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President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has called on governments, international organisations, labour unions and civil society organisations to prioritise a new social contract to ensure the existence of peace, social justice, equitable economic growth and solidarity for a sustainable human society.
Wabba said that jobs, rights, wages, social protection, equality, and inclusion are critical parts of the new social contract.
He said this in his opening address at the ongoing fifth congress of the Confederation in Melbourne, Australia.
Wabba noted that in the world today, the gains on rights elevation are being increasingly wiped out by heinous attacks on basic human and trade union rights. He added that dictators, both in government and private workplaces, are rolling back hard-fought trade unions’ and workers’ rights.
“Corporate power is seeking to undermine the right to organise, to engage in collective bargaining, the right to hold and express political thoughts and the right to strike. These rights are sacrosanct and non-negotiable,” he said.
Wabba added that “Linked to jobs is the issue of wages. The 2020 ITUC Global Poll shows that the household income of 42 per cent of the world population fell behind the cost of living. The global increase in labour productivity has not translated to living wages. While the desired wage outcome is living wages, so many countries, especially countries of the Global South still struggle to pay minimum wage.
“According to the last World Inequality Report, the richest one per cent took 38 per cent of all additional wealth accumulated since the mid-1990s, whereas the bottom 50 per cent captured just two per cent of it. The poorest half of the world’s population possesses only two per cent of the total wealth, while the richest 10 per cent owns 76 per cent.”
He also said that there can never be social justice without social protection as 75 per cent of workers all over the world are outside the social protection net. He added that there was no justification for this as just 0.25 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product would close the social protection gap.
Comrade Wabba added that for the future of work to be sustainable, attention must be paid to equality and inclusion. “Care work must be paid for. We must promote equal pay for work of equal value. We must commit to freeing workplaces from sexual harassment and violence and we must remove the barriers to economic and social development which stop progress in so many countries.
“A new social contract means promotion of jobs, rights, wages, social protection, equality, and inclusion. At its heart is jobs, all the other cardinal pillars of it revolve around jobs, not just any kind of job but decent jobs. Globally, we need to create 575 million new jobs to achieve full employment. New jobs should especially go to women who are already at the receiving end of the gender jobs gap.”
On Just Transition to Green Jobs, the ITUC President said there was the need for a greater inclusion of trade unions in development processes through stronger social dialogue practices and institutions, ensuring workers can contribute to shape policies to fight poverty and inequalities.
He said inclusive development must be backed by investment which must be done by changing the rules that dominate the international financial institutions and system to enable countries to achieve equitable and sustainable development.
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“Just Transition, which is the response of workers all over the world to the threats posed by climate change, is gaining traction globally. The processes that are at the heart of the green economy must respect international labour standards. A case in hand is the use of child labour in Congo DRC to mine cobalt which is one of the key raw materials used in the manufacture of lithium batteries. We condemn this modern form of slavery and demand that cobalt produced under barbaric and slavish conditions should be treated as blood diamonds.
“Just Transition means an alternative sustainable path to production and consumption. It must involve workers in decision-making and change the narrative of workers as victims of climate injustice to partners in finding solutions.
“The rapid evolution of technology, albeit helpful for the growth of the green economy, artificial intelligence and machine learning also presents its own challenges. The hijacking and misuse of big data by corporate power and the casualisation of platform work adds to the burden of two billion precarious work in the informal economy, some 60 per cent of the global labour force. We need to arise from this Congress with a clear position on these issues,” he said.
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