FILE PHOTO: Director-General of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Guy Ryder attends the 108th ILO International Labor Conference at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland June 10, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
GENEVA — The head of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Monday described the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world of work as “cataclysmic” and much worse than that of the 2008 financial crisis.
“Taken as a whole, this represents a world-of-work crisis four times as severe as the financial crisis of 2008-2009,” said Guy Ryder, director-general of the ILO, at the opening of a two-week ministerial conference.
He also warned of an uneven economic recovery after the pandemic, partly fed by “gross inequities in vaccine distribution.”