Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Global cities
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Mind the gap

Oliver Suchy 6th October 2020

The digitalisation of work, despite its potential, risks becoming an impersonal means by which employers tilt the balance of power.

mobile work
Oliver Suchy

Since we have come to live with the coronavirus around the globe, ‘digital work’ has been enjoying an unprecedented boom. To ensure social distance, we had to work in a kind of isolation for months (and still have to or will have to again), but it works. Thanks to digitalisation, we use more and more tools to work, communicate and collaborate productively, even from home. Yet realising the goal of ‘good mobile work’ depends closely on the labour-law framework and collective agreements—including over working time, privacy and surveillance and individual circumstances such as childcare. 

We are working on bridging this gap. And at least employers have to admit now that flexible work, allowing employees more self-determination, is successful and doesn’t ruin the company. Prejudices regarding the motivation and work discipline of ‘home-office’ workers have not been confirmed. That’s the good message.

Turning the tables

But employers are already starting to turn the tables: companies are reducing office spaces, to create a ‘more distributed workforce’—and to cut costs, because, as we know, work at home works. But what does it mean for the future of office work? Do employees have to work out of office because they have lost the daily ‘hot-desking’? Shall we have to book a ticket for the use of an office? And will the further availability of working space or equipment for employees depend on their performance—all monitored by artificial-intelligence (AI) systems?

The nature of ‘mobile work’, including work at home as an opportunity for self-determined flexible work, would then change fundamentally. Under German labour and constitutional law, it is not possible simply to transfer work to the private rooms of employees. If employees work at home regularly it has to be linked to certain provisions, to safeguard occupational health and safety, which means additional efforts on the part of employers. 


Become part of our Community of Thought Leaders


Get fresh perspectives delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter to receive thought-provoking opinion articles and expert analysis on the most pressing political, economic and social issues of our time. Join our community of engaged readers and be a part of the conversation.

Sign up here

Employers are trying to prevent exactly this. They are declaring ‘home office’ as mobile work—suggesting a new, limitless freedom—to circumvent regulation.

Dealing with the digitalisation of work, we witness the power of employers to set ‘the facts’, as we have known it for ages. At the same time, technology is being used to change work, and power, structures. And the coronavirus crisis seems to be being exploited as an accelerator, to enforce employers’ or shareholders’ interests—particularly through job cuts via automation and a new level of surveillance.

Massive job losses

On the one hand, many companies are obviously under pressure due to the pandemic. So while the digital push can engender new, collaborative forms of work, managers can use the opportunities offered by digitalisation to cut jobs as far as possible via automation. Trade unions and workers are already facing massive job losses and job security is a high priority in many areas. The pressure will likely only increase.

This scenario is linked to the new wave of AI systems at workplaces. It’s no coincidence that there are initiatives such as IBM’s ‘Human Friendly Automation’, demanding a higher awareness of the impacts of AI in the workplace, especially regarding the number and quality of jobs. ‘Change impact plans’ to assess the consequences of AI systems for employees, as proposed in March by the German trade union confederation, the DGB, are not mandatory but they should be—and the sooner the better. 

While policy-makers focus on assistance systems and the much-invoked human-centred design, corporate strategies seems to have changed significantly. The assumption of increasing risks to workers makes regulation all the more necessary—for example, in relation to AI systems affecting workers’ rights and job security—as proposed in the European Commission White Paper on Artificial Intelligence. 

The crisis shows in particular that a shift in the balance of power at the expense of employees must be countered politically. This applies to the legal framework, especially regarding co-determination and the negotiating position of employees, works councils and unions.

Surveillance software

On the other hand, the upheaval caused by the pandemic has been accompanied by increasing use of surveillance software. Here we can witness a link to AI systems, too: the ‘spyware’ is not only being used to track or control employees but offers opportunities to measure individual productivity and workers’ behaviour. This form of ‘management by algorithm’ shows that new, remote-control systems are emerging.

Disguised as support for the workforce, it’s as if workers are themselves being turned into machines. And while AI systems provide an appearance of objectivity, this cannot be verified appropriately due to the lack of transparency. If such systems were to be established in the world of work on a large scale, there would be far-reaching consequences in terms of the balance of power, remuneration systems, occupational health and safety and so on. 


Support Progressive Ideas: Become a Social Europe Member!


Support independent publishing and progressive ideas by becoming a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month. You can help us create more high-quality articles, podcasts and videos that challenge conventional thinking and foster a more informed and democratic society. Join us in our mission - your support makes all the difference!

Become a Social Europe Member

Of course, there are safeguards in data-protection law (GDPR) and certain co-determination rights (in Germany), although there are loopholes and gaps. But experience shows companies tend to test the limits and often breach them. Moreover, not all employees are protected by collective agreements or works councils.

This is not painting a future dystopia but the evidence of today. Managers talk about a ‘new normal’ in the world of work but this must not mean that appropriate regulation is no longer required. German employers’ associations have been calling for a softening of labour law for years—and are exploiting the crisis to assert these claims from the last century.

Appropriate framework

Policy-makers have to act and set out an appropriate framework to foster good digital work by using technology. Here we can see another gap, however—between the political discourse and the reality created by business. The lively debate on the use of AI at work is engendering much dialogue but no tangible results, in terms of regulation to resolve what are inevitably conflicting goals.

There is an urgent need for a modern framework for the work of the future: fostering transparency and traceability of technology, bargaining on an equal footing, protecting privacy adequately and empowering workers. In this context, additional training opportunities for employees should be supported and publicly funded to a much greater extent. 

So far digitalisation has been a great promise on the political stage. It would be a disaster if it turns out to be an empty one—and the much-vaunted possibilities for self-determination result in more insecurity, alienation and inequality.

This is part of a series on the Transformation of Work supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Oliver Suchy

Oliver Suchy is head of the Digital Workplaces and Workplace Reporting department of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), with a focus on shaping artificial-intelligence systems for good work.

You are here: Home / Politics / Mind the gap

Most Popular Posts

Russia,information war Russia is winning the information warAiste Merfeldaite
Nanterre,police Nanterre and the suburbs: the lid comes offJoseph Downing
Russia,nuclear Russia’s dangerous nuclear consensusAna Palacio
Belarus,Lithuania A tale of two countries: Belarus and LithuaniaThorvaldur Gylfason and Eduard Hochreiter
retirement,Finland,ageing,pension,reform Late retirement: possible for many, not for allKati Kuitto

Most Recent Posts

Ukraine,fatigue Ukraine’s cause: momentum is diminishingStefan Wolff and Tetyana Malyarenko
Vienna,social housing Vienna social-housing model: celebrated but misusedGabu Heindl
social democracy,nation-state Social democracy versus the nativist rightJan Zielonka
chemical,European Union Which comes first—Big Toxics’ profits or health?Vicky Cann
Russia,journalists,Ukraine,target Ukraine: journalists in Russia’s sightsKelly Bjorkland and Simon Smith

Other Social Europe Publications

strategic autonomy Strategic autonomy
Bildschirmfoto 2023 05 08 um 21.36.25 scaled 1 RE No. 13: Failed Market Approaches to Long-Term Care
front cover Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship

ETUI advertisement

The future of remote work

The 12 chapters collected in this volume provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the impact and the future trajectories of remote work, from the nexus between the location from where work is performed and how it is performed to how remote locations may affect the way work is managed and organised, as well as the applicability of existing legislation. Additional questions concern remote work’s environmental and social impact and the rapidly changing nature of the relationship between work and life.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound Talks: does Europe have the skills it needs for a changing economy?

In this episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound’s research manager, Tina Weber, its senior research manager, Gijs van Houten, and Giovanni Russo, senior expert at CEDEFOP (The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), about Europe’s skills challenges and what can be done to help workers and businesses adapt to future skills demands.

Listen where you get your podcasts, or for free, by clicking on the link below


LISTEN HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The summer issue of the Progressive Post magazine by FEPS is out!

The Special Coverage of this new edition is dedicated to the importance of biodiversity, not only as a good in itself but also for the very existence of humankind. We need a paradigm change in the mostly utilitarian relation humans have with nature.

In this issue, we also look at the hazards of unregulated artificial intelligence, explore the shortcomings of the EU's approach to migration and asylum management, and analyse the social downside of the EU's current ethnically-focused Roma policy.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI European Collective Bargaining Report 2022 / 2023

With real wages falling by 4 per cent in 2022, workers in the European Union suffered an unprecedented loss in purchasing power. The reason for this was the rapid increase in consumer prices, behind which nominal wage growth fell significantly. Meanwhile, inflation is no longer driven by energy import prices, but by domestic factors. The increased profit margins of companies are a major reason for persistent inflation. In this difficult environment, trade unions are faced with the challenge of securing real wages—and companies have the responsibility of making their contribution to returning to the path of political stability by reducing excess profits.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube