International Labour Organisation seeks better working conditions for key workers

The International Labour Organisation has released a report on world employment and social outlook for the year 2023.

The report dives into understanding the value of essential workers and analyses the working conditions of these workers — those that fall under 8 main occupational groups such as health, food systems, security, among others qualify as key workers. The findings from the report highlight a significant discrepancy between the value of work and the working conditions of key workers.

The main findings from the report show that key workers are at an increased risk of occupational safety & health. They are heavily reliant on temporary jobs and are subject to long, irregular work hours as well as low pay.

The report calls for investments into essential services, including investments in improving the working conditions of those who perform critical work.

In an interview to CNBC-, Janine Berg, Senior Economist at International Labour Organisation said contracts with workers should not be designed only to ensure lower pay, but should look at providing better working conditions.

“One can have flexibility in contractual arrangements but we want to make sure that these contractual arrangements give the same rights and benefits to workers. So the contractual arrangements should be used for flexibility but not as a means to lower pay and to lower working conditions,” Berg said.

Berg added that health workers, food vendors, security workers were subject to higher levels of verbal abuse, threats during the pandemic. According to Berg, key worker categories were more exposed to the pandemic and so had higher mortality rates.

She also emphasised that under investment in healthcare is a worldwide issue and affects working conditions in hospitals and healthcare centres.