Negotiating the Future of Work: Automation and New Technology
There is plenty of experience to show that digital innovation does not automatically guarantee a decent standard of work. Well known examples where it clearly does not are in the ‘gig economy’, where self-employed workers in companies such as Uber and Deliveroo have no rights and are sometimes paid under the minimum wage, and in other tech-heavy ‘disruptor’ companies such as DPD or Amazon where workers feel excessively monitored and overloaded. A collective agreement should make sure that, as technology transforms all types of occupations; it is not used as an excuse to devalue or deskill jobs or in any way demean workers.
A new technology agreement should include the principle that any change to working practices does not impact the right to decent, dignified and well-remunerated work. In the German EVG agreement, this is defined positively, outlining what work should look like, while in other cases, such as in the CWU/Royal Mail framework agreement, it is defined by specifying what technology will not do to working life.
The Welsh Government and Fair Work
One framework for defining work standards is found in the Welsh Government’s Fair Work policy. It defines fair work as where:
“Workers are fairly rewarded, heard and represented, secure and able to progress in a healthy, inclusive environment where rights are respected.
Characteristics: Fair reward; employee voice and collective representation; security and flexibility; opportunity for access, growth and progression; safe, healthy and inclusive working environment, legal rights respected and given substantive effect.” (Fair Work Wales, 2019)
Example: CWU’s core principles for use of technology in Royal Mail Group
The CWU’s framework agreement with Royal Mail Group signed in December 2020 lays out clear principles around new technology and how it should impact the nature of work:
It promises to “not allow the exploitative practices that bear down on workers (as seen in companies that operate in the wider post and logistics sector),… not to de-humanise the workplace and to ensure that the key decision makers in the workplace are the local manager and local representative and not the technology.” Specifically, it states:
- Technology will not be used to de-humanise the workplace or operational decision making.
- Technology will be used to complement, inform and enhance along with all other factors, the existing resourcing processes, including manager, CWU rep and employee conversations.
- Technology will replace outdated and inconsistent manual methods of information gathering and provide the underlying insight to improve our current processes including resourcing.
The CWU’s terms of reference for an automated HR system
In practice, the CWU’s framework agreement creates the context in which the union has equal say in setting the terms around the introduction of individual pieces of technology.
In its terms of reference around the trial of an automated hours data capture system, which is being introduced to replace a paper-based manual job previously done by managers and reps logging hours and working out shift patterns, it clearly states that the aim of the new technology is to improve working practices – in line with the principles of the broader national agreements (see above).
The agreement details how the trial will take place, with CWU reps involved in every aspect of the process – and also outlines what success looks like, thus giving clear criteria for the technology’s evaluation which includes health and safety and resolving worker concerns.
Example: EVG- Deutsche-Bahn agreement protects quality work
The EVG’s Work 4.0 agreement gives its own definition of ‘Quality Work’ as the starting point for all the other principles around the introduction of new technology.
It defines Quality Work as including:
- Meaningful work: creating/acquiring space for decision making/avoiding detailed specifications for work tasks (Taylorism)/facilitating self-organisation
- Participation of employees: early integration of employees/incorporating ideas and questions/joint examination of implementation and improvement
- Placement of (specialist) knowledge: clarifying digital skills requirements/knowledge exchange/offering a wide range of qualification components
- Human-oriented technology design: clarifying user benefits/(early) integration of users/ensuring ease of use (usability)
Safeguarding jobs
To ensure jobs are safeguarded as more and more processes previously done by humans become automated, an agreement can be used to guarantee that technology will not be used to drive down labour costs and shed workers. Some unions may already have agreements with clauses stating ‘no compulsory redundancies’. These offer basic protection for the workforce as new technology is introduced, but could be strengthened by being reiterated with specific reference to technological change.
Example: Safeguarding permanent jobs at Royal Mail
The CWU’s national terms of reference agreement around the introduction of automated parcel sorting machines acknowledges that the new machines will reduce the need for human labour, so it has negotiated a strategy with Royal Mail to ensure that directly employed staff are protected. However, in doing so it has been forced to push the labour cost savings onto indirectly employed workers, whose non-standard contracts make their jobs more precarious.
The agreement sets out that the following principles will be agreed and jointly applied through strategic resourcing discussions in line with local resourcing plans:
- Removal of all agency/ordinary casual spend that may be converted to suitable duties for redeployment
- Jointly Agreed Cessation of Fixed Term Contract staff
- Jointly Agreed Re-structuring of OT/SA spend to create duties to enable re-deployment of surplus staff
- Transfers to other Royal Mail units within a reasonable travelling distance. Any training required will complement the resourcing process and will be arranged to facilitate transfers, lack of necessary skills will not be used as a barrier to any transfers.
- Voluntary option of Buy-Downs of hours
- Voluntary Redundancy offered In line with current National Agreements.
In practice, the introduction of an automated parcel sorting machine at the South Midlands Mail Centre led to local CWU reps negotiating an agreement which created 150 new job roles which will be advertised internally and involve the redeployment of some jobs to work with the new machine.
Area processing rep Paul Bosworth said that the new package will “create 150 new job roles, which will be advertised internally and will be allocated proportionally among early, late and night shifts.”
The Unite model new technology agreement proposes that unions should go further and get employers to agree that new technology where possible will create new jobs. It suggests getting the following principles agreed:
- New Technology will only be introduced if the overall number of jobs are protected.
- The employer reinvests cost savings from any introduction of New Technology into areas that promote and provide more and better jobs within the organisation.
- Employer and the Union will engage with each other in an open and creative way to generate ideas for new products and/or areas of work for investment within the bargaining group.
Redeployment and reskilling
The reskilling and retraining needs of workers in a transforming economy are likely to be significant. The CBI’s report: Learning for life: funding world class adult education, based on analysis by McKinsey & Company, predicts that nine in ten UK employees will need to reskill by 2030 at an additional cost of £13 billion a year.
A true understanding of changing skills needs and provision requires strategic collaboration between a range of stakeholders, starting with workers and their representatives. Ideally, it is an issue that should be addressed through social partnership; with employers, unions and policy-makers working together to support job redesign and training initiatives, and in the process identifying in good time where new technology and processes may lead to job losses or a need for retraining. One way to start a conversation on future skills needs in wales is through the Wales union learning fund.
“Trade Unions have a strong and mutually beneficial role to play in supporting firm transformation. Union learning, supported by Wales TUC Learning Services, is an established training mechanism in Wales that could be positively engaged and expanded to play a greater role in both unionised and non-unionised workplaces (Wales 4.0).”
The Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF) and skills transition
The Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF) came into being in 1999 and since then has helped establish many hundreds of joint union/employer workplace learning programmes in almost every industry all over Wales. The unique funding model of WULF makes it an ideal way to for reps and officials to open the discussion regarding skills transition in the workplace, allowing unions to offer initial worker focused funding in order to pilot ideas and put workers on pathways to gain new qualifications. Many unions have already developed programmes through WULF that address retraining for workers whose jobs are under threat, either from decarbonisation or automation.
The amount of funding available to a workplace via WULF is never going to be enough to address the level of need for skills transition in Wales, but it does allow unions to bring something to table when raising the issue of skills transition. Crucially, WULF is only allocated on the assumption of partnership and is linked directly to collective bargaining. This allows the union to embed access to retraining and protect jobs and terms and conditions by using the funding to bargain for skills. We would see a role for WULF in the development of transition agreements across Wales.
You can find out more about WULF and the various projects currently operating in Wales here Learn with your union | TUC or contact your own union regional office, or the Wales TUC Contact the Wales TUC | TUC
There are several successful models from outside the UK of how unions have helped shape the response to rapidly changing skills needs at the workplace and company level. There are also examples of how UK-based employers have worked in partnership with unions to provide training for employees to ensure that they are equipped with skills needed to fill shifting job roles. But research also found that there is a big gulf between this best practice and the general provision.
Example: Reskilling in the EVG-Deutsche Bahn agreement
The EVG – Deutsche Bahn AG Work 4.0 agreement sets out that the union will be involved with skills development from evaluating what is needed for job roles to working with training providers to redesign courses.
Examining specifics of job profiles
The union set up a joint project with the employer DB AG called: "Impact of digital innovation on transport enterprises". In this, the union examined very specific occupational profiles in relation to maintenance, the train crew and sales, and obtained information on the direction of travel of digital change. Although they found that digital changes will run in parallel with the continued use of ‘analogue’ systems –and therefore workers will need a mix of skills - the digital transformation to occupational profiles (activities) is enormous. The training required must therefore be considered and designed not only by enterprises, but also by employees.
Strategic planning and job re-evaluation
The agreement states that the employer needs to inform the union of the digitisation/ automation strategy early on so that the process is transparent and there is sufficient time to plan how to train up the workforce in the specific skills required for new activities and tasks. Time also allows for thinking around how to prevent the ‘devaluation’ of certain activities and to instead ensure that they are re-evaluated. The aim is to maintain and develop the qualifications of affected workers.
In-house redeployment teams and skills fairs
At the local level, one of Deutsche Bahn’s subisidiaries, DB Systel, which is an IT Service Provider, used the agreement when new technologies such as Cloud-based computing and changing managing processes were having a big impact on the tasks and jobs of employees. The workplace union negotiated an agreement establishing a ‘mobility office’ for redeploying workers into new jobs. This was staffed by reps with adequate facilities time to manage it. Events such as ‘in-house’ trade fairs were also organised giving workers an overview of all the new skills requirements for changing job roles and jobs elsewhere in the company.
Example: Singapore social dialogue process addresses skills
Singapore provides an example of a tri-partite social dialogue process that was set up to address Industry 4.0 and to design a strategy to facilitate the transition, including addressing skills needs.
In 2016, social partners in the country began to develop a series of Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) covering how 23 different areas of the economy – ranging from aerospace to public transport to media to retail – were likely to change with new technology. They outline how industries might benefit from technological advances, where new jobs will be created, how the skill demands of these industries will be met, and how industries can remain competitive on domestic and international markets.
Using the ITMs, unions and worker representatives have been pre-emptively encouraging workers to participate in training for any new job requirements. In finance, for example, the introduction of new technologies expanded employment opportunities in fields such as data processing and data compliance. But retraining is also required in tourism and hospitality. Together the social partners have strategically mapped future skills needs and determined how best to prepare workers to meet these needs.
Example: In-house retraining at Zurich insurance
In the past few years, Zurich has introduced more than 120 new automated processes carrying out around a million individual transactions annually, including customer payment and policy documentation, with a further 100 in the pipeline. The number is expected to double in 2021 and is equivalent to more than 55 employees working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In partnership with the Community union, the company has thought extensively about the future skills needs of its workforce and invested £1m in training opportunities and a ‘data academy’ to allow existing staff to take advantage of new career paths. The insurance giant plans to upskill two-thirds of its workforce, around 3,000 UK employees, in data literacy and various tech-driven competencies in the next half decade. The company has also identified about 270 new jobs in the fields of cybersecurity, data science, and robotics that require retrained workers.
The in-house partnership retraining effort is cost-effective for the insurer, who believes it will save around £1 m in recruitment and redundancy costs. Currently, several members of Zurich’s underwriting and claims, human resources, and finance teams are undergoing the retraining process.
Example: Swedish Job Security Councils
The Swedish Job Security Councils (JSC), in existence since the 1970s, are an end-to-end transition service that redeploy workers at-risk of automation in the case of collective redundancies into sectors that are more resilient. They are non-profit organisations that are based on collective agreements between social partners (unions and employers) and are funded with 0.3% of the payrolls of the companies involved. They act like an insurance scheme, career guidance and training services for affected workers.
Example: Italian metalworkers agreement
After almost a year and a half of negotiations, the Italian National Collective Bargaining Agreement (NCBA) for the metalworkers’ industry (CCNL Metalmeccanici), covering over 1.5 million employees, has been renewed up to June 30, 2024. It contains an innovative clause on continuous training that is designed to meet the needs of workers as industry transitions.