G20 meet on employment begins in Guwahati

Guwahati, Apr 3 (PTI) The second meeting of the Employment Working Group (EWG) of the G20 grouping began in Assam on Monday, to deliberate on a wide range of issues like labour, employment and social for an inclusive growth.

Addressing a press conference here, Union Labour and Employment Secretary Arti Ahuja said the three-day meeting will discuss various issues under three broad areas.

“Under the first area, we will deliberate on global skill gaps. The second area is gig, platform economy and social protection. The last section will be sustainable financing for social protection,” she added.

The EWG has a mandate of addressing priority labour, employment and social issues for strong, sustainable, balanced and job-rich growth for all, Ahuja said.

Elaborating on the topics, Joint Secretary in Labour and Employment ministry Rupesh Kumar Thakur said in the first segment, the delegates will discuss to strengthen the availability, quality and comparability of information on supply, demand and mismatch of skills.

“They will also explore the feasibility of constructing a global skills taxonomy and developing harmonisation pathways in key sectors,” he added.

The second theme will argue to extend social protection coverage to the gig and platform workers, Thakur said.

“It will also discuss the option to adopt and strengthen measures to bring platform and gig workers within social protection systems, including facilitating registration and data sharing mechanisms,” the joint secretary said.

Adequate levels of social spending during budget preparation will be stressed in the last area of discussion, Thakur said.

“Developing systems that help boost employment, investing in policies that support workers to remain in or return to work — these points will be taken into consideration in that segment,” he added.

Thakur said that a total of 59 delegates from 19 member countries, 15 from seven guest nations and six from five international organizations have come to Guwahati to take part in the second meeting of the EWG under the ongoing G20 summits in India.

The first meeting of the EWG happened at Jodhpur in Rajasthan on February 2-4 this year.