The International Labour Organisation (ILO), has advised member countries to tackle challenges of poor working condition that would hinder them from attaining the Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG8).

Ms Deborah Greenfield, ILO’s Deputy Director-General, in its report on Friday said that SDG8 was not about full employment but the quality of employment.

According to Greenfield, poor quality employment is the main issue for global labour markets with millions of people forced to accept inadequate working conditions.

“New data gathered from the World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO) shows that majority of the 3.3 billion people employed globally in 2018 had inadequate economic security, material well-being and equality of opportunity. Progress in reducing unemployment globally is not being reflected in improvements in the quality of work,’’ she said.

The ILO deputy director-general cited a number of major deficits in decent work and warned that at the rate of progress, it would be unrealistic for some countries to attain decent work goal as set out in SDG 8.

She said that quality and decent work were two of the pillars underpinning sustainable development.

“Some new business models including those enabled by new technologies are threatening to undermine existing labour market achievements,’’ she said in the report.

Greenfield warned that unless policymakers meet the challenge achievement in improving employment formality and security, social protection and labour standard would be difficult. (NAN)