Opening address of Director-General at the 112th International Labour Conference

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Minister Alexei Buzu, President of the International Labour Conference,

Minister July Moyo, Government Vice-President,

Mr Rajeev Dubey, Employer Vice-President,

Ms Beatrice Lestic, Worker Vice-President,

Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish to join the Chairperson of the Governing Body and the President of the Conference in welcoming you to the 112th Session of the International Labour Conference.

I would like to begin my statement by congratulating you, President Buzu, together with your Vice-Presidents, on your election to take charge of our work.

I would like to share with you the ambivalence which is currently occupying my mind. Since our last meeting in June 2023, I have often asked myself the question as to where our world is going: on the one hand, we are making remarkable, positive and encouraging progress, and on the other we are facing a never-ending chain of challenges and crises.

Global macroeconomic prospects are stable. As you are aware, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting growth in global gross domestic product (GDP) of 3.2 per cent in 2024 and 2025, which is quite stable compared to 2023.

To varying degrees, all regions have recovered the pre-pandemic level of economic activity. The effective action taken by central banks to bring inflation under control has also made a positive contribution. In this sense, the surges in inflation should abate, with inflation decreasing from 5.8 per cent in 2024 to 4.4 per cent in 2025. I sincerely hope that this could relieve the purchasing power of workers, which has been badly affected.

At the same time, there has been no respite in geopolitical tensions. The hotspots have intensified. The appalling situation in the Middle East has been added to the already existing crises. The absolutely awful conflicts in Gaza, Yemen, Sudan, Haiti, Ukraine and the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to name but a few, continue to be major problems for humanity and, more especially, for multilateralism. Is it really necessary to lament the failure to conclude a treaty on pandemics at the World Health Organization (WHO) last week.

As regards the labour market, the ILO is forecasting a global unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent in 2024 and 2025, which is a slight fall – but a fall nevertheless – in relation to 2023, when it stood at 5 per cent. It is also a downward revision of the previous forecast of 5.2 per cent, which we made in November 2023. All in all, these encouraging prospects prevent us from “seeing the wood for the trees”. The unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent translates as a total of 183 million unemployed persons throughout the world.

As we know, the unemployment rate measurement does not include those workers who, for various reasons, have left the labour market and no longer have a job, although their profound desire to have one remains intact.

As a result, ILO specialists have devised a new index, the job gap, to make up for this failing. The job gap remains high, according to our forecasts – 402 million in 2024, although we should note that it has fallen in comparison to 2022, when it was 473 million.

The job gap for women in low-income countries stands at 22.8 per cent, as opposed to 15.3 per cent for men, while in high-income countries the rate is 9.7 per cent for women and 7.3 per cent for men. In the labour market as a whole, 45.6 per cent of women have a job, compared to 69.2 per cent of men. These inequalities are in addition to those constituted by the wage gap between women and men.

Furthermore, the battle against informal employment appears to be running out of steam. Formal employment creation has not kept up with the increase in the working-age population. The number of informal workers has increased from about 1.7 billion in 2005 to 2.0 billion in 2024.

The same duality exists in the perceptions of artificial intelligence and its consequences for the labour market. Our analyses show that most professions are enhanced by technology rather than just being automated.

Benefiting from the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence constitutes an alternative rather than a threat, provided of course that we make a decisive investment in upskilling, vocational training, the acquisition of new knowledge and retraining.

The ILO will intensify its research in this area and, in particular, in relation to the effects on the labour market and also on the intrinsic value of labour.

This duality reminds me of the Declaration of Philadelphia which stipulates, and I quote: “poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere” and “labour is not a commodity”.

It goes without saying that I am delighted that we will soon be devoting special attention to the 80th anniversary of the Declaration of Philadelphia (10 May 1944) and, in this regard, I would like to welcome Ms Jayati Gosh to join us today. We are keen to hear what she has to say.

I would like to thank all the Heads of State and Government, all the tripartite constituents, as well as all our partners who support the Global Coalition for Social Justice.

To date, we have registered 280 partners including 68 governments. We will have the opportunity to discuss this at greater length during the inaugural forum which will take place on 13 June.

I would now like to say a few words about the committees.

As is customary, the Committee on the Application of Standards will discuss the supervision of compliance with ILO standards.

The Standard-Setting Committee will hold its first discussion on biological hazards to follow up on the recommendations made by the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group. It will examine and make recommendations intended to remedy the insufficiencies identified by that Group for the 2025 Conference.

The Recurrent Discussion Committee on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work will examine the impact of the multiple and interdependent crises on the effective implementation of fundamental principles and rights at work.

Finally, the General Discussion Committee will discuss decent work and the care economy.

On the fringes of the work of the Conference committees, we will have the opportunity to talk to the co-facilitators of the Second World Social Summit, planned for 2025 by the United Nations General Assembly. This Summit represents a unique opportunity for social equity to become one of the three major pillars of our societies, on the same level as the economic and environmental pillars.

This year again, I invite you to consider my report to the Conference in an open-minded manner.

My report pursues the theme of social justice by examining the fundamentals of a society designed to be fair, and on which the opportunities and institutions of decent work should be built. It relates to the question of the renewal of the social contract.

How can the social contract be revised at the global, regional and national levels so as to make social justice the foundation of sustainable peace, shared prosperity, equality of opportunity and a just transition? The report does not impose any preconceived ideas but its aim is to stimulate, what we hope will be, a productive and fruitful debate.

The Conference will also debate my annual report on the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories. The current tragic conflict gives rise to the exponential loss of human lives and means of subsistence. It requires our greatest attention. The conflict must end. I will be so bold as to insist on this. I hope that the special plenary session, organized on an exceptional basis on 6 June, may contribute to this aim.

In relation to ILO governance, although this subject is not on the Conference agenda, I invite all the Member States which have not yet done so, to ratify the Instrument of Amendment to the ILO Constitution, 1986.

As a reminder, 126 countries including 2 countries which occupy non-elective seats have already ratified this Instrument of Amendment. However, its implementation remains subject to its ratification by at least three of the other Member States occupying non-elective seats.

I will conclude by citing this extract from the Declaration of Philadelphia: “all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development, in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity”.

Thank you.