This edition opens with an overview of the 111th International Labour Organisation conference in Geneva last June. After extensive discussions, the social partners adopted a new recommendation on quality apprenticeships, and new resolutions on just transition and labour protection.
While a recurring topic on minimum wages is being studied by Eurofound with regards to the unprecedent inflation worldwide, new topics are unfolding. Artificial Intelligence is no longer the future, but the present. It is already influencing the way we live and work. A transformation which the 2022 OECD data gathering showed was less threatening to the labour market than expected but does create uncertainty over ethic matters. Another trending topic that we find in this edition relates to platform economy. While California’s High Court room is to rule on the constitutionality of the employment relationship of the platform workers defined in their Proposition 22 ballot, Singapore’s Government has agreed to open social dialogue towards a new legislative framework for platform workers.
Meanwhile, high on policymakers’ agendas is the compliance with the Paris Agreement, for which the Dutch Government adopted new measures compelling companies to report on the work-related mobility of people. On the other side of the globe, societal issues break in the Government’s agendas. South Korea has the worlds’ lowest fertility rate since 2013, which threatens the stability of the Korean population. HanmiGlobal decided to take the matter into its own hands and developed a new internal welfare policy to support the Government to boost population growth.
Sustainable development is a global imperative, and companies play a critical role as catalysts for change in society. Both an enabling environment and promoting social dialogue in policymaking must remain a prerogative for Governments.