Evelyn Astor is the Director of Economic and Social Policy at International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), representing trade unions across all sectors in over 160 countries worldwide. She is responsible for ensuring that workers concerns and interests are taken into account in global coordination processes on economic and social policy, including within the International Labour Organisation and broader UN system, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and G20. Her team’s work spans across a variety of thematic areas, including macro-economic policy, employment policy, social protection, and trends influencing the future of work, including digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
She serves on a number of boards and advisory committees, including the UK’s Ethical Trading Initiative and the International Labour Organisation's Global Tripartite Advisory Committee for Social Protection.
Prior to joining the ITUC, she worked for several years at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs, where she contributed to developing several EU initiatives in the areas of social protection and gender equality in the labour market – including the European Pillar of Social Rights and the Work Life Balance Directive. She also has experience working for a number of civil society organisations, including Human Rights Watch.
Evelyn is an experienced speaker, moderator and debator and has spoken to diverse and high-level audiences across the world, including at conferences and meetings organised by the ILO, OECD, European Commission, World Bank, IMF and the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She also has given statements and interviews to the media. Speaking engagements have included:
-Interviewing World Bank President Ajay Banga during a high-level forum on labour in 2025
-Speaking on the labour impacts of artificial intelligence at an event organised at the UN Science and Technology Forum in 2025
-Speaking at an event organised by the IOM on the topic of climate migration at COP29 in 2024
-Moderating a ministerial panel on financing social protection at the Global Partnership of Universal Social Protection conference in 2019
-Participating in a high-level debate on work-life balance with labour ministers and experts organised by the OECD in 2018
-Speaking in a debate on financing social protection organised by Oxfam at the European Development Days 2019
-Giving a keynote presentation at a national symposium on inequalities organised by the Belgian General Federation of Labour (FGTB-ABVV) in 2019.
-Participating in the high-level opening panel of the ILO Development Partners meeting in 2017