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“UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings congratulated the ILO for making the future world of work the key theme of its centenary initiative. Jennings was responding to an address by ILO Director-General Guy Ryder at the International Labour Conference in Geneva. Jennings said the report “The Future of Work Centenary Initiative” confirms “the centrality of work in people’s lives” and the challenges the new technological revolution represents to working people.

Here is the audio of Jennings’ speech and the full transcript, followed by the video transmission of Ryder’s address introducing the “The Future of Work Centenary Initiative”.

UNI General Secretary, Philip Jennings at 104th International Labour Conference

“Dear President, Friends,

UNI Global Union welcomes the Future of Work Centenary Initiative and congratulates the Director General for obliging us to act and confirming the centrality of work in people’s lives.

We welcome the goal to win social justice in this third industrial revolution in a world of obscene differences in income distribution.

This project must in the words of Martin Luther King bend the world to social justice in Silicon Valleys and Wall Streets to Main Street for it to have any meaning in people’s lives.

It strikes the right tone in underlining the distress in today’s labour market.

The distress of breaches of Union rights, falling labour standards, child labour, unethical supply chains, and poor health and safety practices.

There is nothing creative about this kind of destruction.

The hi-tech world needs to understand the social contract. It should be about ‘Including You’ the people in its benefits. People should not fall prey to Technological Darwinism.

Let’s not repeat the errors of the past. We have seen market failure in job creation, financial stability, tax dodging, obscene CEO pay, environmental degradation, financial stability and a failure in responsible business conduct.

We see job transformation. The internet of things is sending shockwaves through the world of work. Claims that 1 in 2 jobs at risk.

Yet the pulse of markets is driven by the short-term. Running away from the social contract. Trust in business collapsing.

This initiative must look at the business world’s values, practices, governance, and aim for responsible business conduct and investment in the new era.

Governments active labour market policies need retooling and given new capacity.

There must be space as well for the jobs challenge in emerging markets.

We welcome the four conversations, the establishment of an ILO Commission and the ILC centenary being devoted to this theme.  In the next two years additional  ILO sectoral industrial activities should also be devoted to the theme. Let’s link the project with the call for a Global Deal being made by the Swedish Prime Minister.

Unions are integral to finding solutions to the challenges faced by workers, to win social justice in the age of big data. At UNI we have shown we can organise in the new economy.

New does not mean better. Troubles continue.

Pay and conditions, at Walmart in the USA. Union busting at T-Mobile and Prosegur. Deutsche Post in a race to the bottom. Amazon taking us back in time in their warehouse work practices. Seven shop stewards dismissed at the CNPS Cameroon.

In closing – there are examples that inspire us such as the Bangladesh Accord on Government Factory Safety even if the Bangladesh Government has been lamentable. We welcome the 2016 ILC focus on supply chains..

UNI has just signed a Global Agreement with Société Générale. A first in the French financial sector. A break through. That’s the future and the ILO standards are at the heart of it. The ILO should be at the centre of building a renewed social contract of hope, fulfilment, opportunity and justice.”

Below ILO Director-General Guy Ryder details why the ILO has chosen the future of work as its central centenary theme for 2019.