ILO / ESSENTIAL WORK VALUE

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how societies have undervalued essential workers, as well as the importance of giving such workers adequate pay and decent working conditions. ILO

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:55
• Production Date: 15 March 2023
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION - ILO
• Subject Topical: EMPLOYMENT; LABOUR
• MAMS Id: 3020216
• Parent Id: 3020216
• Alternate Title: unifeed230315a

Description

STORY: ILO / ESSENTIAL WORK VALUE
TRT: 1:55
SOURCE: ILO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 15 MARCH 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, ILO headquarters

15 MARCH 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Med shot, general views of ILO room with participants at virtual press conference at ILO headquarters
3. Close-up, reports
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Janine Berg, Senior Economist, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“So this is a study of key workers and their working conditions going into the pandemic and their experience during the pandemic. And what we find, first of all, is that key workers had higher mortality rates than non key workers and particularly transport workers. And so this led us to then do a study of their working conditions. And what we see is that in general, overall, even going into the pandemic and since the pandemic, they have deficits in working conditions. Deficits and occupational safety and health and high use of temporary contracts, excessive working hours. Many of the workers are low paid. One out of every three of the key workers is low paid. There's also low access to training in lower- and middle income countries, lack of social protection. We know from experience that poor working conditions leads to labour turnover, labour shortages. We see this nowadays in many countries where we have shortages in bus drivers and truck drivers, in nursing personnel, in many of these key services that keep our societies running. We also know that we live in in an age of crisis where we're going to have recurring crises, maybe even future pandemics, and that we need to be prepared. This report really calls for governments and social partners to think about these issues and to invest in their in the working conditions of these workers and in their sectors so that the workers have enough physical and social infrastructure to do their jobs correctly and to want to stay in those jobs.”
5. Med shot, press conference
6. Med shot, press conference

Storyline

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how societies have undervalued essential workers, as well as the importance of giving such workers adequate pay and decent working conditions.

Countries need to improve the working conditions and earnings of key workers – who were essential during the COVID-19 crisis – to fully reflect their contribution to society and their importance in the daily functioning of economies, a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) says.

The report, World Employment and Social Outlook 2023: The value of essential work, underscores the extent to which economies and societies depend on key workers, and also how they are undervalued. The poor working conditions of key workers exacerbate employee turnover and labour shortages, jeopardizing the provision of basic services. Improvements in working conditions and greater investment in food systems, health care and other key sectors are necessary for building economic and social resilience to shocks, the report says.