The general secretary of the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) Sharan Burrow has urged the heads of the IMF and the World Bank to champion a coordinated strategy of wage and public investment-led recovery in order to address the combined problems of low consumer demand and rising inequality. Ms Burrow highlighted both problems as being at the root of global economic stagnation and persistently high unemployment.

The ITUC made the proposal in a statement to President Jim Yong Kim of the World Bank and Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF and to governments of the institutions’ member countries.

The ITUC’s general secretary also strongly encouraged President Kim to revise recently published draft labour standards. “Contrary to labour safeguards adopted by other multilateral development banks, the World Bank’s proposed labour safeguard would not require compliance with all of the ILO’s core labour standards; in fact it does not even mention them.

“The standard would not apply to contract workers despite the fact that they are usually the majority of workers in bank-financed infrastructure projects and are a category of employees that is particularly vulnerable to abuse, such as discrimination and unsafe working conditions.”

Ms Burrow concluded, “After a decade of progress at other development banks, the World Bank’s proposed labour safeguard would be a major step backward if adopted in its current form.”