ILO calls for commitment to a “new era of social justice” by International Labour Organization (ILO) 1:34pm 21st Feb, 2012   20 February 2012    International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General, Juan Somavia, has called for a commitment to a new era of social justice, warning that “there is a widespread feeling that too many people, economies, and societies have been on a rigged course leaving them on the losing end”.    In a statement marking World Day of Social Justice, Mr. Somavia said that the root causes of the public protests seen today in many parts of the world may differ, but the overall message is one and the same: the quest for dignity and justice.    He said the world of work has been a mirror of an increasingly inefficient globalization whose key drivers – deregulation of finance and global trade liberalization – are in crisis.    He said the problem goes beyond the one in three workers worldwide who are either unemployed or living in poverty, or the 75 million youths who don’t have a job and very few prospects of achieving one.    “Take for example the fate of the many who work hard in unsafe and often inhuman conditions or the fact that more than half the world’s population lacks any type of social security protection. And the widespread absence of the fundamental freedoms of work which produce child labour, forced labour, discrimination and the absence of effective voice and representation”, he added.    He said this historical moment requires “new thinking and creativity to produce economic progress with social justice”, and that the world of work must loom large in the responses.    Mr. Somavia stressed the need to implement employment-oriented policies to address the 600 million job challenge the world economy will face in the next decade. On this same line, he called for reducing existing inequalities and revaluing the dignity of work, saying that deepening inequalities have had destabilizing consequences for human dignity, family stability and peace, as well as adverse economic consequences.    The surge and implications of global popular movements highlight the increasing role that dialogue, collaboration and consensus building – the bedrock of the ILO’s Constitution – must play in the world today, he added.    He spoke with concern of the growing social justice debt in Europe, and hoped that it would find a way to move forward respecting the fundamental human values of the European ideal.    Last but not least, Mr. Somavia said the financial sector must be at the service of the real economy, “no longer accepting that some banks are too big to fail and some people are too small to matter”.    “The world has choices. We can continue to apply policies which produced the crisis and wait for at least 88 years to eradicate extreme poverty at the present rate. Or we can begin to conceive and realize a vision of society and of growth based on the dignity of human beings capable of delivering economic efficiency, sustainability and decent work for all in a new area of social justice”, he concluded. Visit the related web page
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