The second meeting of the G20 Employment Working Group (EWG) was held in İstanbul on 07-08 May 2015. The meeting was attended by the member countries of the EWG, international organizations and invited countries. Representatives of B20, L20 and T20 also attended to relevant sessions to reflect their views on the agenda items of the meeting.
During the meeting, EWG delegates touched on a number of subjects; including cooperation with the other G20 work streams, progress on gender gap commitment, occupational safety and health, strengthening the employment services and the link between employment and education. The proposals regarding possible methodologies in monitoring the commitments were also discussed during the meeting in detail.
Apart from these issues, the outputs of the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES) World Congress 2015, held in İstanbul on 06-08 May, were presented by the representatives of WAPES.
A day before the second meeting of the EWG (on 6 May 2015), the first meeting of the G20 EWG Sub-group on Labour Income Share (LIS) and Inequalities, and the Informal Meeting on Safer Workplaces were also held.
Upon a decision taken by the EWG delegates at their first meeting in Antalya, a Sub-group on LIS and Inequalities had been established and its mandate document had been prepared by the Turkish G20 Employment Team. At the beginning of the meeting, the members adopted the mandate document for the Sub-group. The newly established sub-group focused on the causes of declining labour share and rising inequality and analysed the policy options to address these challenges.
During the Informal Meeting on Safer Workplaces, the EWG members discussed possible ways for reporting/monitoring the progress and shared the latest developments and initiatives in their countries in relation to occupational safety and health.
The meetings provided a good opportunity to discuss changing circumstances and appropriate measures to be considered. The EWG will continue its works in accordance with the agreed agenda at its next meeting which will take place on 23-25 July 2015 in Cappadocia, Turkey.
