World must tackle globalization without social justice; UN official

UNITED NATIONS: The international community urgently needs to take counter measures to head off globalization without social justice, according to the head of the U.N. International Labour Organization (ILO).
Globalization without social justice is generating growth without enough quality jobs a steady increase in productivity, but not in wages advances in combating extreme poverty, but deepening inequality, Juan Somavia, ILO Director General said Tuesday in his keynote address to the 97th International Labour Conference in Geneva, according to a transcript issued at UN Headquarters in New York.
Somavia said the ILO had a unique opportunity to play a central role in an emerging system of global governance which combined financial stability and investment for development with fair trade and decent work.
Addressing the current financial problems on world markets, he said “We have heard much about the subprime financial crisis. But there is also what I would call a crisis of subprime work substandard and vulnerable jobs without fundamental rights, without basic security, without prospects for mobility and dignity”.
Somavia argued in his speech that the international community needed to build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a set of anti-poverty targets to be achieved by 2015 by developing a comprehensive social floor to prevent people from falling into destitution and to help them overcome poverty and move up the ladder of opportunity.
“We can significantly expand employment opportunities for the 3 billion people living in poverty,” he said. “We can help move to a jobs-intensive and sustainable growth pattern. We can consolidate respect for rights and dialogue as a productive road to peace,” he added.