19 December 2017

Outcomes - CEATAL - OAS Labour Ministerial - XX IACML (7-8 December 2017, Bridgetown)

Dear CEATAL Members,

I am pleased to inform you about the main outcomes of the XX Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour of the OAS which concluded in Barbados with the adoption by the Ministers of:

The Declaration of Bridgetown 2017: "Building on our achievements and advancing towards social justice, decent work and sustainable development in the Americas" and the
Plan of Action of Bridgetown 2017: "Building on our achievements and advancing towards social justice, decent work and sustainable development in the Americas"

CEATAL Declaration: to contribute to the debate and decisions in the XX IACML, CEATAL presented a Declaration to the Ministers calling on them to:

to promote clear and consistent regulations while reducing bureaucracy for businesses to operate and innovate
to urgently invest in education and skills development and
to promote entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education

Joint CEATAL-COSATE Declaration: Recognising that new technologies have significantly changed production and service delivery systems and, therefore, have also modified the workplace and the workforce by transforming the type and availability of jobs, as well as the way in which companies plan, design and organise work, CEATAL and COSATE called on the Ministers to, among other efforts, promote agile business environments that provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and society to innovate, launch and finance new businesses in the formal economy as well as legal frameworks that promote formally registered companies that comply with the law and support the different forms of employment required by evolving business models based on fundamental principles and rights at work, as the pivot of public policies.

All documents are available from the side panel.

John Craig (Canada), Sheena Mayer-Granville (Barbados), Victoria Giulietti (Argentina), Chris Joseph (Dominica), Juan Jose Fraschini (Uruguay), Julio Cesar Barrenechea (Peru) and Ruben Mc Sween (Trinidad and Tobago) composed the CEATAL delegation to the XX IACML.

It is important to highlight that during the CEATAL meeting in the framework of the XX IACML:

The officers of the Executive Committee of CEATAL for the period 2017-2020 were elected
The Report from CEATAL’s Coordinator regarding CEATAL’s main activities during the XIX IACML (2015-2027) was presented (only available in Spanish)

We are pleased to inform you that all documents of the Ministerial and a review of its main outcomes are available in the OAS webpage (see link in side panel).

Finally, on behalf of CEATAL, allow me to thank the Regional Office of the ILO for Latin America and the Caribbean for their support so that the CEATAL delegation with representatives from different sub-regions in the Americas, was able to participate in and contribute to the XX IACML.

Yours sincerely,