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The Plan includes positive commitments to:
- Promote the active involvement and consultation of workers and workers’ organisations in the adoption of AI systems in the workplace.
- Promote social dialogue and collective bargaining at all levels, including on the development, deployment and monitoring of AI.
- Address potential risks of undermining social dialogue, collective bargaining and other fundamental principles and rights at work, including freedom of association, non-discrimination in the world of work, and a safe and healthy working environment.
“G7 Labour and Employment Ministers have clearly listened to some of the concerns of unions and workers, and the G7 Plan spells out a decent and fair way to manage the introduction of artificial intelligence in the workplace,” said Veronica Nilsson, General Secretary of TUAC, “but the Ministers remain cautious about some of the risks brought by AI, including job losses, and have also avoided being specific about what they will actually do.’’
“Unions demand a Just Transition in the digital sector that will help to reap the benefits of transformation while mitigating the risks, guaranteeing access to decent work and promoting a fair distribution of the benefits from increased profits and productivity” said Luc Triangle, General Secretary of ITUC. “Workers need to be effectively involved in shaping the governance of digitalisation processes. This includes being part of negotiations over the introduction of artificial intelligence systems, automation, machine learning and robotics in the workplace. We urge G7 Labour and Employment Ministers to also strongly support an ambitious ILO Convention for Decent Work in the Platform Economy supplemented by a Recommendation.”
The G7 Labour Ministers also agreed a Declaration on resilient labour markets in ageing societies, deciding to “continue to support active and healthy ageing”. Unions are concerned that the concept of “active and healthy ageing” could be used to support further reforms of countries’ pension systems, including to extend the legal retirement age, undermine employment protection for older workers and/or reduce pension benefits.
Unions argue that G7 members must adopt a different approach and ensure that active ageing policies first and foremost guarantee peoples’ health and safety, as well as the right to ageing with dignity.
G7 members resolved to support the ILO Global Coalition for Social Justice to accelerate progress towards achieving the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Unions urge G7 members to now actively engage in the Coalition.
Issues as critical as climate change and the cost-of-living crisis have not been addressed properly in the G7 Declaration. Ministers barely mentioned the need for a just transition, the impact of climate change and climate action on jobs and employment, or how to ensure that climate action does not worsen inequalities and is instead managed in a way to create more jobs that it destroys.
Unions were also disappointed by G7 Labour and Employment Ministers failing to acknowledge the on-going cost-of-living crisis and not considering any commitment to wage increases to offset the impact of still-rising prices.Â
“The cost-of-living crisis has not gone away, it is still a reality for millions of workers’’ said Veronica Nilsson, “and inflation is still higher than it was in the decades before the crisis began.’’
The G7 Labour and Employment Ministers meeting in Cagliari followed a Summit of the L7 – trade unions from G7 Countries which discussed artificial intelligence, ageing societies and tackling the climate and inequality crisis, as well as debating peace, democracy and the rule of law with Nobel Prize winner Professor Giorgio Parisi.