The International Labour Organization (ILO) is establishing a Global Commission on the Future Work. The move forms part of the ILO’s Future of Work Initiative, designed to help understand the changes affecting the world of work.
The commission is officially launched at the ILO headquarters in Geneva on 21 August. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, president of Mauritius, and Stefan Löfven, prime minister of Sweden will co-chair the commission, which will bring together 20 experts from all over the world. They will produce an independent report, which will be submitted to the centenary conference of the ILO in 2019.
The changing nature of the world of work is a topic of concern for co-operatives. In 2015 the ILO in collaboration with the International Co-operative Alliance’s Committee on Co-operative Research hosted a research conference in Antalya, Turkey looking at the role of co-ops in the world of work.
An ILO briefing note from March 2017 also looked at the ways in which co-operatives responded to technological, demographic, economic and environmental changes taking place within the world of work.
The paper highlights how co-operatives are promoting financial stability and inclusion and explores co-operative solutions within the ‘sharing’ or ‘online platform’ economy or co-ops providing care for the elderly.
Co-operatives have a unique opportunity to make an impact, reads the note, due to the global quest for new forms of business and growth models.
