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G20 Leaders' Summit

Leaders’ Declaration stresses the need to put people first in preparing the future of work

G20 Communiqué covers key issues, including the future of work, infrastructure for development, sustainable food supply and gender equality.

Press release | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 01 December 2018
BUENOS AIRES (ILO News) – ILO Director-General Guy Ryder welcomed the Leaders’ Declaration adopted here as pointing the way to a future of work that works for all.

The G20 Leaders’ Communiqué covers such crucial issues as the future of work, infrastructure for development, a sustainable food future and a gender mainstreaming strategy across the whole G20 agenda.

In the main section Putting People First and Embracing the Future, it calls for coordinated policy responses and international cooperation to ensure that the benefits of technological change are shared by all.

“The Future of Work can be the future we want – one that provides decent and sustainable work opportunities for all – if we shape it accordingly”, said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder at the thirteenth G20 Summit in Argentina.

The Future of Work can be the future we want – one that provides decent and sustainable work opportunities for all.”

Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General
“The global unemployment rate remains high with close to 114 million unemployed persons in G20 countries today. This worrying employment situation is expected to persist until 2020 unless governments take remedial measures to support employment and wage growth and enterprise creation,” he warned, adding that, “global real wage growth, at only 1.8 per cent in 2017, stands at its lowest level since 2008. Meanwhile globally the gender pay gap stands at around 19 per cent.”

According to the head of the ILO, such measures include the strengthening of labour market institutions, adapting skills training to changing market needs, and achieving more gender equality.

Ryder commended to Leaders the recommendations in a forthcoming report of the Global Commission on the Future of Work. Set up by the ILO, the Commission will present a landmark report on 22 January 2019 launching the ILO’s Centenary.

Argentina's President Macri encouraged G20 Leaders to focus on "dialogue to create consensus for the next ten years" and invited them to "give the world a clear message that together we can set a horizon of development with shared responsibilities, a strong commitment towards gender equity and united by diversity". In that context, Macri stated: "The essence of the G20 is to promote a dialogue that respects differences."

Ryder also welcomed the fact that Argentina’s G20 Presidency had sought to bring social and environmental concerns together. “There are immense opportunities for decent job creation at the same time as protecting our environment.”

ILO research shows that active government policies aimed at meeting the Paris Agreement’s targets would result in the creation of 18 million decent jobs worldwide, while embracing a “circular economy” which encourages goods to be recycled, reused, remanufactured and repaired could create an additional 6 million jobs.

In September 2018, G20 Labour and Employment Ministers adopted a Declaration, Fostering opportunities for an inclusive, fair and sustainable future of work, in which ministers reaffirmed their commitment to promote innovative skills policies, strengthen social protection and formalize labour markets to make them more equitable and inclusive.

Shaping the future of work we want cannot be achieved by governments alone, business and labour will play a critical role in shaping a world of work that puts people, employers and workers, first.”

Guy Ryder
Labour and Employment Ministers also endorsed the “G20 Strategy to eradicate child labour, forced labour, human trafficking and modern slavery in the world of work,” committed to promote the participation of persons with disabilities in the labour market and recognized the need to enable women to participate equally in the digital economy.

Argentina consulted widely during the year running up to the Summit, including with the Business 20 and Labour 20 which bring together organisations of employers and unions from G20 countries. “Shaping the future of work we want cannot be achieved by governments alone”, Ryder commented. “Business and labour will play a critical role in shaping a world of work that puts people, employers and workers, first."