International Labour Organization (ILO) director-general Guy Ryder has called for a global debate on the future of work during his opening address to the 104th International Labour Conference.

He listed “key policy issues of our time” as jobs, equity, sustainability, human security, labour mobility and social dialogue, and said they needed to be “tackled” in a future of work initiative.

Ryder called on delegates to “look at the longer-term drivers of change, the transformational mega-trends and what they imply for the goals we pursue in the ILO in its second century”.

According to the ILO’s latest ‘World Employment and Social Outlook’ report, global unemployment reached 201m in 2014, over 30m higher than before the start of the global crisis in 2008. 

Latvian ministry of welfare state secretary Ieva Jaunzeme was elected president of the International Labour Conference. The conference runs from 1-13 June, bringing together about 4,000 government, worker and employer representatives in Geneva, Switzerland.

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