Toespraak van minister mr. J.P.H. Donner op de Internationale Arbeidsconferentie in Genève op dinsdag 16 juni 2009
Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,
Work and security: it would seem to be paradoxical themes to discuss in the midst of one of the worst financial and economic crises we will probably experience in our lifetimes. Every day thousands of jobs are lost worldwide and people feel increasingly insecure. Governments try to stem the rising tide of mass unemployment but so far we are still groping for a satisfactory answer. And yet the ILO puts work and security on the agenda. It is a courageous decision much to be commended. Because even if the outcome of the crisis is still unpredictable, we will only get through it and emerge from it stronger than before, if we remain true to the ultimate aim of decent work and security for all.
The crisis has its origins in international markets, it affects us all and the solutions will likewise have to be a coordinated effort. Together we stand, divided we fall. No country will be able to get out of this global crisis purely under its own steam. Though most of us don’t know for sure what measures will get us out of the crisis, we have a fair idea of what measures are likely to keep us in it for longer; protectionism, beggar your neighbour policies and a race to the bottom in the area of social security. Those are the painful lessons learned in the 1930s. Therefore: restoration of growth, restoration of trust, and protection of open markets are the three pillars for a return of growth.
A return to growth is a necessary pre-condition for a recovery of work and security; necessary but not sufficient. Our economies are suffering a severe set-back in their development by the present crisis. It could lead to prolonged periods of stagnation and high unemployment if we don’t succeed in stimulating a recovery that favours employment over financial and capital expansion.
Like most European countries the Netherlands have taken measures that allow enterprises to preserve employment despite a severe loss of business. Past experience has shown that it is better for people to be employed half time than being unemployed full-time. At the same time we have subjected this relief to employers to the condition that they provide schooling and retraining to the employees thus affected.
The focus of our effort remains however directed at preserving economic activities and creating new jobs by providing investment and tax relief. We have installed a nation-wide network of mobility centres, in the framework of which public and private employment services are all cooperating. They provide new job opportunities, retraining and career change support, and thus enable people to move to new jobs even before they become unemployed. Over the past half year they have succeeded in helping people to find new work in almost half of the cases of threatening redundancy.
To ensure employment and social security in the longer term it is imperative to restore economic growth. In doing so we must adhere to the Decent work agenda even in time of crisis, or rather precisely because of it. Implementation of the Decent work agenda is the ILO’s answer to the problem of establishing lasting employment and social protection. It has been said: “Only in growth, reform and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found”.
Indeed, reforms to improve social security systems, both in offering adequate security, better protection and in stimulating labour market transitions, are key to ensure that we emerge stronger from this crisis. The alternatives to continuous reform and growth are just to bad to contemplate; prolonged stagnation, growing poverty, social unrest and political instability.
But reform is not jus a question of changing the system, but of changing people. Geneva is commemorating this year the 500th birthday of the great church reformer Jean Calvin, who taught that personal responsibility and individual ethics are in the end more important than the system we live in. That is likewise the great lesson we have to apply to social reform in our time.
Thank you.