The country’s four labour federations shone the spotlight on the scourges of youth unemployment, the need for gender pay parity, social dialogue and skills development at the Labour 20 (L20) summit held with the G20 framework this week.
The L20 summit took place from Monday to Tuesday in George, Western Cape. Speaking on the sidelines of the employment working group ministerial meeting on Thursday, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said key discussion topics pertained to the lack of employment among young people who were not in employment, education or training.
According to the latest data from Stats SA 3.8-million young people are in that category.
SA’s official unemployment rate rose to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025 from 31.9% three months earlier. Including people who have given up looking for work, the rate rises to 43.1%.
The total number of employed people is now 16.8-million, while the number of unemployed increased to 8.2-million, from about 8-million previously.
Losi said the summit resolved to reduce the number of young people who were not in employment, education or training by 5% by 2030.
“We are not theorising these issues. We will set targets about how each member state gets to achieve that [5%] number,” she said, adding this would be realised by the G20 countries creating decent jobs and providing social protection for young people. “If an economy doesn’t invest in young people, that economy has no future,” Losi said.
Another topic was reducing the gender pay gap by 25% by 2035 and ensuring that women had full participation in economic activity, she said.
There was also a need to discuss issues such as AI and the just transition as they affected social partners such as communities, labour, business and government.
“These are some of the issues we as organised labour had to bring to the table,” Losi said. “These issues affect ordinary people.
“The summit is still in progress. The declaration has not been adopted yet. We are looking forward to that part where we are concluding on this work, to say these are the commitments we have set for ourselves,” she added.
Informal workers
In a joint statement on the L20 summit, Cosatu, the National Council of Trade Unions, the SA Federation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Unions of SA said: “With over 60% of workers worldwide trapped in informal and precarious employment, we called for a comprehensive agenda for formalisation.
“This includes labour law reform, expanded labour inspections, ratification and implementation of all ILO [International Labour Organisation] instruments, and inclusive social protection. Trade unions must be at the centre of this shift. We affirm that informal workers are workers. Their rights are not negotiable. We demand that governments and employers end the decades of delay and move decisively towards institutionalising decent work.”
The labour federations also demanded an end to illicit financial flows, fraudulent imports, labour exploitation and a permanent seat at the African Continental Free Trade Area.
On geopolitical matters, the federations said the summit did not shy away from naming the assault on Palestine by Israel “a genocide”, adding, “What we are witnessing is not a conflict. It is the deliberate erasure of a people, a territory, and a future. It is genocide.”
The L20 summit was not an end, but a beginning, they added. “The working class must rise to meet the moment. We must rebuild power at the shop floor, at national bargaining councils, in global supply chains, and in every policy space. We are building a movement that is grounded in democratic unionism, internationalism and collective action.
“To every government represented at the G20, we say this: your time for polite promises is over. The world of work is watching. The workers of the world are organising. And we are no longer willing to wait. The future must belong to the many, not the few.”
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