ILO denounces global premature austerity measures

The United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO) has denounced governments around the world for adopting premature austerity measures during the financial crisis.

Isabel Ortiz, the ILO’s director of social welfare, said Tuesday that the austerity measures have hurt the world’s most vulnerable people. He added that, in 2014 alone, at least 122 governments, including those of 82 developing countries, imposed public spending cuts.

Cuts to “pensions, the health system and social security… the removal of subsidies, downsizing among social workers and health personnel” hit poor people at a time when they were most in need of support, said Ortiz.

According to the ILO official, over 70 percent of the world’s population by estimate do not have adequate social protection coverage. In addition, almost four out of 10 people in the world do not have access to a healthcare system, while in poor countries the number rises to nine out of ten.

Ortiz spoke specifically about the European Union (EU) and the policies of severe budget cuts in response to the debt crisis by the bloc’s member states.

Ortiz said as many as 123 million Europeans – 25 percent of the bloc’s population- were now classified as poor due to cuts in social protection.

The EU debt crisis erupted in early 2008, leaving millions unemployed and in financial distress. The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered massive protests in many European countries including Greece, Italy and Spain.