The Argentinian sociologist, Martin Padulla, referred in Quito to the key aspects to build more modern, dynamic, formal and inclusive labour markets in the region.

Ecuador will have the opportunity of attaining sustainable development when it modernizes its labour markets with jobs linked to the “fourth industrial revolution”, said the Argentinian sociologist and MBA, founder of Staffing America Latina, Martín Padulla.

“Ecuador, as several other Latin American countries, has a major opportunity linked to its demographic structure. As soon as the country manages to modernize its labour markets, it will become the opportunity of sustainable development”, said Padulla during the event “The Future of Work, changes of paradigm in the labour world”, held in Quito.

The Argentinian specialist said that Ecuador “currently has a larger share of working age population than of depending population. This means that once these people are placed in productive jobs, linked to this fourth industrial revolution, the possibility of sustainable development is certain and concrete”.

During the event, he referred to key points to build more modern, dynamic, formal and inclusive labour markets in the region.

“An efficient labour market is a pre-condition for economic growth, more competitiveness to reach the so called sustainable development (…) we are going through a series of transformations on a structural level, which are changing the world of work”, he added.

Padulla pointed out that, on a global level, we are currently going through five major structural changes that challenge the traditional business models.

There are plenty of platforms that provide solutions for the on demand economy and the need of immediacy, the current “entrepreneurial” revolution with new rules and business profiles, while the production of industries has a major services component and the closer relationship between producers and consumers, and “there is a new category of “prosumers”, which are major changes that did not exist until recently, “somehow re-shaping the business model”.

As regards Latin America, he added that human capital development and training of skills based on the demand is key, as the productive capital goes “wherever it finds a proper business environment, proper regulatory frameworks, predictability, and pertinent human capital”.

Other participants of the event included the Deputy Minister of Labour, Héctor Guanopatín; the General Manager of the Project Ecuador 2030, Pablo Dávila, and the president of the Chamber of Industries and Production, Richard Martínez.

Guanopatín made emphasis on the need to join efforts between the employer sector and the workers sector, as well as the need to listen to the suggestions of citizens in order to reform the current Labour Code and work on the country’s progress.

“We are going through a historical moment, we are building a new Integral Organic Labour Code (…) the current Code was enacted in 1938 (…) we must work on this Code so that it may adapt to a globalized world (…) we are receiving proposals to adapt the requests of the citizenship to the new modes of the Labour Code” said Guanopatín.

He claimed that technology will play a key role in trading goods and services in the region, as well as in exportations and labour stability.

Following the same train of thought, during a memorial event for the killing of workers on November 15^th of 1922 in the hands of law enforcers, which led to the irruption of the workers’ movement and unions as social and political actors in Ecuador, President, Lenin Moreno, said he will request recommendations to ILO for the development of the new Labour Code.