The Global Deal Flagship Report 2024

The U.S. Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence underlines the importance of involving various stakeholders in developing and implementing AI policies to ensure they are fair, transparent and beneficial to all. To mitigate AI’s potential harms to employees’ well-being and maximise its potential benefits, consultation of various stakeholders, including social partners is key. They play a crucial role in adopting and implementing new policies, legislation and guidelines to close legal and policy gaps that are needed for a safe, responsible and ethical adoption of AI in the workplace.

The European Social Partners Framework Agreement on Digitalisation was concluded between the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), BusinessEurope, SGI Europe (as CEEP - European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public Services) and SMEunited in June 2020. It provides an action-oriented framework to encourage, guide and assist employers, workers and their representatives to support the introduction of digital technology in the world of work taking a human-centred approach and tailoring it to national contexts and to specific industries.

The Public Services International (PSI) Digital Bargaining Hub and the UNI Global Union Database of AI and Algorithmic Management in Collective Bargaining Agreements provide valuable resources for workers’ organisations to regulate the adoption of AI in workplaces. The PSI database structures clauses found in collective bargaining agreements around eight themes, including one on “Digital tools, artificial intelligence, and algorithms’’ further divided into four sub-themes. The UNI database focuses on AI and algorithmic management more specifically and categorises 23 collective agreements from various sectors and countries around eight topics.

Published in January 2023, the Austrian Just Transition Action Plan on Training and Reskilling recognises the key role of upskilling and reskilling to prepare workers for a green transition. The Just Transition Action Plan adopts a holistic approach, assessing needs to adapt education, including technical and vocational education, adapting occupational profiles, training teachers, supporting training institutions, and providing incentives to improve access to training, notably through the Green Jobs Fund.

In Chile, the phasing out of coal-fired power plants led to the creation of new jobs, but also resulted in the loss of existing ones. The need for employment-focused measures to support labour market transformations was recognised, including reskilling and upskilling programmes, support for entrepreneurs, early retirement options, employment insurance and job creation in green sectors. At the national level, the Office for a Socio-ecological Just Transition was established is responsible for designing the National Strategy for a Socio-ecological Just Transition. A panel of experts, which includes social partners, supports the elaboration of the strategy. At the regional level, social partners have been involved in the design and implementation of Environmental and Social Recovery Plans.

As an independent, statutory, multistakeholder body whose mission is to promote social partnerships by engaging with various stakeholders for a just transition, the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) in South Africa provides evidence-based information to support decision-making, build consensus to enable policy and action for a just transition, and advise on means of implementation, including finance, capacity and technology. One of the first tasks of the PCC was to design a just transition framework for South Africa, which was adopted in 2022.

Building on a 2016 tripartite agreement on the implementation of Recommendation No. 204, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MoLSS/MTSS) in Costa Rica established a tripartite Building on a 2016 tripartite agreement on the implementation of ILO Recommendation No. 204 on Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy, four Tripartite Technical Commissions were created in Costa Rica to support the drafting of the four pillars of the National Strategy for the Transition to the Formal Economy. The strategy adopts a holistic approach and pays special attention to the needs of vulnerable groups of workers, such as women, youth, migrant workers, and persons with disabilities. Social partners shaped several achievements under the strategy, including the upscaling of the National Employment Programme (PRONAE 4x4), the design of new social protection schemes, and the support for the formalisation of enterprises.

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global network focused on empowering the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy to secure their livelihoods. WIEGO’s work underlines the range of strategies available to give informal street vendors a voice. In Brazil, WIEGO has shown how Vending Permanent Commissions (CPAs), at the municipal level and later a city-wide forum, did support street vendors to organise. In Zimbabwe, WIEGO has portrayed the struggle of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Association (ZCIEA) to be recognised as a representative of workers in the informal economy through the signing of 19 MoUs with local authorities.

On 19 June 2018, social partners in France signed the Paris 2024 Social Charter to ensure the Olympic and Paralympic Games would have a lasting social and economic impact. Although the Social Charter is not legally binding, it represents a political commitment to prioritise human and sustainable development, with special attention to disadvantaged geographical areas and vulnerable groups in the labour market. A committee, comprising workers’ and employers’ organisations, was established to oversee the implementation of the Social Charter. The Charter emphasises the need to promote decent work, support skills anticipation and development, and strengthen safety and health at work, as well as labour standards.

Workers in the garment industry face challenging working conditions around the world. In Indonesia, bipartite workplace and occupational safety and health (OSH) committees play a key role in promoting social dialogue at enterprise level, identifying risks and establishing preventive measures to protect workers. Indonesia has taken an important step forward by requiring enterprises to establish sexual harassment task forces under the existing workplace committees, thus contributing to better protect women workers, who represent the large majority in the export garment industry.

In May 2023, sectoral affiliates of the employers' federation UTICA—the Union Tunisienne de l’Industrie, du Commerce et de l’Artisanat and the workers' federation UGTT— the Fédération Nationale des Entreprises de Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics (FNEBTP) and the Fédération Générale du Bâtiment et du Bois (FGBB) — signed a sectoral agreement to improve working conditions and productivity in the construction sector. Social partners agreed on five pillars focusing on structural and operational aspects. Further, to implement the agreement, social partners supported several awareness-raising activities, with a focus on occupational safety and health.

The Labour Migration Policy (LMP) in Cambodia exemplifies successful social partner involvement in drafting an evidence-based, tripartite-informed policy that focuses on protecting nationals migrating abroad for work-related reasons. Recognising that labour migration contributes to inclusive and sustainable economic growth, poverty alleviation, and improved livelihoods, the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia is currently upgrading its labour migration policy in collaboration with tripartite-plus partners (tripartite partners and civil society actors) to a national policy.

The importance of trade union action to protect migrant workers’ rights has been forcefully recognised by major regional trade union confederations, which convened in May 2023, to update a memorandum of understanding from 2018. Through cross-border cooperation, social partners can significantly contribute to protecting migrant workers’ rights. The agreement signed between the Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU) and the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU) in 2023 is a powerful example of such cooperation. It foresees, amongst others, joint campaigns to combat prejudices and highlight the contributions of migrant workers, raise concerns in national tripartite labour committees, and encourage inclusion of migrant workers in collective bargaining.

Ensuring the protection of all workers, including migrant workers, is crucial. Without this protection, there is a risk of deteriorating working conditions and wages, which leads to unfair competition and market distortion. Several trade unions in Sweden, some in cooperation with employers’ organisations, implement projects, either independently or with funding from the Ministry of Labour, to protect vulnerable groups of workers. They have been focusing on sectors where risks for labour rights abuses are high and where there is a large proportion of migrant workers, such as the construction sector and cleaning industry.