The L20 vision for Argentina’s G20 presidency

The world of work is changing very rapidly. Changes in organisations, migration, innovation and technology are all part of this transformation. Technological changes pose a challenge to improving people’s qualifications through training. To this end, these changes must take place under a ‘just transition’ framework that enables fair access to scientific and technological developments for workers.

We, the Labour 20 (L20), support public policies based on social dialogue that ensures that companies and those developing technologies transfer that technology to the educational system. It is thus important for the world of work to engage in dialogue with the educational system.

Social actors must engage, along with national and local governments, in discussing, planning, developing, managing and evaluating professional training, and in the acquisition and acknowledgement of skills and competencies.

They must work together to improve average work qualifications by offering lifelong training, for the workplace and in the workplace. That training must be accessible to everyone and be good quality; it must respond to the requirements of the world of work, to the different needs and expectations of workers and, essentially, to the development of society.

Progressive training, lifelong learning

An integral technical and professional educational system is required, one with sufficient lifelong training to match the dynamics of technological change within the frameworks of collective labour agreements. Similarly, it is paramount that different levels and educational modes be articulated, to propose progressive training offers, so that people can learn, complete, reorganise and expand their knowledge.

Training must integrate the following:

• technical aspects typical of each occupation;
• human and labour rights;
• the culture of work;
• civic values;
• the promotion of youth participation in the labour market;
• care for migrants, older workers and independent workers with no social protection;
• reduction in the gender gap;
• the empowerment of workers
  in the informal economy; and
• the development of productive enterprises.

To attain these objectives, the L20 proposes the following recommendations to G20 leaders:

• Promote effective spaces for dialogue and collective bargaining.
• Improve the quality of democracy and governance in tripartite mechanisms that ensure these actions do not become distorted in favour of economic interests that disregard the social and work needs of the individual.
• Articulate and promote the participation of actors involved in production, education and training in creating policies that promote full, decent, productive and freely chosen employment.
• Promote public policies that help reduce inequality in the region and create a new paradigm of more inclusive and humane sustainable development that protects the dignity of work.
• Develop strategies for a just transition towards a green, digital future of work.
• Create a new culture of work that strengthens the collective and reinforces the ability to interpret and transform reality with social justice.
• Promote actions that defend social control of public resources that have been allocated to professional training.
• Connect young people and adults to learning contexts closely tied to training in line with their interests that expand their point of view, let them understand whole processes, learn how to work with others and interact in socio-productive environments.

All in all, these elements make it possible to face the challenges posed by technological changes and, at the same time, reduce inequality in our societies.

Competencies and lifelong learning, the formalisation of the informal economy, the fight against non-standard forms of employment and the expansion of social protection are among the themes of Argentina’s G20 presidency.

They are all necessary components of a just transition that prepares the labour force for the future of work and ensures an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future.

Saying that a different world is possible is to promote a social contract where social justice is universal.