G20 Information Centre provided by the G20 Research Group
	@g20rg G20 Summits |  G20 Ministerials |  G20 Analysis |  Search |  About the G20 Research Group [English]  [Français]  [Deutsch]  [Italiano]  [Portuguesa]  [Japanese]  [Chinese]  [Korean]  [Indonesian]

See also Summits | Labour and Employment Ministers
Road to the 2022 Bali Summits

Chair's Summary: Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting 2022

Bali, September 13-14, 2022
[pdf]

We, the Ministers of Labour and Employment of the G20 members and invited countries, met in Bali on 13-14 September 2022, to discuss recent global labour market challenges and developments, review the progress of our previous commitments, and further our work including through elaborating recommendations and action plans in the context of the pandemic to 'recover together, recover stronger.'

Part I

1. We are meeting against the backdrop of a fragile and uncertain recovery of the global labour market situation, amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and rising geopolitical tensions. The compounded effects of the pandemic and conflicts have affected the world of work, causing job losses, the inability to attain decent work for employees, and disruptions on the labour market.

2. We express deep concerns regarding the increased and ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world. Many members express their condemnations to Russia with regard to the war in Ukraine, while others view that Employment WG is not the proper forum to address geopolitical issues. We call for peace, cessation of hostilities and an end to war. We also emphasize the importance of peace as a prerequisite to building a more resilient and inclusive labour markets in a new world of work.

Part II

There is agreement on the following points:

1. We remain committed to a human-centred inclusive, fair, sustainable approach that leads to greater social justice, decent work and social protection for all and that aims to empower people to take advantage of new opportunities, including responding to ongoing and future challenges.

2. The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated changes and created new challenges in the world of work and in our societies. We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in many countries and continues to disproportionately affect women, youth, older workers, persons with disabilities and migrant workers. It remains our utmost priority to mitigate its adverse impact on the labour market and reduce inequalities. We will continue to work to overcome these obstacles by enabling inclusive, sustainable, full and productive employment, and decent work for all, leaving no one behind.

3. To recover together, recover stronger, we will continue to build on the work of previous G20 presidencies and relevant international frameworks taking into account the current global context. To achieve our objectives, both nationally and globally, we commit to continue our previous work in pursuit of an inclusive labour market particularly in the efforts to integrate persons with disabilities; to promote a sustainable development of human capacity including community-based vocational training; to promote job creation through entrepreneurship and micro, small, and medium enterprises; and to strengthen labour protection in the changing world of work. We remain committed to social dialogue to fulfil these objectives.

Accelerating and Monitoring of G20 Principles for the Labour Market Integration of Persons with Disabilities

4. Persons with disabilities face significant barriers compounded by the COVID-19 crisis to accessing and remaining in the labour market, including access to basic services such as employment support, education and training. We are committed to promoting inclusive, fair, and sustainable employment for persons with disabilities in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), especially Article 27 on Work and Employment (United Nations, 2006).

5. We recognize that the ongoing digital and green transitions present new employment opportunities and challenges for the integration of persons with disabilities. We commit to equipping persons with disabilities with the necessary skills to seize the opportunities brought about by these transitions and new forms of work. We promote the involvement of social partners and organizations of persons with disabilities in digital and green initiatives.

6. We reiterate our commitment made in Argentina in 2018 to the G20 Principles for the Labour Market Integration of Persons with Disabilities, and we commit to accelerating the implementation of these principles. We therefore adopt the "Action Plan on Accelerating and Monitoring of the G20 Principles for the Labour Market Integration of Persons with Disabilities".

Community-based vocational training for inclusive and sustainable growth anchored in the revised G20 Skills Strategy

7. We recognise that the megatrends affecting the world of work, such as demographic changes, digitalisation, and the green transition transform the effective delivery of education and training. Accordingly, we will adapt our approach to skills development, including through the updated G20 Skills Strategy.

8. We acknowledge that skills strategies must strengthen lifelong learning and address the challenges related to the changing world of work. We are also aware that skilling, reskilling and upskilling are the preconditions for an inclusive labour market and people's access to decent work opportunities. Effective and accessible training schemes, enabling people to upskill and reskill all along their working lives should be developed. In this context, we have agreed on an updated and extended G20 Skills Strategy to guide these initiatives. This basic approach could be usefully complemented and strengthened by the participatory bottom-up approach of Community-Based Vocational Training (CBVT)[1] which enables people to respond to their most pressing needs and the needs of their local labour market. Therefore, we endorse the "G20 Policy Recommendations for Sustainable Growth and Productivity in Human Capacity Development through Strengthening Community-Based Vocational Training (CBVT)".

Job creation through entrepreneurship and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)

9. We acknowledge that enterprises are under increasing pressure to be more competitive, productive, and create high quality jobs. We recognize the essential roles that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), play in the economy of all countries and their potential for employment creation.

10. MSMEs can be agile and adaptive to change, however, they have weaker resilience when exposed to major economic shocks. Their productivity is often hampered by their limited access to various financing, technology, and production factors; their limited management capabilities; and business continuity skills. We also acknowledge the challenges in ensuring that all MSMEs in the informal economy are covered by social protection, support and benefit mechanisms.

11. Building on the G20 Entrepreneurship Action Plan (Beijing, 2016), we endorse the "Policy Recommendation on Promoting Entrepreneurship and Supporting MSMEs as a Job Creation Instrument", aiming to support MSME productivity and quality working conditions through a comprehensive approach that leverages the main productivity drivers. We remain committed to promote formalisation of enterprises and to protect jobs and workers' rights.

Adapting Labour Protections to Increase Resilience for All Workers

12. The changing world of work includes the rise of automation and digital technologies, as well as the platform-based economy, which could create more employment opportunities. If the main challenges of workers of the platform economy are not dealt with properly, it could lead to questions about the status of employment of workers, which could put workers in a more vulnerable position than those with standard forms of work with established labour protection. Where this is the case, it is imperative that platform workers are correctly classified and adequately protected to ensure decent work.

13. Furthermore, we acknowledge that climate crisis is having a growing impact on the workers, exposing them to greater health and safety risks at work, requiring tailored responses according to the climates of different countries. We also recognize that there are many Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) related challenges involved in transforming the economy through resource-saving, climate-neutral processes. We are determined to continue our efforts to provide a more inclusive and comprehensive OSH policy in accordance with the "G20 Approaches on Safety and Health at Work (Catania, 2021). We strongly welcome the inclusion of a safe and healthy working environment in the ILO's framework of fundamental principles and rights at work, and we commend the work of the G20 OSH Network to share experiences on effective approaches to improved workers protection.

14. Following the rapid transformation of the world of work due to economic, social, and environmental changes and the COVID-19 pandemic, we acknowledge the need to build on the Policy Options for Adapting Social Protection to Reflect the Changing Patterns of Work (Riyadh, 2020) as well as on G20 Policy Principles to ensure access to adequate social protection for all in a changing world of work (Catania, 2021) through a focus on adapting labour protection for all workers and ensuring its adequacy.

15. We support the strengthening of existing forms of labour protection while also exploring and implementing new forms of protection and improving their application through effective compliance strategies which are supported by evidence that demonstrates further action is necessary. Social dialogue, including freedom of association and the recognition of the right to collective bargaining, is key to maintaining or encouraging peaceful and constructive workplace relations, promoting social justice, inclusive economic growth, improved working conditions, and sustainable enterprises. It also increases resilience to future crises. Therefore, it is essential to involve social partners in closing labour protection gaps to ensure that we recover stronger together in an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient manner.

16. We will accelerate our efforts to foster and adapt labour protection to provide effective protection for all workers. We endorse the "G20 Policy Principles on Adapting Labour Protection for More Effective Protection and Increased Resilience for All Workers".

Way Forward

17. We thank the Entrepreneurship Research Centre on the G20 economies for its efforts to provide a Measurement Report on the Progress of the G20 Entrepreneurship Action Plan as the academic and information support for this year's priority issue on entrepreneurship. We look forward to the G20 Entrepreneurship Roundtable in October 2022, which will play an important role to promote the implementation of this Ministerial Declaration as well as the development of entrepreneurship among members.

18. We remain committed to reaching the Brisbane target to reduce the gender gap in the labour market participation rate by 25% by 2025 and to reach the Antalya Youth Goal to reduce the share of young people who are most at risk of being permanently left behind in the labour market by 15% by 2025. In line with the Catania Labour Ministerial Declaration, we will reinforce our efforts to implement the G20 Roadmap towards and beyond the Brisbane Target, and also the G20 Youth Roadmap 2025, as we strive to improve the situation of women and youth in the labour market. We will continue to monitor progress towards these targets and the implementation of the roadmaps and call upon the ILO and the OECD to continue to report on our progress.

19. We will accelerate progress towards universal social protection for all by 2030. To that end, we welcome the UN Secretary-General initiative for a Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for a Just Transition, which aims to create 400 million decent jobs including in the green, digital, and care economies and to extend social protection coverage to the 4 billion people currently excluded. The initiative could make an important contribution to poverty reduction, decent work and achieving the SDGs.

20. We acknowledge that sustainable value chains are of paramount importance for achieving human rights, decent work for all and protecting the environment. We therefore stay committed and continue to work towards ensuring corporate due diligence including the elimination of child labour and forced labour along value chains.

Closing

21. The Ministers agreed on the following documents as attached:

1. Action Plan on Accelerating and Monitoring the G20 Principles for the Labour Market Integration of Persons with Disabilities;

2. The G20 Policy Recommendations for Sustainable Growth and Productivity in Human Capacity Development through Strengthening Community-Based Vocational Training (CBVT);

3. Policy Recommendation on Promoting Entrepreneurship and Supporting MSMEs as a Job Creation Instrument;

4. G20 Policy Principles on Adapting Labour Protection for More Effective Protection and Increased Resilience for All Workers; and

5. Update of the G20 Skills Strategy

22. We thank the ILO and the OECD for their valuable input to our work and take note of their reports. We also commend their work with UNESCO in the preparation of "the Updated G20 Skills Strategy." We also value the input, experience, and expertise of the WBG, ADB, and IsDB we received during the Indonesian Presidency.

23. We appreciate the contributions to our work made by B20 and L20 and welcome the continued dialogue held with the engagement groups C20, W20, and Y20 and look forward to continuing this cooperation.

24. We will present the outcome documents to the 2022 G20 Leaders' Summit for their consideration.

25. We thank the Indonesian Presidency for its dedication and leadership throughout 2022, and we look forward to the continuation of our effort towards improving employment in 2023 under the Presidency of the Republic of India and beyond.

Note

[1] Community-Based Vocational Training (CBVT) is an inclusive model that addresses human capacity building at the local level and can ensure productivity and value addition at the local level, and strengthens the local economy. It encourages the participation of the community and rebuilds trust in institutions given its close proximity to the population, promotes local development and the social and solidarity economy given its decentralised feature, encourages local entrepreneurship to boost the local economy, involves non-government actors through local social dialogue, and assures that no one is left behind in the effort to recover together stronger. ↩

[back to top]

Source: Official website of Indonesia's G20 Presidency