Geneva: Are robots taking away human jobs? Where will the jobs of the future come from? Are our skills becoming increasingly outdated? Is the gig economy creating precarious jobs? The rapidly transforming world of work has made headlines of these social anxieties.

Much discussion of the future of work suggests it can only be a dystopian, robotic world. But the report of an ILO commission shows how humans, not algorithms, can be in charge. When the International Labour Organization (ILO) was founded 100 years ago in the aftermath of the first world war, governments, employers and workers came together convinced that lasting peace and stability depended on social justice. This is still true and, given the dramatic changes we are seeing, should encourage us to take bold and timely action. The constitution of the ILO of 1919, reinforced by the Philadelphia Declaration of 1944, remains the most ambitious global social contract in history.