Shaping the new world of work. The impacts of digitalisation and robotisation
July 1 2016
The impact of digital technologies on the quantity and quality of jobs, wages and workplace relations was the topic of the ETUC/ETUI conference which took place on 27-29 June 2016 in Brussels.
150 speakers and over 600 participants, including policy-makers, researchers, social partners, and digital workers, discussed from multiple perspectives the new challenges and opportunities that modern technology creates for the world of work. The keynote speech was given by Jeremy Rifkin, a technology-optimist and the author of “Zero Cost Society”. A more sombre perspective was provided by Simon Deakin (Cambridge) who stressed the regulatory issues related to expansion of platform economy or sharing economy companies. Michael Silberman (IG Metall) showed a pioneering survey data on crowdwork and discussed initiatives aimed at establishing good standards of crowdwork and crowdworking platforms.
IBS was represented by Piotr Lewandowski and Roma Keister. Piotr Lewandowski participated in the panel “Inequalities and labour market polarisation” with John Hurley (Eurofound), Steven Dhondt (KU Leuven and TNO) and Josef Středula (ČMKOS). Lewandowski presented IBS’ research on evolution of task content of jobs and (lack of) job polarisation in Central and Eastern European countries (Wojciech Hardy, Roma Keister, Piotr Lewandowski, Technology Or Upskilling? Trends In The Task Composition Of Jobs In Central And Eastern Europe, IBS, 2016).
ORGANIZERS
European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) & European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
