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BackRudi Kaske: Active involvement needed to address digital change
In his address, the President of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour, Rudi Kaske, made it clear that digitalisation would change our conventional definition of work and workplace relations. Digitalisation would bring massive changes, for example by new business models such as Uber or Airbnb, in particular in the service industry. Against the background of Industry 4.0, Kaske also addressed fundamental issues of welfare state funding and the necessity of well-developed systems of co-determination. New forms of working, for example crowd working, would cause both to alter. The phenomenon of crowd working would clearly show which reforms workers too would be faced with and how important it was to further develop our labour standards. Hence, the question would be as to how we deal with these new forms of employment. It was necessary, said Kaske in his concluding words to play an active part in their development and to create new regulations.
Martin Risak: Crowd workers need fair working conditions
Professor Martin Risak defined crowd working as a new form of organising work, which is not based on stable relationships with individual contractual partners, but centred on the fact that a large number of potential contractual partners, the so-called crowd, would be available and that there would always be someone, who would carry out the work required in a timely manner. The commercial application of this organisation model is the so-called crowdsourcing: activities, which were originally carried out by individual contractual partners, normally workers, are being outsourced. Due to the fact that this work would take place in a virtual space it would not matter whether crowd workers were sitting round the corner or on the other side of the world. This would make it possible to access without any additional cost a worldwide pool of workers, who would be available round the clock and who would ensure that without stable workplace relations there was always a sufficient number of people at work. In this context, Risak finally demanded that strategies will be developed - firstly to ensure that crowd workers would also benefit from fair working conditions and secondly that regular workplace relations would not come under pressure and to prevent working conditions from being eroded any further.
Stefan Körzell: Helping to shape digitalisation in the interest of workers
Stefan Körzell, Member of the Executive Board of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) pointed out that we have been living in a digitalised world for years and that the trade unions were entitled to develop this process. There were concerns that digitalisation would be used to launch an assault against employment protection, as it was happening in Germany just now. However, in contrast a certain degree of success had been achieved: due to intensive efforts, trade unions were successful in making the eCommerce giant Amazon to set up work councils. Apart from the question of co-determination, other key issues were wages and social security obligations. However, in order to drive forward co-determination, social dialogue also had to be developed at European level, whereby the question had to be addressed as to how the co-determination rights of work councils could be supported by European rules. Apart from that, trade unions also had to be accessible to and support new groups of workers in digitalised professions. Trade unions had to and already were in the process of learning from each other across borders when dealing with these new challenges.
Nicolas Schmit: Moving away from the ideal world of the Neoliberals towards social dialogue
The Luxembourg Minister for Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy and current President of the EU Council Nicolas Schmit pointed out that the new challenges of the labour market would require new rules, which had to be worked out by social partners, Commission and EU Member States. At the same time, the digital sector would represent an opportunity and the development of a digital single market could strengthen the EU's economic position in the world. Particularly in respect of tax issues, one would need regulations and cooperation at international level, for example with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), but also with the US Government, with whom one would currently only discuss a trade agreement and investments, but not social issues. Concerning these questions, the position of the Commission was way too much influenced by the interests of the industry, due to which it would ignore people’s needs. Following this period of neoliberal thinking, the social dialogue would have to be prioritised again to organise the “digital transition” both better and fairer. This should be achieved by improved education/training and co-determination rights.
Erich Foglar: EU acceptance depending on social question
The President of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) Foglar criticised the current orientation of the EU. The big peace project was reduced to acting as a magic hood for the implementation of the free trade area. The EU was increasingly reduced to basic economic freedoms. “The EU will fail if it remains a pure economic union.” He demanded the equal status of fundamental social rights to be embedded in EU Treaties. He thereby referred to a joint initiative of Austrian, German and Swedish trade unions, which decided in cooperation with their country’s Social Democratic Parties to demand a Social Progress Protocol. The trade unions will not agree to a future treaty amendment, which does not include a Social Progress Protocol. Based on such a protocol, the fundamental social rights within the EU shall be embedded in the treaties and carry at least the same weight as the fundamental economic freedoms. In view of the demands of the British Prime Minister David Cameron, this situation might occur faster than some imagine.
Wolfgang Münchau: Within the framework of current treaties, the EU it a neoliberal project
The economic commentator Wolfgang Münchau welcomed the optimism of President Foglar with regard to the renegotiation of social rights in EU Treaties: so far, one had only succeeded at national level to effectively embed fundamental and labour rights. It reminded him of many who had been far too optimistic prior to the introduction of the euro, thinking that changes could be made at a later date. However, now one had to live with a fait accompli: both ECB and convergence criteria were already part of the euro architecture; however, in contrast a social and fiscal union still had not been implemented.