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ILO Contributions to the Plan of Action of the Social Charter of the Americas

Progress in income distribution, poverty reduction, and labor market challenges in the Americas. Recommendations for action in labor market institutions, policies, social protection, and social dialogue.

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ILO Contributions to the Plan of Action of the Social Charter of the Americas

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  1. ILO Contributions to the Plan of Action of the Social Charter of the Americas Nancy A. Donaldson Director, ILO Washington

  2. Progress on Key Challenges • Improvements in income distribution and poverty reduction have been significant. • Living conditions for more workers have improved. • Improvements are mainly due to comparatively robust growth in combination with social transfers and the expansion of the social protection floor - but not because of more efficient or equitable labor markets. • Significant inequalities exist in the labor market (by skill, gender, education level and age); informality remains a concern; gender gaps in wages and earnings persist; and the labor market continues to be highly gender-segmented. • The functional distribution of income has not improved – indicating that salaries have grown less than productivity in many countries in the region.

  3. To secure better outcomes in the labor market ILO recommends coordinated action in four key areas: • Strengthen labor market institutions and the institutional framework • Strengthen labor market policies and programs • Invest in social protection – including in the informal sector 4. Promote social dialogue and fundamental rights

  4. Strengthen labor market institutions • Strengthen the Ministries of Labor in the region and their sub-offices (e.g. training and labor market intermediation). • Strengthen labor market inspection and sanctions: providing technical assistance for complex topics, such as safety and health, as well as support to develop better administrative procedures. • Invest in labor market observatories and improve labor market statistics to enable better monitoring and evaluation.

  5. Strengthen labor market policies and programs • In a context where union density and coverage is declining, the role of the minimum wage is increasingly important to provide a wage floor vulnerable workers and sectors. Technical assistance in setting, revising and evaluating minimum wage policies. • Numerous studies in the region demonstrate that the minimum wage can also have a significant lighthouse effect for the informal economy and is particularly important for women workers. • Lessons learned from temporary employment programs in response to the economic crisis, skills training (particularly for youth and unemployed), and social protection as an automatic stabilizer in mitigating the effects of the crisis.

  6. Invest in social protection • Maximize use of social protection to reduce poverty and facilitate entry into decent work. • Develop more coherent social protection systems - combine with measures to enhance and protect income for the vulnerable - in line with the Social Protection Floor initiative. • Develop gender sensitive social protection programs that consider time and care burdens and seek to redistribute these between the state, household and market and between men and women.

  7. Promote social dialogue and fundamental rights • Social dialogue has been critical in generating consensual responses to the global financial crisis among sectors; reducing the economic and social costs of the recession. • Examples should be noted and the lessons learned exported. • Various studies from the region emphasize that with vibrant and effective collective bargaining, societies are more equal and wage gaps between sectors are often significantly smaller. • Decent work commitments and adherence to conventions on fundamental rights are critical for protecting workers and also for creating an effective environment for social dialogue.

  8. Regional Initiatives • Decent Work country commitments in 8 countries in the region. • Social Protection Floor initiative. • International Program to Eliminate Child Labor (IPEC). • Country level programs to promote youth employment. • Projects to support the promotion and implementation of C169 and C189. • Social dialogue projects throughout the region. • Interagency work with OAS, FAO, ECLAC, UNDP, UNWOMEN (policy research and analysis).

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