In time for the G20 Leaders’ Summit on 30-31 October 2021, the L20 released a statement that puts forward the workers’ demands to the G20 leaders on delivering prosperity for the people and the planet.
Highlighting the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the L20 calls on the G20 leaders to urgently take action towards ensuring universal access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing. It also demands for a recovery plan shaped by social dialogue and a new social contract aimed at a just development model that invests on climate-friendly jobs with a Just Transition, rights for all workers, a fiscal space for structural and resilient universal social protection system, equality of treatment and opportunity, and inclusive economies with full employment.
Specifically, the L20 set forth the following demands to the G20 leaders:
Shoya Yoshida, General Secretary of the ITUC-Asia Pacific, said, “We are at a very critical juncture of the future of the world. The G20 leaders should urgently translate its commitment to ‘spare no effort to protect lives’ into concrete actions that ensure sustainable, inclusive, and resilient recovery.”
The L20 statement also underscores the role of social dialogue in laying the foundations for a human-centred recovery that can regain trust, reduce inequalities, and deliver a Just Transition to a net-zero carbon and digital economy, realising the ambitions set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. In this regard, Shoya Yoshida reiterated, “The ITUC-Asia Pacific, representing 60 million workers in Asia and the Pacific including six G20 member countries, is committed to working together with G20 as a responsible social partner on the basis of constructive industrial relations.”
L20’s full statement and detailed set of demands can be accessed here.