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Global financial crisis

ILO delegates call for urgent new policy measures to address growing job losses in the financial sector

Worker, employer and government representatives called for urgent new policies and measures to mitigate the severe impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the more than 20 million financial sector workers worldwide and to stimulate a sustainable economic recovery.

Press release | 27 February 2009

GENEVA (ILO News) – Worker, employer and government representatives called for urgent new policies and measures to mitigate the severe impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the more than 20 million financial sector workers worldwide and to stimulate a sustainable economic recovery.

Concluding a two-day Global Dialogue Forum on the Impact of the Financial Crisis on Finance Sector Workers held at the International Labour Organization (ILO), the group said an effective response to the unfolding employment crunch in the financial sector should balance economic and regulatory needs with the impact on jobs, working conditions, skills requirements and social protection in the sector.

A report issued for the forum said some 325,000 workers in the sector had lost their jobs since August 2007, 40 per cent of them since October 2008. It said that the figure was probably an underestimate, and that the number of job losses in the sector could accelerate in the coming months as and when the recession deepens and spreads to other countries.

The conclusions of the Forum (Note 1) called for dialogue between employers, unions and workers’ representatives, and urged that layoffs be used only as a “last resort” after other alternatives had been exhausted.

The conclusions also highlight practical measures that could be taken to mitigate the social impact of the crisis, including:

  • taking account of fundamental principles and rights at work, including freedom of association, the right to organize and collective bargaining, and involving the social partners in the reform process insofar as the labour and social dimension is concerned;

  • basing restructuring on dialogue and consultation between management, unions and workers’ representatives;

  • ensuring workers’ employability through skills enhancement, life-long learning and active labour market policies to support adjustment;

  • maintaining advances in equity policies, especially for the large number of women working in the sector;

  • treating workers in atypical employment fairly;

  • coordinating measures to avoid protectionist policies that would aggravate the crisis.

    • The conclusions also refer to the ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the 2008 Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization and the 2007 International Labour Conference conclusions concerning the promotion of sustainable enterprises as key to the policy responses to be developed.

    Finally, the conclusions call on the ILO to continue monitoring the impact of the crisis and the reforms on employment and on the social and labour dimension in the sector, develop an action plan on these issues in cooperation with governments and the social partners, and assist governments and the social partners to address the social and labour dimension of the financial crisis and the reform process.

    The conclusions also called for the active involvement of the ILO in international forums discussing the crisis, like the Financial Stability Forum and the G 20.

    The financial and economic crisis will also be a priority issue at the March 2009 session of the Governing Body of the ILO.

    Note 1 - Subject to approval by the ILO Governing Body in March 2009.