully navigate the 21st century, ILO has to reinforce its mandate addressing the issues that really matter to ensure dignity and decent work for all the people.