07/04/2009

Overview

• Labour and Employment Ministers from the G8 countries, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico and South Africa met in Rome on 29 - 31 March in order to discuss the employment and social challenges brought about by the ongoing crisis and in particular the rapidly increasing job losses. They were joined by the European Union Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, as well as by the Director-General of the ILO, the Secretary-General of the OECD and the Deputy Managing Director of the IMF.
• Ministers met on the eve of the release of the OECD’s latest projections for growth and employment for 2009 and 2010. Global economic activity is forecast to shrink by 2.7 percent in 2009 and economic activity across the OECD area to plummet by an average 4.3 percent. The global recession is predicted to worsen throughout 2009 before a policy-induced recovery gradually builds momentum through 2010. Unemployment is predicted to rise sharply across all OECD countries, peaking in 2010 or early 2011 and reaching double digit levels for the first time since the early 1990s in many countries. The number of unemployed in G7 countries will almost double from its mid-2007 level to reach some 36 million people in late 2010. The Social Summit was also designed to be an input to the G20 London Summit held on 2 April and its conclusions are referred to in the London conclusions.
• In the Summit’s conclusions, Ministers recognized that “mutually reinforcing economic, employment and social policies are essential to addressing the significant job losses produced by the crisis, providing income relief and training and retraining services for people and households affected by the economic turmoil, preserving human capital” ((§ 3) and that “macroeconomic policies must be linked to employment and social policies that prevent unemployment…” (§ 3). They also emphasised that “the current downturn should not be taken as a pretext to weaken workers’ rights to which countries have committed. Rather it is an opportunity to reassess and extend - where feasible - social protection schemes to ensure they are efficient, effective and indeed helping all those affected by the crisis, especially the most vulnerable. In countries where adequate social protection measures do not already exist, timely actions should be undertaken to implement new measures to protect them” ((§ 17). These key messages of the Summit are both appropriate and welcome. 
• Ministers also importantly noted that the “social dimension is a necessary part of a more integrated governance, combining social, labour and employment priorities with economic and financial challenges, including with a view to the debate on promoting sustainable economic and social activity” (§ 19). It is highly positive, therefore, that Ministers invited international organizations, and in particular the IMF, the OECD and the ILO, “to take into account the labour market and social impact in their advice and cooperation with Governments and to share lessons and draw up more detailed recommendations, based on the principles in this document, for effective employment and social protection policies to mitigate the impacts of the crisis and to ensure sustainable recovery” (§ 20). It is essential that trade unions make use of this development in their preparations for the next G20 summit, to be held later in the year, which will have to focus on the jobs crisis.
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