Futures of Work Online Magazine, Volume 17
THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION’S PANDEMIC PAST LIGHTS THE PATH TO A BETTER FUTURE
Harry Pitts, Peter Turnbull, Huw Thomas (University of Bristol)
The fraying fabric of the global order was ill-prepared for a pandemic. As the focus shifts from health to wealth amid the ensuing economic crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) will cede the stage to other international bodies tasked with steering a course through the current turmoil and recovery to come.
Enter stage left the International Labour Organization (ILO), a sister body of the WHO and the very first specialised agency of the United Nations. As multilateralism wanes and COVID-19 strikes at the heart of how we work and live, the founding mandate of the ILO – which was created in 1919 after the first world war and the Spanish flu pandemic – should resonate around the world: “Poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere.” …
