Saturday, 23 January 2021

ITUC-AP Statement on COVID-19
27 March 2020
Shoya Yoshida, General Secretary of the International
Trade Union Confederation - Asia Pacific (ITUC-AP), said that decent work
should be at the centre of all measures to overcome the COVID-19 health and
economic crisis and also to build the post-COVID-19 world truly inclusive,
resilient and sustainable.
Today, the ITUC-AP published its statement on COVID-19
with policy recommendation to governments and employers.
It is expected much more serious impact of COVID-19 on the
demand side through the labour market in the Asia-Pacific region with severe
deficits in decent work including a large number of informal workers and the
working poor. Furthermore, he pointed out the absence of adequate social
protection for all in most of the countries in the region with the most
vulnerable groups of workers – women, youth, older workers, migrant workers,
self-employed and precarious workers – being easily excluded.
Therefore, he called for all
governments to take immediate and decisive actions to prioritise employment
retention, income supports with extended social protection and occupational
health and safety measures.
In the statement, he also emphasised the importance of
making the post-COVID-19 world inclusive, resilient and sustainable since the
world after the pandemic would have increasing precarious jobs and income
equality with significant changes in in daily life including consumption and
production.
“This can only be done by building trust in governance
systems and institutions, and increasing confidence in the future with a new
social contract,” said Shoya Yoshida.
He emphasised the importance of working together to
contain the virus and to ensure our post-COVID-19 world sustainable and
resilience with democracy, multilateralism and tripartism with all
international labour standards being respected more than ever.
The ITUC-AP has been working with the ITUC to respond to this global and health crisis. The ITUC is leading in collecting, analysing and disseminating information about COVID-19. Please visit the ITUC webpage on COVID-19 for information from our affiliates, Global Union Federations and other organisations on the pandemic.
Please also visit the ITUC-AP webpage on COVID-19 Pandemic for additional news and information.
The ITUC-AP Statement is attached.