ILO Events

Can artificial intelligence, robots and surveillance protect workers on the job? In this episode of the Future of Work podcast, ILO occupational safety and health expert Manal Azzi explains how AI and technology can be used as a safety net, without deepening inequalities or creating new risks.

This event is organized as part of ITU's AI for Good Series. In this era of rapid technological change and huge political promises being loaded onto large language models (LLMs), how can we ensure that automation serves human potential rather than undermines it? Outlining findings from the ground-breaking Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, Anna Thomas MBE will present an approach to technological transformation that puts human capabilities and wellbeing at the centre of innovation. Drawing on extensive research across UK firms and workers, she will outline critical insights about AI and automation's impact on work: from the hidden opportunities and inequalities emerging across regions and demographics to the urgent need for a new "Good Work" paradigm that prioritises human agency, skills, and resilience. Key takeaways will include: Why adopting more, new workplace technologies won’t automatically be positive for firms – or for health and wellbeing How we can shape automation to enhance—not replace—human potential and use it to deliver a fairer future of better work The importance of skills diversity and adaptive capabilities Strategies for creating more equitable technological transitions

Launched in 2016, the ILO’s Global Flagship Programme on Building Social Protection Floors for All (SPF Flagship Programme) supports ILO member States in developing sustainable social protection systems, including floors, and contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on social protection (in particular targets 1.3 and 3.8), through a coherent structure to mobilize resources and achieve impact. The SPF Flagship Programme works in 50 priority countries, aiming to achieve 80 institutional changes and increase legal and effective coverage for an additional 60 million people. Between 2021 and 2024, the Programme contributed already to 148 institutional changes (such as the adoption of laws and the implementation of systems) in 50 priority countries and increased legal and effective coverage for over 50 million people. Objectives of the meeting: - Take stock of the progress made, results achieved, and impact created since the beginning of Phase II of the SPF Flagship Programme, including through the multi-donor programme. - Share country and partner experiences in extending social protection to all, look at current and future challenges and opportunities, with a focus on key thematic areas. - Join forces to accelerate the achievement of Universal Social Protection, through building strong social protection systems and positioning social protection as a key tool for creating just and equitable societies. - Identify key priorities for Phase III of the SPF Flagship Programme.

This year, the ILO will mark International Women’s Day by celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action with a special event reflecting on three decades of progress, challenges, and the future of women in the world of work. Through engaging discussions, shared experiences, and expert insights, the event will emphasize a powerful message: All women are working women.

World Day of Social Justice takes place every year on 20 February. It was designated by the UN General Assembly in 2007 to remind us of the need to build a fairer and more equitable world and to urge all efforts to combat unemployment and poverty. The ILO will mark the occasion this year with a series of five events held in major cities around the globe. The events will bring together high-level speakers from across the world of work to discuss how to put social justice at the centre of international, national and regional policy agendas.

This event is organized as part of ITU's AI for Good Series. AI technologies have captured the public imagination and raised substantial fears. Many of these fears concern automation as some commentators claim that the large-scale elimination of jobs is imminent. This talk will try to put AI into some context about the things it does and how technologies have operated in the past. As in the past, new technologies such as AI don’t just automate, they also change organizations, the worker skills needed, and they have strong effects on consumers. Automation rarely replaces entire jobs; it typically just automates specific tasks. And when this happens, the remaining tasks – the ones that humans perform – become more valuable and often require new and deeper skills. Moreover, consumer benefits often raise demand dramatically as prices fall and quality improves. Greater demand often increases employment, rather than eliminating it. The talk will look at the long-term consequences of these changes and what the main social challenges are raised by this new technology.

This event is organized as part of ITU's AI for Good Series. In the Information Age, many hoped that technology would level the economic playing field by making information widely accessible. Instead, it concentrated power among experts who use this information to make important decisions. AI, however, presents a unique opportunity to change this dynamic by enhancing human expertise. AI can help more workers, not just elite professionals, take on complex tasks like medical care, legal work, software development, and education. The main argument of this talk is that, if used wisely, AI could help rebuild the middle-skill, middle-class heart of the US labor market that has been hollowed out by automation and globalization.

The ILO Global Business and Disability Network (GBDN) will host its 11th global annual conference “From Margin to Mainstream: Disability in Business” on 27th and 28th November 2024 at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland – using a hybrid modality. The ILO GBDN conference will allow for the welcoming of new ILO GBDN members, the exchange on good corporate practices on disability inclusion, and the presentation of latest business initiatives on disability at global and local levels. International Sign interpretation and live captioning in English, French Spanish and Arabic are provided.

This event is organized as part of ITU's AI for Good Series. In July 2023, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) began a 118-day strike following a breakdown in negotiations with its counterpart, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). At the heart of the breakdown in negotiations was the use of AI in production. This conversation with Duncan Crabtree Ireland, Chief Negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, will discuss the concerns of its membership over the use of AI and the reasons the union felt an imperative to have an agreement on informed consent and fair compensation. The conversation will also cover the potential and limitations of AI for the industry, the need to establish guardrails at an early stage, as well as the technology-proof uniqueness of human talent.

The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly known as COP29, is the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference. COP29 takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11 to 22 November, 2024. For the third year in a row, the ILO and the European Commission are hosting the Just Transition Pavilion, a convening space for events, meetings and knowledge sharing around just transition and climate action in cooperation with the UNFCCC, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and International Organisation of Employers (IOE). Keeping the social dimension of climate change at the forefront of discussions is the focus of events being organized in the Just Transition Pavilion. Read more on ilo.org/cop29.