The L20 delegation, composed of Alexey Zharkov of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia and TUAC General Secretary John Evans, presented the L20 policy positions prior to the L20 Summit and the G20 Labour and Finance Ministers’ Meeting with Social Partners on July 17-18 in Moscow.

The G20 have now put job creation on the top of this year’s agenda, which is welcome. The Joint G20 Finance and Labour Ministers’ Meeting will be a crucial occasion to achieve policy coherence and translate words into action on job creation, Evans emphasized. The participation of labour representatives in the Labour Ministers and the Joint Meeting of the Labour and Finance Ministers is thus essential. He also stressed the need to invite L20 representatives to the G20 Leaders Summit in September.

The detrimental effects of austerity policies are a central theme in the L20 statement to the Labour and Finance Ministers, next to rising unemployment, particularly of young people, deteriorating working conditions and income equality, and the prominent lack in public trust. Given this context, the G20 needs to go back to its 2008/9 agenda and put emphasis on equitable, sustainable growth, Evans said.

A ‘G20 Jobs Plan’ in support of aggregate demand and quality employment, investments in infrastructure and green technologies, a fair and progressive taxation, support for Small and Medium Size Enterprises and improvements of social conditions in global value chains are key priorities to the L20. In this regard, a monitoring process that tracks the implementation of G2O commitments as well as a prolonged mandate of the Employment Task Force that could carry out that task, would enhance overall policy effectiveness.

The L20 and B20 are currently in the process of working on a common approach on quality apprenticeships. Both the B20 and the L20 argued for stronger support for employability and investments in education and lifelong learning.