Winnie Byanyima joins International Labour Organization Commission on Future of Work

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, has been appointed to a new Global Commission on the Future of Work established by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The high-level international body, co-chaired by Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius, and Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden, will address the challenges of the rapidly transforming world of work. It will examine the future of work to help provide an analytical basis for the delivery of social justice in the 21st century. 

Oxfam congratulates the leadership shown by President Gurib-Fakim, Prime Minister Löfven and Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization, in founding this important Commission. 

Winnie Byanyima said: “The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Global Commission has a vital role to actively shape the future for billions of workers around the world and their children. The vision of the Commission is testament to the ILO’s legacy and leadership. I am honored to join the Commission and speak for Oxfam and people we work with around the world."

The Commission will focus on the relationship between work and society, the challenge of creating decent jobs for all, the organization of work and production, and the governance of work. It will produce an independent report on how to achieve a future of work that provides decent and sustainable opportunities for all. This report will be submitted to the centenary session of the International Labour Conference in 2019.

Byanyima said “A future in which work is dignified is possible. But to do this we must break from today’s economic policies that have forcibly widened the wage gap between rich and poor, eroded workers’ rights and amassed wealth and power in the hands of elites and wealthy employers and shareholders. 

“Our world needs an ambitious, evidence-based and active policy agenda in the interest of workers – not the 1% - that is purposed to tackling economic and gender inequality. I look forward to championing the role that living wages, collective bargaining and equitable business models can play toward a more human economy. Challenging economic rules rigged against women is key. New rules and forms of governance which rely upon our governments cooperating are vital.”

Byanyima said, “We succeed when we put the voices of workers in poverty first – most of all women workers in developing countries upon whose shoulders our global economy rests upon. I am energized by the opportunity to reach out to women, young people and companies to help form the bold solutions that the Commission will champion.”

The Commission held its first meeting in Geneva in late October 2017.