2023-10-06 00:00:00
GENEVA (ILO News) – Representatives of governments, employers and workers called for comprehensive, evidence-based policies that can address the root causes of decent work challenges in the face of digitalization, as well as robust frameworks that promote both an enabling environment for business sustainable development, skills development and lifelong learning, as adequate labor protection for all workers in the retail sector.
Meeting at ILO headquarters in Geneva, participants stressed the need for strategies that promote flexibility and improve productivity, while ensuring decent work. This includes respecting limits on working time and overtime, protecting workers from new safety and health risks, including mental and psychosocial health risks, and facilitating the reconciliation of work and family life.
The retail sector employs an estimated 420 million people worldwide, half of them women. The growth of online retailers and warehousing and distribution services has created new and different jobs, especially for women and young people.
Digitalization has provided small and medium-sized businesses with greater access to markets, has contributed to reducing informality and has the potential to boost economic recovery.
However, these new business models have also created a shortage of skilled personnel and, in some cases, job losses in traditional companies.
They have given rise to an increase in different forms of work that question the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, as well as the provision of adequate social protection coverage.
In the conclusions of the meeting, representatives of governments, workers and employers stressed the importance of social dialogue to help address these issues and ensure a fair and inclusive digital transition.
They also underlined the importance of investments in digital infrastructure to help close the digital divide within and between countries, including rural and urban divides.
“We are witnessing transformative changes in the world of work, including the acceleration of digitalization in the retail sector, which present opportunities and challenges for decent work. Now more than ever, it is important that governments, employers and organizations of workers come together and discuss how policies and initiatives in this sector can promote social justice and a future of work that is sustainable, inclusive and resilient,” said Yukiko Arai, Deputy Director and Head of the Sectoral Policy Department at the ILO.
“Fully realizing the job creation potential of the retail sector requires an integrated approach that combines employment-intensive policies, decent work opportunities, social protection and just transition strategies tailored to the specific needs of the sector,” he said. Margherita Licata, Specialist in Private Service Sectors, ILO Sectoral Policy Department.
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