Europe has no more time.
Alejandro Blanco
Bringing together representatives from governments, industry, academia, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders in Europe, they have concluded that digital skills development is necessary to close the current gap, strengthen Europe and win the future.
We live in a smart and connected world. According to Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the number of Internet-connected devices already exceeds the total number of people on the planet. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be more than 50 billion connected products. This phenomenon is not just about individual uses. We are talking about smart homes, smart cities, driverless cars and even smart factories in what has been called Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution.
Digital technologies are opening the world to European companies and launching Europe powerfully into global markets, competing more efficiently.
With the recent escalation of the new digital revolution, governments, businesses, and educational institutions, need to change their approaches to education, skills development, employability of citizens, developing new models of education and training or even new institutions in the labour market.
Therefore, “Europe has no more time”. Failing now to deal with the tsunami of the new digital revolution pushing the industry, in general, can have dire effects at the EU, national and regional levels, re-launching unemployment and assuming the loss of the benefit to economies of harnessing it.
Advanced economies have shown a correlation between the development of a Digital Economy and GDP. According to the World Economic Forum, a 10% increase in a country’s digitisation rate generates an increase of almost one point in GDP per capita and a decrease of just over one point in the unemployment rate. This is an opportunity that cannot be missed in countries and regions with clear room for improvement. Few bets on improving the welfare of citizens seem safer.
The debate is, therefore, about who will lose or win that future in terms of who will be willing to take advantage of this unstoppable tsunami.
None of the professions we know today will be left out of the necessary development of digital skills. Some professions will disappear, and others will be created as new ones or as a transformation of existing ones, but all those we know today have already been affected.
The EU warns that from 2020, we will have almost 800,000 unfilled jobs due to a lack of digital skills. Only quality training, with a market focus and a vision of the future, can guarantee a professional future already affected by this revolution.
The smart specialisation policies implemented at the regional level will encourage the development of projects and initiatives linked to the idea of Industry 4.0, which represents an unbeatable opportunity for regional industries to surf this wave.
It is a great opportunity for companies, students and workers, which will help to move towards this new value-added industry that requires professionals with the right skills, but do these professionals exist?
The challenge for this new industrial revolution will lie in the development of software, massive data analysis systems and their storage, the incorporation of sensors and electronics in the elements that interact in the production processes and the products derived from them, and the availability of information for better and more accurate decision-making, such as ERP and CRM.
The implementation of Industry 4.0 is a heterogeneous and interdisciplinary subject in which the fields of mechanics, instrumentation, industrial computing, communications and information management systems are intertwined, generating new needs. Therefore, professionals will be required to meet them. And this technology will only be effective if it improves the productivity and results of the companies that adopt it.
An appropriate training process removes the main barriers limiting companies’ access to ICTs. On the one hand, the benefits of technologies in their professional application are identified, recognising the benefits for the business, and providing greater value to the company as professionals from the development of applied technological skills.
On the other hand, knowledge of tools and solutions eliminates inefficiencies in the processes of adopting new management and organisational systems, which can be complex. It reduces internal resistance to adopting new ways of working.
Source: https://industria4.es/formacion/europa-no-tiene-mas-tiempo/
040 November 2022
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionEurope has no more time.
Alejandro Blanco
Bringing together representatives from governments, industry, academia, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders in Europe, they have concluded that digital skills development is necessary to close the current gap, strengthen Europe and win the future.
We live in a smart and connected world. According to Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the number of Internet-connected devices already exceeds the total number of people on the planet. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be more than 50 billion connected products. This phenomenon is not just about individual uses. We are talking about smart homes, smart cities, driverless cars and even smart factories in what has been called Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution.
Digital technologies are opening the world to European companies and launching Europe powerfully into global markets, competing more efficiently.
With the recent escalation of the new digital revolution, governments, businesses, and educational institutions, need to change their approaches to education, skills development, employability of citizens, developing new models of education and training or even new institutions in the labour market.
Therefore, “Europe has no more time”. Failing now to deal with the tsunami of the new digital revolution pushing the industry, in general, can have dire effects at the EU, national and regional levels, re-launching unemployment and assuming the loss of the benefit to economies of harnessing it.
Advanced economies have shown a correlation between the development of a Digital Economy and GDP. According to the World Economic Forum, a 10% increase in a country’s digitisation rate generates an increase of almost one point in GDP per capita and a decrease of just over one point in the unemployment rate. This is an opportunity that cannot be missed in countries and regions with clear room for improvement. Few bets on improving the welfare of citizens seem safer.
The debate is, therefore, about who will lose or win that future in terms of who will be willing to take advantage of this unstoppable tsunami.
None of the professions we know today will be left out of the necessary development of digital skills. Some professions will disappear, and others will be created as new ones or as a transformation of existing ones, but all those we know today have already been affected.
The EU warns that from 2020, we will have almost 800,000 unfilled jobs due to a lack of digital skills. Only quality training, with a market focus and a vision of the future, can guarantee a professional future already affected by this revolution.
The smart specialisation policies implemented at the regional level will encourage the development of projects and initiatives linked to the idea of Industry 4.0, which represents an unbeatable opportunity for regional industries to surf this wave.
It is a great opportunity for companies, students and workers, which will help to move towards this new value-added industry that requires professionals with the right skills, but do these professionals exist?
The challenge for this new industrial revolution will lie in the development of software, massive data analysis systems and their storage, the incorporation of sensors and electronics in the elements that interact in the production processes and the products derived from them, and the availability of information for better and more accurate decision-making, such as ERP and CRM.
The implementation of Industry 4.0 is a heterogeneous and interdisciplinary subject in which the fields of mechanics, instrumentation, industrial computing, communications and information management systems are intertwined, generating new needs. Therefore, professionals will be required to meet them. And this technology will only be effective if it improves the productivity and results of the companies that adopt it.
An appropriate training process removes the main barriers limiting companies’ access to ICTs. On the one hand, the benefits of technologies in their professional application are identified, recognising the benefits for the business, and providing greater value to the company as professionals from the development of applied technological skills.
On the other hand, knowledge of tools and solutions eliminates inefficiencies in the processes of adopting new management and organisational systems, which can be complex. It reduces internal resistance to adopting new ways of working.
Source: https://industria4.es/formacion/europa-no-tiene-mas-tiempo/
039 November 2022
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionResistance to change and lack training, the main obstacles to digital transformation
Some experts argue that people are reluctant to change, learn and innovate due to their “psychological inertia”, which implies a lack of willingness to change because human beings are always programmed to be tied to a status quo.
This immobility also implies the impossibility for people, if guided by their habits, to perform better, better or more efficiently.
Their research concludes that the judgements and generalisations people make in their minds become the main barriers to change, learning and innovation. Both blind us to the possibilities and opportunities and prevent us from reaping the benefits of change, learning and innovation, both individually and collectively.
The main issue behind judgements is universality. Assuming that everyone will have the same response to any event or reality. In other words, judging the values of any person equally.
Since judgement is universal, it exists independently of its subject. The judging person indicates whether something is “good or bad” and does not delve into reality, objectivity and options for change, learning as innovation.
038 April 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionSocial dialogue and tripartism
In all the ILO’s activities the cooperation between governments and employers’ and workers’ organizations is essential to fostering social and economic progress. Dialogue between the government and the two social partners promotes consensus building and democratic participation of key actors in the world of work. The ILO is the only tripartite agency of the United Nations, bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers to jointly design labour standards, policies and programmes. Social dialogue can mean negotiation, consultation or simply an exchange of information and views between representatives of governments, employers and workers.
037 April 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionDecent work and the Sustainable Development Goals
During the UN General Assembly in September 2015, decent work and the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda – employment creation, social protection, rights at work, and social dialogue – became integral elements of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Goal 8 of the 2030 Agenda calls for the promotion of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work, and will be a key area of engagement for the ILO and its constituents. Furthermore, key aspects of decent work are widely embedded in the targets of many of the other 16 goals of the UN’s new development vision.
Leaders’ statements and action plans of the G20 , G7, EU, African Union and other multilateral and regional bodies also confirm the significance of decent work to crisis recovery and sustainable development.
036 May 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionDecent work
Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda
Productive employment and decent work are key elements to achieving a fair globalization and poverty reduction. The ILO has developed an agenda for the community of work looking at job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue, with gender equality as a crosscutting objective.
There has been an increased urgency among international policy-makers, particularly in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008, to deliver quality jobs along with social protection and respect for rights at work to achieve sustainable, inclusive economic growth, and eliminate poverty.
035 October 2022
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Trade Unions TransitionThe crisis tests the soul of companies
Unlike what happened in the Great Recession, the lifeline of the States has made it possible to withstand the blow of the crisis. However, more and more voices demand that companies change their attitude
And suddenly, a new opportunity for a different way of understanding the economy. The irruption of the coronavirus, a variable that no one had in their schemes, has stripped the discourse of those who believe —or did they believe?— that the market would be the balm of Fierabrás, the Cervantine cure for all ills: States have proven to be, ultimately, the last containment dams against a crisis that could have unleashed a real social earthquake. It is early to declare victory, but the step forward of the public powers in the West has avoided an earthquake with unforeseeable consequences: although inequality has risen, the employment maintenance programs (ERTE, in its Spanish version) have contained the blow to millions of families; aid and bailouts for companies have prevented an unprecedented destruction of the productive fabric; European funds, a new scheme unthinkable just a year ago, promise a more social way out of the crisis. The man for himself of a decade ago, in short, has no place today.
All the weight of the crisis has fallen on a single shoulders: those of the Administrations. The most liberal went to bed allergic to the public and woke up Keynesians, and the voices against the unprecedented fiscal and massive response have been silenced. But the “spend as much as you can”, the guideline of the IMF managing director herself – for decades guardian of the essence of orthodoxy – cannot be indefinite. The day will come, not too late, when governments will have to start limiting their use of checkbooks. And it will be at that moment, when the ERTE ends and the period in which companies can lay off again opens, when it will be seen if the sensitivity of the private sector is also again this time.
The consequences of the crisis will be felt for years. The long shadow of the States will be greater than before the virus, with inherited stakes in strategic companies and with hands freer than ever to develop an industrial policy that has been conspicuous by its absence in recent decades. And it will be, above all, the time when it will be shown if that bombastic slogan of “inclusive capitalism” is here to stay or if it is just another marketing campaign. “In the short term, the objective of companies is to survive and in this context it is logical that this is the case, but in the long run what matters is getting out of the rut in a socially and environmentally respectful way”, outlines Daniel Arenas, coordinator of the Group of Research on Corporate Social Responsibility at Esade, which recalls that today, unlike a few years ago.
To read the full article: https://www.saludymedicina.org/post/la-crisis-pone-a-prueba-el-alma-de-las-empresas
034 October 2022
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Trade Unions TransitionTrade unions in Europe in 2021
European trade unions are well aware of their loss of membership and influence due to the austerity policies implemented after the 2008 crisis and the rise of the new economy, which has accelerated precariousness.
A study published by the Primero de Mayo Foundation, Un futuro sombrío: estudio de la afiliación sindical en Europa desde 2000, acknowledges the existence of “an almost permanent and unequivocal trend towards de-unionisation”. The paper by Kurt Vandaele elaborates on the need to defend workers’ rights in new scenarios, such as the platform economy and their new role in a just transition, to remain “a countervailing power both in the labour market and in society”.
In Spain, the challenge facing trade unions affects fundamental workers’ rights. Their weakness due to lack of representativeness is less decisive; however, compared to employers’ organisations, they are more uncertain. In any case, the agreements between the government, trade unions and employers, such as the one reached between the Ministry of Labour, the employers’ associations CEOE and Cepyme, CC OO and UGT, on the rights of workers on the platforms, constitute a basis of stability in the face of the process of political radicalization.
The trade unions bear the brunt of recovering the rights lost by the People’s Party labour reform in 2012, as the EU demands. Repealing that reform essentially means restoring the unions’ power in collective bargaining. The reform established the prevalence of company-level agreements (which generally set worse conditions) over higher-level sectoral agreements. The change weakened protection for many workers.
Europe is trying to correct its mistakes. Collective bargaining, which involves agreeing on core working conditions between unions and employers, is once again on the outside. Professor Antonio Baylos has highlighted, in Modernisation and reform of the industrial relations system, “the revitalisation of collective bargaining that the EU is promoting in a very powerful way, especially through the proposed directive on the European minimum wage and the promotion of collective bargaining”. The recovery of trade union power is vital to revive the economy, as Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz explains in Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy. The American economist advocates strengthening trade unions with more responsibilities. He warns that “decentralisation of collective bargaining weakens the bargaining power of workers”.
Stiglitz points out that “in Ireland, Eastern and Southern European countries, decentralisation has gone even lower, down to the enterprise level. The troika’s strategy for recovery was internal devaluation, which required wages to fall. Companies and governments were pressured to weaken trade unions”. He recalls that “unfortunately, these changes did not lead to improved competitiveness, growth and employment”.
The trade unions are reliable allies who are once again indispensable in these turbulent times in Spain and Europe.
Source: https://elpais.com/economia/2021-03-29/los-sindicatos-en-la-europa-de-2021.html
033 September 2022
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Trade Unions TransitionWhere do trade unions stand now?
Trade union membership worldwide has been going down over time, despite a number of bright spots in certain African or Latin American countries where membership increased. Different factors come into play in this overall decrease: Think of the shift from manufacturing to service jobs, the outsourcing of unionized jobs, the informalization of the economy and the changing employment relationship, and automation.
In fact, trade union membership is lower for people in non-standard or precarious types of employment, such as temporary and own-account workers or workers in the informal and gig economy.
Furthermore, legal restrictions and violations of trade union rights, such as the right to organize and to bargain collectively, are widespread. This affects trade unions’ ability to organize, to represent and to service workers. Not surprisingly, trade union membership is lower there where there are violations of trade union rights.
Source: https://www.ilo.org/infostories/es-ES/Stories/Labour-Relations/trade-unions#where
032 September 2022
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Trade Unions TransitionTrade unions during the COVID-19 pandemic
Whereas the pandemic has laid bare the many dimensions of decent work deficits in the world of work, workers have also relied on trade unions to enhance job and income security, and access to social protection.
Despite all the restrictions during the pandemic, trade unions assisted workers and their families in different ways, ranging from legal advice, setting up of emergency funds, awareness-raising campaigns, modified training programmes and advocacy on recognition of COVID-19 as employment injury, to the use of social media.
Around 80% of countries worldwide used social dialogue, tripartite and/or bipartite, as part of the response to the COVID-19 crisis. The most frequent topics of negotiation have been social protection and employment measures, industrial relations, occupational safety and health (OSH), and fiscal measures.
Trade unions have found innovative ways to reach out to new members and contribute to crisis responses through social dialogue. Here are two examples.
Swedish trade unions
Swedish trade unions have attracted new members after successfully negotiating with retail employers to avoid lay-offs and protect workers’ wages during the crisis.
While many organizing activities have been put on hold, the unions have continued to reach out to new members over telephone and through social media.
Georgian Trade Unions Confederation
During the pandemic, the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation campaigned to help informal workers meet eligibility criteria and enhance the digital literacy they need to access governmental crisis support.
Source: https://www.ilo.org/infostories/es-ES/Stories/Labour-Relations/trade-unions#wher
031 August 2022
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Trade Unions TransitionEmployees or freelancers? The European Union seeks to regulate hiring on digital platforms
Faced with the growing rise of digital delivery platforms, the European Commission wants hiring models like those already implemented in Spain or the United Kingdom to work for the entire 27-nation EU community bloc.
The Commission has launched a proposal along these lines, according to a draft document published by Reuters, which clarifies that the essence of the initiative is to classify those who work for these platforms as employees and not freelancers.
The document estimates that some 15 companies would be involved in the measure, which must pass through the legislative process in the European Parliament and which the authorities do not see as real before 2025.
The new rules would establish five criteria for determining when a worker on a digital platform is considered an employee. For example, whether the company determines their pay, sets standards of conduct and appearance, monitors work performance through electronic means, restricts their ability to choose their working hours or tasks and prevents them from working for third parties.
According to the paper, companies would be considered employers if they meet two of these criteria.
The European Trade Union Confederation Institute (ETUI) has already denounced the “amount of unpaid work” it says employees on digital platforms, such as home-delivery apps, are doing.
Some countries have already taken the lead
In a series of setbacks for online platforms, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled in February that Uber drivers are entitled to be paid a minimum wage, while a Spanish court said last year that delivery drivers for food delivery app Glovo were employees rather than self-employed.
The new proposal comes as several countries and European courts attempt to address this industry’s shortcomings. Judges, in most cases, back the premise that their workers have the same labour rights as those who work in a factory.
The exception is Belgium. On 11 December, a labour court ruled that Deliveroo delivery drivers cannot be reclassified as employees with contracts representing company tax and social security obligations.
In relation to the possible new regulation, Bolt, an Estonian ride-sharing and food delivery company, said that “one in two drivers will lose their job, which is equivalent to at least 140,000 people across the European Union”.
Deliveroo expressed the same concerns. “These proposals will increase uncertainty and will be better for lawyers than for self-employed platform workers,” a spokesperson for the company said.
Sources: Reuters and EFE