G20 Labour and Employment Ministers' meeting finalises text of Labour and Employment track

The final text was approved after the conclusion of the two-day-long Labour & Employment Ministers' meeting (LEMM) under the Presidency of Brazil, stated a press release from the Ministry of Labour and Employment. The Indian delegation was led by Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shobha Karandlaje. Brazil along with India and South Africa, the previous and the next host of the G20, were members of troika. The Labour & Employment Ministers' meeting was preceded by the 5th Employment Working Group meeting (EWG), which negotiated the final text, according to a press release from the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Ministers made interventions on key focus areas like the creation of quality jobs and the promotion of decent work to ensure social inclusion and eliminate poverty and hunger, Gender Equality and the promotion of diversity in the world of work, and the use of technologies as a means of improving everyone's quality of life, stated a press release from the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The declaration emphasised the need for governments to develop and support active inclusion policies aimed at fostering strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive economic growth. It recognized that creating formal jobs and promoting decent work are the most effective social tools for achieving a fairer and more equitable income distribution. The declaration also stressed the need to create and promote decent work and deliver effective labour market policies, such as skills development, access to training lifelong learning and job matching, aligned with the skills needs and demands of the economy and in consultation with social partners. It also urged the governments to have policy measures to formalise jobs, to appropriately respond to platform work, promote adequate levels of wage floors, provide access to adequate social protection and the promotion of social dialogue and collective bargaining, stated a press release from the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje met Gilbert Houngbo, Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

She also met Japanese State Minister for Health, Labour and Welfare Miyazaki Masahisa on the sidelines of the G20 Labour & Employment Ministers meeting at Fortaleza, Brazil. The two leaders discussed areas of mutual interest including the need to further enhance the mobility of semi-skilled and skilled workers from India to Japan. (ANI)