Where workers are not free to change employers or leave the country without the permission of their employer, workers are, de facto, in forced labour.
My job is to represent working people.
Until you separate the speculative behaviour of the financial sector from the real economy and the financing of the real economy, then we are not going to see the kind of stability or the capacity to drive genuine, income-led growth as opposed to debt-fuelled, speculative behaviour.
Corporate greed, corporate bullying cannot be tolerated - it's time for a global rule of law to guarantee fair trade, rights, minimum wages on which people can live with dignity, and safe and secure work.
When governments are cowed or simply don't care to enforce fundamental human and labour rights or to ensure corporate tax is paid so that they can invest in social protection and in the health and education of their people, they cede control to corporate greed.
We need a multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance, not vested interests in making citizens pay for formerly free services or restrictions to their capacity to share information.
There is no doubt that the participation of women in the workforce is a serious productivity boost, but to enable this ambition, there must be investment in care - child care, aged care, disability care, health, and education - which are essential social support structures to enable women to work.
If there are not jobs or adequate forms of social protection, there is not enough income to create the consumption base that drives demand and sustainable economic growth.
Inequality is a poison that is destroying livelihoods, stripping families of dignity, and splitting communities.
We know an organised workforce cannot be enslaved, but when governments fail their citizens and allow corporations to escape the rule of law, slavery can flourish.
South Carolina is a 'right to work' state - a misnomer of a phrase, as the laws limits union representation of workers. It does does not guarantee workers a job or fair wages and conditions.
The concept of 'green jobs' or a 'green economy' is often attacked as the work of the Grimm Brothers by those wedded to the grim science of free-market economics.
The rules of the global economy are rigged against those who have to work to earn a living and in favour of multinational corporations and the ultra-rich.
When minimum living wages, bargaining for fair wages, pensions, and job security are denied in too many countries, it is not rocket science to understand the drivers of inequality.
Football, or soccer as it is known, is a game of two halves. It's a game with rules and a referee. FIFA, the governing body for football, follows neither the rule of law or has the oversight of a referee.
Anyone who has lived in an area with high unemployment knows how it erodes social bonds, lowers the resilience of the unemployed and their families, and damages the prospects of the next generation.
As universal a truth as the rising and setting of the sun each day, the global economy needs people.
A binding treaty and mandatory human rights due diligence would clean up slavery in global supply chains. Workers demand it, and consumers demand it.
When women are expected to bear the burden of unpaid work, everyone loses.
We cannot grow jobs without investment; we cannot grow economies if we don't earn.
Investment in jobs at a time when millions are unemployed can only be a good thing: all the better if the jobs help us shift from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy.
We must make both our distributional and democratic systems work for our communities.
Large swathes of people losing faith in democracy is a dangerous thing. Conflict, desperation, totalitarianism are the products of that loss of faith.
Care work contributes enormously to the well-being of our societies and to the sustainability of our economies.
You'd never plan a career like I've had.
Technology can be used to make people's lives easier, to reduce inequality, to facilitate inclusion, or to solve intractable global problems, but without dialogue and governance, it can be used against humanity - the choice on how we use technology is ours.
Wealth is being generated off the back of oppression and abuse.
We need economic growth, yes, but growth can be jobless, so a sustainable development framework for employment must include a job creation strategy.
If people do not have jobs, they do not have a secure income, and they do not have a sense of security.
When working men and women have secure jobs with living wages and social protection, they can invest in the economy at levels which will increase demand and help overcome the twin challenges of ageing populations and economic stagnation.
Politically, we have seen the impact of social media organizing people through the Arab Spring.
We need to decarbonise our societies and economies.
Work has always been influenced by technology and will continue to be.
Stark inequality, poverty, and unemployment are driving increased social unrest and, consequently, social and economic risk. Environmental deterioration may well intensify social inequality.
Globalization can be shaped to ensure that people matter.
Workers know first-hand how corporate capture of government is undermining their rights and freedoms as citizens.
With global rules for global supply chains, we can end corporate greed.
Governments that fail to provide jobs to those who are willing and able to work begin to lose their legitimacy and will face the anger of the electorate.
We know how to build economies. It requires investment in jobs. The biggest medium-term multiplier is infrastructure.
It seems evident that the IMF has learned nothing from its inequality-inducing policies during the 1980s debt crises in Latin America nor from its recession-deepening response to the East Asian crisis of the late 1990s. In both regions, the IMF has become synonymous with making bad situations worse.
Global supply chains are founded on a Darwinian model that rewards employers who treat working people as less than human.
What Qatar chose is a system where a worker is owned by his employer. When your employer forces you to live in squalor, makes you work longest hours in extreme heat, doesn't allow you to change jobs, doesn't pay your wages on time, abuses you physically and psychologically, you have no way out, you can't leave. You are trapped.
Banks don't come with an internal switch that says, 'Enough! Let's slow down a little.' Or, 'Let's just share this wealth around for the benefit of the community now.' That's the job of government.
Illicit trade corrupts corporations and governments alike, allows dictators to survive, and obscures oppression, including modern day slavery.
In terms of emerging economies, we absolutely believe that the prescription is social protection and a minimum wage on which people can live.
Public opinion must be heard.
The environment, stabilizing the climate, needs urgent attention from all of us.
Growing inequality is exacerbated by the companies who simply treat workers as commodities, and our governments are cowered by their demands to perpetuate this model of greed.
It's never been clearer that unrestrained market forces do not produce the kind of societies we aspire to - economically stable and socially inclusive, where citizens have access to secure jobs with the dignity of a fair wage and a welfare safety net.
