Workers’ union must develop effective social contracts—ILO

International Labour Organization


The International Labour Organisation has stated that workers’ organisations must play a key role in developing effective, sustainable social contracts.

The ILO declared this in the 2023 edition of the International Journal of Labour Research, which was aimed at stimulating reflection on what a new social contract might address.

The Bureau for Workers’ Activities at the ILO published a journal on the theme “Achieving Social Justice in an Era of Accelerating Change: A New Social Contract”.

The project was to determine the role of workers’ organisations in engaging in the debate within the multilateral system and at the national level.


It noted that a new social contract must be anchored in decent work and social justice, with special attention given to promoting and implementing international labour standards.

It outlined the urgency and growing consensus from multiple actors to reinvigorate a new social contract and respond effectively to multiple transformations in the world work.

The journal also mentioned the growing decent work deficits and inequalities around the world.




The Director of ACTRAV, Maria Andre, said, “The debate on the new social contract is not new. In addition to multiple factors, such as climate and technological changes, the growth of inequalities and decent work deficits has accelerated the deterioration of social cohesion, with consequences including geopolitical tensions and the decline of democracy in many parts of the world.

“Therefore, there is a growing consensus and urgency for the reinvigoration of the social contract at national and global levels.”

Andre noted that the new social contract must be reflective of the foundations of existing labour institutions and how they would be adapted to new and emerging realities.

“As the largest membership-based organisation in the world and a crucial constituent of the International Labour Organisation, workers ’organisations need to continue their advocacy to develop an effective and sustainable social contract, which reflects the changing realities in the world of work,” she added.

According to Andre, it aims to stimulate reflection on what a new social contract might address and more specifically the role of workers’ organisations in engaging in this debate within the multilateral system and at the national level.

Meanwhile, she acknowledged that the journal called for the promotion and implementation of international labour standards as a centrepiece of the new social contract, with a key role to be played by workers’ organisations.

It recommended strengthening social dialogue, ensuring global solidarity and the creation of decent jobs for all through coordinated and coherent pro-employment, macroeconomic, sectoral, industrial, skills, and social protection policies.


“The new social contract should be underscored by a vision that places the reduction of inequalities at the heart of both economic and social progress and is based on the ILO’s fundamental principles and rights at work,” it remarked.