Thank you, Director-General.
I’d like to start by thanking the ILO,
especially Mr Raymond Torres, for having given me this wonderful opportunity
to take part in a meeting on such a highly topical issue,
the future of work,
an ambitious initiative,
a far-reaching project,
one that interests everyone
– not only the ILO – certainly the ILO first and foremost,
but everyone and all countries.
I believe it’s interesting to consider the question globally,
as the Director-General did in his report,
but it might also be useful to consider it
from the point of view of the reality experienced in a specific country or region,
because the question of the future of work is not framed everywhere in the same way.
Of course, there are common points.
Some changes have been observed pretty much everywhere,
but I also think the situation can be very different depending on the country,
and there’s a big difference between developed and developing countries in this regard.
So I’m going to give you some thoughts based on the context in Tunisia, if I may.
In so doing,
I would like to stress the relevance of the subject,
of the future of work in terms of the democratic transition process,
because the question has a political dimension.
I think that the future of democracy in Tunisia
depends to a large extent on the future of work.
As you know, Tunisia embarked on the transition to democracy in 2011.
That transition culminated in 2014 with the adoption of a constitution
establishing almost all fundamental social rights,
including the right to work of all citizens, men and women.
It’s early days, however,
and the process remains very fragile
and fraught because of several persistent factors,
notably the economic crisis
compounded by the security climate,
political and social instability,
unemployment, poverty
– there are a lot of challenges.
The major social challenges facing Tunisia
include gaping socio-economic disparities between regions
and the poor performance of social transfers.
By some estimates, the poverty rate is currently 25 per cent,
but it is high above all in the interior of the country.
Poverty affects not just the unemployed,
but also agricultural workers, in particular women
and we find it very difficult to create the economic momentum to create jobs.
So ultimately, the question of the future of work has to be asked essentially in terms of jobs,
by which I mean jobs now, much more than in terms of the future of work.
The question is much simpler; I’d say more “down-to-earth”:
how to fight unemployment and underemployment?
We have a very high unemployment rate, over 15 per cent.
Unemployment affects especially the south, east and west of the country,
and especially the young,
young graduates, and among young graduates, in particular women.
So that means that there’s a disjunction between the education system and labour market needs.
The unemployment rate of women with higher education diplomas is estimated at 38.4 per cent.
For men with higher education diplomas, it’s estimated at almost 20 per cent.
Those are very high rates.
They attest to the difficulty of creating a link,
creating synergy, between the education system and the needs of the labour market.
Of course, this is compounded by the emergence of precarious forms of employment
– fixed-term work, part-time work, seasonal work –
above all in the informal sector,
which is unfortunately steadily expanding and in which,
by some estimates – World Bank estimates –
over 50 per cent of the labour force is employed.
So we have a crisis above all in the labour market,
an acute crisis that probably stems from all the political and economic factors,
waning investment,
the lack of fair development, the absence of good governance,
the dichotomy, as I said, between the education system and the real needs of the labour market,
the ineffectiveness of public sector employment services acting as job brokers.
Tunisia’s economic fabric is marked by its position as a link
in the international chain of subcontractors:
the jobs on offer are essentially low-skilled.
Low-skilled jobs mean that the impact of technological progress
and of the knowledge economy in terms of enriching the content of work remains very low.
Another worrisome phenomenon,
evidence of a crisis of sorts in the values attached to work
as a means of personal fulfillment and socialization,
is the fact that many young Tunisians have turned their backs on work.
According to a study published by the International Labour Office in 2014,
about 18 per cent of young people aged 15 to 29 are inactive,
not enrolled in school,
not studying or learning an occupation,
not working and not looking for work.
That’s very worrying.
It’s very worrying. It’s a phenomenon that concerns women in particular,
and is observed above all in urban areas.
So young people find it difficult to move to a working life.
This is a problem because of the lack of suitable programmes and instruments able to guide them.
Of course, the authorities have a longstanding active employment policy,
targeting young graduates in particular,
and that policy has resulted in massive public spending,
but its effectiveness is overall pretty limited.
So there’s also a problem of governance.
I’d like to add a few remarks about the legal aspect.
I get the impression that there’s a contrast between
what really happens in the world of work and the normative measures on the subject.
This is more clearly visible in Tunisia.
Maybe not in other, developed countries,
but in the Arab countries, I’ve observed it very clearly,
the contrast between the law and the real working world people experience.
Suffice it to say that our labour code is almost completely silent on the question of employment,
not to mention the future of work.
The question of employment is almost completely ignored,
it’s an outdated labour code covering those who work, who have a job,
but not those who are looking for work.
It doesn’t show much interest in questions of training,
in education as an entry card to the job market.
So there’s this sort of gap in the law – but not just the law –
also the provisions adopted by the industrial partners in collective work agreements.
Labour relations do not seem to attach much importance to the question of employment,
even less to the future of work.
The talk continues to be of wages, wage increases;
matters relating to access to a working life,
the quality of employment,
training for those who are working or who want to work, are completely ignored.
The relationship between work and productivity,
worker participation in the results of the activity,
all these questions are pretty much ignored by the social partners, unfortunately.
and therefore to call on them to change the way they think,
to broach the issues with a view to the future.
These are some of my thoughts.
I’ll end with another observation:
I don’t think you can talk about the future of work
without talking about the movement of labour in the context of globalization.
The general opening of borders to markets and capital should be accompanied
by national borders that are more open to the movement of labour.
That requires an effort not just at national level
but at the level of all countries. Thank you.