Conference Agenda

The implications of today’s multiple and interlinked crises for the world of work have exposed the weaknesses and limitations of the prevailing economic systems and have highlighted entrenched inequality – factors that are having a complex impact on the well-being of workers and households as well as resilience of SMEs. In this context, the responses to the impact of multiple “interlinked crises” on the world of work, have varied across countries and regions, and also sectors. In the closing plenary, we would like to discuss:

• the policy alternatives which have emerged, or which are required to respond effectively to situations of multiple crises, and to build a “new and better normal” that is structurally sustainable in order to address interrelated risks and volatile changes;
• the regulatory strategies that have demonstrated the most promise in terms of strengthening and extending labour and social security rights to workers, including the unemployed and informal workers affected by the crises; and
• the innovative strategies of collective worker organizations and collective voice, such as unions, informal associations, not-for-profit organizations and informal networks that have been effective in responding to the crises.
• the new strategies which can enhance the resilience of enterprises, especially SMEs, in the context of growing divergence between enterprises in terms of digital technology, productivity, and capacities to respond to multiple crises.