Mr Chairman,

Mr Managing Director,

Ladies and Gentlemen Delegates,

I am speaking as co-president of the World Movement of Christian Workers. Today, it brings together more than 50 organisations from four continents.

We welcome the clarity and commitment expressed in the Director General's Report. We share his diagnosis: the link between employment, rights and growth is weakening in a context of growing discontent, insecurity and inequality. We see this in our communities, among impoverished and precarious workers with no access to social protection or real participation.

The statement that work is a question of "respect for the dignity" of each person resonates fully with our Christian vision of work as a means of personal fulfilment, service to the common good and fraternity between peoples.

We would like to highlight three aspects and give a few examples:

• Firstly, the urgent need to put decent work at the centre. Not just any job, but one that respects rights, offers dignified conditions and provides a meaningful life.

For example, in Europe a new directive aims to provide better protection for parcel deliverers on platforms, the new slaves of the king customer. 

• Secondly, the importance of revitalising social dialogue. Democracy at work and in its organisation is a prerequisite for fair and advanced societies. We need genuine participation by workers, especially the most excluded, those who suffer the most. At the WMCW, we are working to raise workers' awareness of the importance of organising so that all voices can be heard.

In Mali, small hotel maids are setting up their own union.

In the Central African Republic, 4 employees died and several were injured when a turbine exploded at Palme d'Or, despite warnings from the health and safety services. Workers rallied and better equipment was installed.

• Thirdly, we share the need for a new social pact that protects work, whether formal or informal, and that also protects the planet. We are working on this as part of our four-year plan entitled "Social justice in an economy for life". "No worker without rights. No family without a roof over its head. No person without dignity", said Pope Francis.

For example, in Madagascar, a group of single mothers have decided to collectively cultivate a plot of land to feed their children, and in Japan, teams are accompanying migrant workers to defend their rights.

Taking care of work starts with taking care of the people who work. This is an essential dimension of decent work that cannot be ignored in labour policies or economic decisions.

We share Monsignor Ballesteros' concern about the value of care work, which is often invisible or unpaid, even though it represents the very essence of the relationship between people. Carried out mainly by women, this work is the path to solidarity and inclusion".

One major concern remains: in many countries our activists suffer repression and are silenced, the latest example being Nicaragua.

As a Christian-inspired movement, we hope that the ILO and its constituents will strengthen their relationship with the Holy See during this pontificate, so that together we can move towards a globalisation of justice and dignity, where decent work is a reality for everyone, everywhere.

With hope, and strengthened by the experience of struggle and solidarity of thousands of Christian workers throughout the world, we affirm our commitment to this path towards social justice and lasting peace.

Thank you for listening.

Christine ISTURIZ