ILO Director-General Attends Conference in Vilnius
On 25 April 2019, Mr. Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organisation, visited Vilnius. Here, he and his delegation took part in the high-level international conference “Towards a Digitalized World of Work: What Future Works for All?”
Launching the event, Lithuanian Minister of Social Security and Labour Linas Kukuraitis said: “In view of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, we should not think that the future of work has already been decided. It will be such as we shape it.” Supporting this idea, the ILO Director-General underlined the role of his organisation in this process: “The ILO has the mandate for social justice as the surest guarantee of peace in the world.”
Director-General Ryder spoke at the opening of the conference; and ILO Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Mr. Heinz Köller, participated in the panel discussion on how the use of new technologies will affect the future of work. The conference addressed in a comprehensive manner the challenges and opportunities arising in the context of the increasing domination of digital technologies.
This conference, organized and hosted by the Lithuanian Ministry of Social Security and Labour, is dedicated to the Centenary of the ILO. Among the guests and participants of the conference were Mr. Wouter Koolmees, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour of the Netherlands; Ms. Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility; high-ranking representatives of the ministries of social affairs and labour from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, France, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, and Ukraine, international organisations, academic institutions, and social partners. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė greeted participants via a video address.
During his visit, the ILO Director-General had separate meetings with Minister Kukuraitis, Ms. Rimantė Šalaševičiūtė, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Social Affairs and Labour, as well as with leaders of Lithuanian employer associations and trade unions.
