News

Jennings issued a global call to action for jobs. He said that with 200 million people unemployed and another 1.5 billion in precarious work, the crisis is not over for most people.



“Unless this social crisis is addressed further Jasmine Revolutions beckon,” he said. “The West and East are working for some but not for all.”



He told a packed room at a debate on jobs organised by cable TV channel CNBC at the WEF that we need to “change the rules of the game.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Kmdp14Q9A )





“The G20 priority must be jobs. We need inclusive growth and fairness to push up the share of wages as a share of income,” Jennings said. “Sarkozy needs to find his jobs mojo for the G20 process.”



He said that there should be a new bargain and unions should have the ability to push up the share of wages through collective bargaining.



“Every worker should have an adequate social protection floor,” he said. “This is affordable. We need active labour market policies. “



Jennings was surprised to hear a private equity spokesperson singing the praises of the worker representation on supervisory boards in Germany, which he said helped companies make better decisions.



Participants at the CNBC debate welcomed the idea that the workers’ voice on the ground should be heard and they deserved a seat at the table.



He said that it was unacceptable that in the last 20 years in the US, 56 percent of all income gains went to the top 1 percent of wealthy Americans, and more than a third went to the top one-tenth of one percent.



“The Western economic model that we’ve seen of this reliance on the market has failed. We need a new inclusive model of economic development,” Jennings said. “It is unsustainable.”



You can check your local listings to see when CNBC will broadcast the debate in your region.