Video

Video Message: Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor, United States, on the outcome of the G20 Labour Ministers meeting in Washington

Fecha de la publicación: 14 de junio de 2010 | Tamaño o duración: 00:02:25 (8.35 MB)
Si el video no aparece, instale gratuitamente RealPlayer™

Transcript:

Good afternoon, I’m Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.

I regret that I cannot join you at the International Labor Conference this year.

I know that a lot has already been accomplished in the first weeks of the session and even more will be accomplished this week.

I want to report to you on the meeting of Employment and Labor Ministers of the G20 countries that I hosted in Washington in late April.

We reached a consensus on a broad range of policy recommendations to ensure that economic recovery is sustained and that it produces job growth for the future.

This consensus is relevant to not only to G20 countries, but all countries that are members of the ILO.

I would like to take a moment to summarize our conclusions for you.

We concluded that the stimulus packages and measures announced to help create jobs should be continued and in some cases, additional efforts are necessary.

We agreed that while unemployment persists we must continue to provide income support, training and employment services.

We must ensure that where private sector job creation is weak, we do not leave large numbers of workers disconnected from the labor market.

We recommend that in countries with extensive underemployment or high rates of poverty, governments should consider targeted efforts to generate employment.

We agreed that it is important to coordinate our efforts to prioritize employment growth across all of our countries and that social protection systems and active labor market policies should be strengthened.

At same time, employment and poverty alleviation must be at the center of national and global economic strategies.

We did this because significant numbers of people, including the most disadvantaged, will remain unemployed even after recovery takes hold.

And finally, we recommend that all countries establish adequate social protection systems so that households have sufficient security to take advantage of economic opportunities.

With economic recovery we must also address a number of challenges that had been building even before the crisis.

We want to ensure that economic gains are shared with workers as living standards increase and that work is a reliable path out of poverty for all of our people.

At the same time we must ensure that the fundamental rights of workers are respected and that social dialogue is fostered.

We also asked the ILO, with input from the OECD, to prepare an analysis of the policy measures adopted to address the crisis and their impacts to date.

I recommend that you review that report, because it contains concrete information about what worked and what did not.

Together with the Global Jobs Pact and Decent Work Agenda, these documents and recommendations reflect the diversity of our economies.

At the same time, they keep in perspective the important lesson that we can reach further progress and well-being for our citizens by working together.

I hope you will find the work that we did in the G20 useful for your own country.

I wish you great success as you complete the work of the International Labor Conference this week.

Thank you.