Representatives of governments, workers and employers from more than 35 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada and the United States are meeting for the first time in Panama on Tuesday to discuss the future of work.

The 19th American Regional Meeting of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the first of its kind in Central America, will analyze the behavior of this issue in the Americas through social dialogue, for which joining efforts around the indispensable guidelines to advance in that sense is urgent.

‘The 19th American Regional Meeting in Panama will mark a milestone in the history of the ILO and its Member States, as a preamble to the 100th anniversary of the International Labor Organization,’ said Panamanian Labor Minister, Luis Ernesto Carles, who referred to the document that will derive from the meeting.

ILO director for Latin America and the Caribbean, José Manuel Salazar, highlighted the importance of Panama as the venue of the meeting, as it is a country with tripartism and social dialogue, the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development of Panama said in a press release.

This meeting will take place amid the leadership the ILO assumed, after convening a World Commission on the Future of Work, with the aim of planning strategies and plotting the way regarding the issue.

The 19th American Regional Meeting will analyze issues related to the challenge of decent work in the continent, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, in addition to assessing progress and changes in the region since the previous meeting held four years ago in Lima, Peru.

Founded in 1919, ILO is the only agency in the United Nations system in which the States have tri-party representatives. The first Regional Meeting took place in 1936 in the American continent to then rotate the headquarters every four years in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and Europe. (Taken from Prensa Latina)