TECHNOLOGY NEWS JANUARY 22, 2019 / 9:38 AM / UPDATED 23 MINUTES AGO

Keep humans in good jobs in the robot era, ILO commission urges

Tom Miles
3 MIN READ

GENEVA (Reuters) - Governments must ensure the global economy keeps providing decent jobs - and not just for robots, a global commission set up by the International Labour Organization said on Tuesday.

The “Global Commission on the Future of Work”, co-chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, said in a report that governments, employers and unions needed to adapt to revolutionary changes in the world of work.

“In short, the future of our societies depends on how we deal with the challenges and opportunities related to the world of work, we need to reorient policies as well as actions to deliver a human-centred agenda, which is what this report basically focuses on,” Ramaphosa told a news conference.

Among the commission’s recommendations was the establishment of an international governance system for digital labor platforms to ensure technology supports, rather than supplants, decent work.

To illustrate that such an international labor code was workable, Ramaphosa and ILO Director-General Guy Ryder cited the ILO’s 2006 Maritime Labour Convention, which set minimum working and living standards for all seafarers working on ships flying the flags of ratifying countries.

-snip-