Rebooting Fundamentals- Keeping employees at the heart of the transformation

Ms Dagmar Walter was a key speaker at the 3rd Edition of the Economic Times Virtual Conference on ‘Workforce of the Future Summit’.

Statement | New Delhi, India (Virtual conference) | 19 June 2020
Namaste and Good Afternoon,

Fellow speakers,

Dear participants,

I wish to acknowledge the organizers for this timely discussion on ‘Workforce of the future’. The world of work is being profoundly affected by the global virus pandemic. In addition to the threat to public health, the economic and social disruption is jeopardising the sustainability of millions of jobs and enterprises.

ILO’s analysis

The International Labour Organization as the United Nation’s lead agency on the World of Work, monitors the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on jobs and enterprises and effectiveness of policy responses undertaken.

Despite recent easing of lockdowns, the ILO’s latest – 4th edition of COVID-19 and World of Work monitor, underlines that the work hours are declining globally and so are the wages, putting livelihoods at great risk. The estimate shows a 305 million-job loss. Also around 1.6 billion informal economy workers worldwide are significantly impacted by the current crisis. Approximately 47 million employers, some 54 per cent of all employers, operate businesses in the hardest-hit sectors of manufacturing, accommodation and food services, wholesale and retail trade, real estate and business activities.

In India alone, our estimates based on the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18 reveals that 364 million workers or more, are made vulnerable due to the lockdown. This includes those in casual work, self-employment and unprotected regular jobs – who have bear minimum social protection coverage. 65 million unprotected regular workers are also likely to suffer as industries contract and restructure in the face of the crisis. Much is at stake in India, with its 90% of informal economy share and low rates of female labour force participation.

Clearly, the vulnerable groups including youth, women, disabled people, elderly, precarious workers, indigenous populations and even children are facing risk of increased child labour.

ILO’s response

The response proposed by ILO goes in line with the Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work adopted by over 180 member States, including workers and employers, last year. The ILO supports its constituents to implement a human-centred response to the Crisis, addressing four main areas:
  1. Protecting workers in the workplace
  2. Stimulating economic and labour demand
  3. Supporting employment and incomes
  4. Using social dialogue between government, workers and employers to find solutions.
In response to the pandemic, we have witnessed governments announcing fiscal and monetary measures to support the economy and enterprises. They are essential to ensure survival of businesses, to keep incomes and jobs protected. We see, enterprises adapting to the ‘new normal’ of social distancing and virtual work modalities to sustain productivity.

Way forward

A protected and motivated workforce will ensure productivity and efficiency of the enterprises. Ensuring wellbeing of the workforce will result in speedy recovery. We must aim to build back better so that our new systems are safer, fairer and more sustainable, and more effective in cushioning the consequences for both business and workers.

I wish to offer – four “must do’s” for the leaders and managers from different enterprises here – to ensure a ‘human-centred’ approach to the response and recovery.

First, strengthen Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) measures. The employees coming back to work need to feel safe at their workplaces, from the direct risks related to COVID-19, and the indirect risks such as psychosocial and ergonomic risks. It is in these crisis situations, that dialogue between employees and employers becomes paramount to facilitate peaceful return to workplace and conflict-free continuity of work with appropriate grievance redressal mechanisms in place.

I would urge the audiences here to access and benefit from ILO’s knowledge resources, available online. ILO India office works closely with employers’ federations and workers’ organizations to both develop and disseminate this guidance and practical tools. For example, Guidelines for the establishment of enterprise-level COVID-19 Task Force on a safe and healthy return to work, and the 10-point Practical Guidance action checklist for employers and workers, could become handy in planning and handling safe return of employees.

Second, extend access to health services, flexi-time and paid leave. In these times of COVID-19, to protect ourselves and others from the virus is the foremost priority. Access to health care services and paid leave will provide sense of security and ensure effective work participation.

Third, capacitate staff for accommodating new work arrangements. The COVID-19 pandemic has further pressed for adoption of IT solutions at work places, but it has raised the need for workers to be equipped with required tools including digital skills. Now is the time to invest in up-skilling and re-skilling of workers and employees.

Fourth and final, is that we must implement these measures ensuring equity and inclusiveness. Our ‘New Normal’, should be responsive to the needs of gender, age and physical abilities. Permanent or contractual, formal or informal and even platform economy workers, all need support to be protected and recover from the effects of this pandemic.

In times of crisis, social dialogue can help building the much-needed trust for both safe return to work and implementation of productivity solutions.

In the coming days, we will need to be innovative and adaptive in our responses to the new emerging future of work challenges. We need to collaborate and share knowledge through platforms such as this summit.

As ILO we stand ready to continue our engagement with you all to build a better new normal for the World of Work that addresses the fault lines that have been exposed by this COVID-19 crisis.

I wish you well and thank you for your kind attention.