A "Global Social Protection Pact" is Italy’s proposal as chairman of the G8 labour summit, and to move on, after the many and various plans for support to financial markets, to phase two: helping the real economy and, with it, workers. This is one of the goals Italian Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi, chairing the G8 Social Summit, proposed to colleagues and social representatives of the world’s major economies: to put people first, in social policies for the protection and support of the workers affected all around the world by the international economic crisis that could lead, according to OECD warnings, to 2-digit unemployment rates. Minister Sacconi was quoted as saying that "it is necessary to reconnect the circuit of trust, beginning with the social protection of people". "We are here to confront the human dimension of the crisis together", the Minister stressed, as he opened the three-day summit, "for which timely and targeted measures will be needed along with temporary ones for protecting incomes—measures that safeguard the production and employment base, allowing also for the training of workers".
Employment and social sustainability policies, social and job protections and the impact of the crisis on welfare systems are all on the agenda of "Social Summit" discussions.
DIALOGUE WITH SOCIAL REPRESENTATIVES. The "Social Summit" sessions opened with a meeting of the G8 ministers, international organisations and social representatives.
WORKING PRIORITIES. The G8 countries are to illustrate the consequences of the crisis on national job markets in terms of job losses, unemployment subsidies as well as measures adopted to protect jobs and incomes. Discussed also will be a better social protection system, aware that a strategy placing "an absolute priority on jobs", presupposes a balance between actions regarding job supply and demand—themes that will have to be confronted also at global level, and for this reason the G8 has enlarged its sessions to include China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt.
GLOBALISATION. Job market integration has led to broader production localisation, which is having a negative effect on income distribution in Western countries, increasing migration and resulting in policies that have underestimated the human dimension. The time has come for international organization to place people at the centre in this new global governance context, and to consider the social dimension as one of the principal factors in stability and growth.