LABOR

Labor rights. The Civil Society Summit 20 (C20), one of the G20 affinity groups that brings together organizations from more than 40 countries, concluded in Buenos Aires August 7th. During the event, C20 introduced a document with recommendations to the G20 governments. These include policies to reduce the gender gap in the labour market, encourage first employment and protect children from misleading information from the food industry. Even though these recommendations are not binding, they will be considered at the G20 Leaders’ Summit, which begins November 30th in Buenos Aires.

The document proposes to implement an action plan to reduce the gender gap in the labour market by 25% by 2025. In order to achieve it, C20 urges governments to invest in quality care and social protection services to reduce women doing unpaid work. In addition, it proposes to include a legal accountability framework to eliminate the gender pay gap, and to implement labour inclusion policies together with tutorial systems for social organizations and stakeholders in the productive sector to accompany these processes.

Regarding health issues, governments are recommended to develop measures to restrict marketing campaigns by the food industry that contain misleading information and to implement clear information front labeling in food packaging.

Next steps

While these recommendations will be taken into account during the G20 Leaders’ Summit, to be held from November 30th to December 1st, the action plan to reduce the gender gap is expected to be introduced at next year’s Summit.