Why the L20 matters - putting workers at the heart of global decision making

Made up of trade unions from the G20 countries, the L20 fights to ensure workers’ voice and concerns influence governments’ decision making. It also provides a forum for unions from the Global North to campaign with unions from the Global South to overcome global inequalities.

This year G20 meetings have been hosted by South Africa, the first time an African country has held the G20 Presidency.

The TUC joined trade unions and a number of ministers from G20 countries, including Alison McGovern, then Minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, in July for the L20 Summit. The goal of unions was to make sure global labour ministers committed to high-quality work, strong labour rights - including collective bargaining and our right to strike - and equality for all.

Three key issues raised by unions at the Summit were:

1. Ending structural inequality. L20 members called for real wage growth, urgent action on insecure and precarious work and tackling inequality within work and society, especially the experiences of women and young people. Expanding collective bargaining coverage is essential in achieving all of these.

2. Demanding global tax justice. Trade Unions called for wealth taxes so that those with the broadest shoulders pay their fair share. And set out that to support the Global South this must be paired with measures to reduce sovereign debt, which limits the investment countries can make in public services and employment.

3. Solidarity with Palestine. Some L20 members strongly condemned the genocide in Palestine and the ongoing occupation, calling for an immediate ceasefire, full application of international humanitarian law and an end to the occupation. This reflects the global labour movement’s longstanding commitment to peace.

Ministers from the UK, France, Germany and South Africa also shared what their countries were doing to advance collective bargaining, improve gender equality in the labour market, raise wages and reduce the proportions of young people who are not in education, employment and training. Alison McGovern emphasised the government’s commitment to Make Work Pay to improve the quality of work and reduce inequality and to a quality Youth Guarantee to get more young people earning or learning.

It was very welcome to see our government engaging with the international trade union movement and hearing their priorities at the Summit.

What did the G20 commit to?

As a result of trade union campaigning, the declaration by G20 labour ministers recognised that ‘promoting decent work, including creating full and productive employment, good quality jobs... are fundamental for reducing inequality, broadening economic participation and boosting economic growth.’

The statement also recognised the importance of collective bargaining.

The statement committed G20 countries to three key targets, which are to:

1. Reduce the proportion of youth (ages 15-29) not in employment, education, or training (NEET) by a further 5% by 2030 and to boost the effectiveness of Youth Employment Strategies or Initiatives. Countries committed to expand work-based learning opportunities, provide career guidance and promote the mental wellbeing of young people.

2. Reduce the gender employment gap by a further 25% by 2030, an extension of a previous target.

3. Encourage G20 countries to work towards reducing their gender pay gap by 15% by 2035, with the view to reviewing this after 5 years to increase the commitment to 35% by 2035.

What next in the UK?

The TUC and international union movement welcomed the declaration - but this is just the start. We want our government to be bold. On youth NEET rates, we have set out in our submission to the 2025 budget, the government should set out its ambitions to return to pre-covid levels by the end of parliament - a 15% reduction. The TUC’s recent report sets out how the government can do this through an ambitious, well-funded jobs guarantee scheme that provides early access to those most at risk of becoming long term NEET; access to high quality apprenticeships; and high-quality work for young people.

Reducing the gender pay gap is vital. Introducing mandatory gender pay gap action plans in the Employment Rights Bill will ensure real action is taken to close the gap, but for them to be impactful they must be comprehensive and effectively implemented. Other measures in the Bill, like strengthened protections for pregnant women and new mothers from unfair redundancy and dismissal, day one parental leave rights, statutory rights for equality reps; and a new fair pay agreement in adult social care, where the majority of workers are women, will also help to tackle the drivers of the gender pay and employment gaps and achieve these targets.

And we cannot reduce the gender pay gap if we don’t act on disability and ethnicity pay gaps, showing the importance of introducing mandatory pay gap reporting in these areas and bringing forward the Equalities Bill.

The L20 shows that our collective lobbying with the global union movement and learning from good practice in other countries are essential for achieving these ambitions.

And what next internationally?

The UK government will play a key role to continue to the successes of the G20 in South Africa as it will host the G20 in 2027, the year after the US hosts it.

G20 Presidents have enormous power over the G20’s agenda so while thethe Trump administration is likely to use the G20 platform to amplify its anti-worker, anti human rights agenda, the TUC will be working with the UK government to ensure it uses the opportunity in 2027 to build on this year’s progress made in South Africa.