New technologies and employment

OPINION (1)

Doc. 7727
16 January 1997

Rapporteur: Baroness Gloria HOOPER, United Kingdom, European Democratic Group

Introduction

The motion for a recommendation (Doc. 7437) stressed the relevance of this subject to the formulation of social policy. The Committee on Science and Technology has taken it very much into account in the preparation of its wide ranging report. In particular we can note the contribution of Mr Lasfargue to the Lyon hearing on 17 October 1996 on the impact of new technologies on labour and employment.

It is perhaps necessary to point out that the subject under discussion is restricted to employment and is not that of the general impact of new technologies on society. On the other hand we should admit that the new information technologies have gone a considerable way to breaking down the traditional distinctions between work and non-work. The consequences of this for social policy shall therefore be considered.

General considerations

This debate on the implications of new technologies on employment is not new. It began with the invention of the wheel and has continued with the discovery of electricity. It has been given new impetus in recent years with the massive advances of information technologies.

In historical terms the impact of new technologies on the quality of employment has tended to be positive in the long term. But the quantitative effect has been more uncertain. Some have lost their jobs, but many more, and the community at large, have usually profited.

New technologies can have different social effects. It can be useful to distinguish between new technologies that are of technological significance but have little or no effect on society (eg electronic microscope) and those which have a profound impact on society (eg air travel). Another category of new technologies is of those that appeal to only part of society and lead to the exclusion of others (eg Internet).

Different cultures react to new technologies in different ways. Thus the United Kingdom was able to adapt more quickly than France to the deep freeze and microwave.

New technologies can only partially replace the human worker (eg a person at the check-out in the supermarket also helps deter shop-lifting) and can generate parallel employment (eg help-lines for computers).

The areas of social policy involved

From the position of social policy we should be interested in three main areas of change: in professional activity, in social relationships related to work and in certain parallel factors.

The main changes in professional activity resulting from new technologies are:

• employment: increase in the unemployment rate in Europe due to relocation of firms or industrial production elsewhere

• technological (eg emergence of new professions such as computer servicing)

• commercial: closer relations between stores and suppliers, stores and customers

• organisational (eg requirement for computer literacy)

• professions: the new technologies have broken down barriers between professions that have often been for centuries separate (eg goldsmiths and stonemasons) or more recently combined (eg car industry now composed of metal workers, chemists, electronics experts and mainly salesmen)

• legal: a new field of case law is developing

• social: obsolescence of the traditional role of the usual social partners: trade unions and employers' organisations.

With regard to social relationships:

• work is increasingly abstract and interactive

• new criteria should be developed for the measurement of work: the introduction of new technologies is rendering obsolete working methods and collective agreements based on 19th century notions of work and work-time

• with increasing commercial contact everyone is involved in success or failure

• increasing vulnerability to break-downs: some people are better than others at dealing with crisis situations

• distance working: the work-place is extending to the home (eg with modems) and can be entirely flexible (eg with the mobile telephone); firms are developing virtual work-teams of persons who may never meet each other.

There are also certain parallel social factors to be considered:

• the effects on the family of increased possibilities of working at home (especially in developing countries or regions)

• health (eg recognition of stress).

Short and medium term measures

The short-term problems arising from new technologies are already known and implemented in national strategies against the effects of unemployment.

Certain general principles can be noted:

• need for exchange of information at national and European levels

• encouragement of mobility and possibilities for retraining

• for the unemployed, a sufficient level of benefit to maintain standards and of care to avoid the risk of social exclusion.

And in the long term

Education and training. With new technologies people need increasingly detailed training for the specific fields in which they are working. They will also need adaptability and in particular the ability to learn and relearn new professional skills at later stages in their career.

Initial basic education should as a result be more broad and should bridge the gap between science and the humanities. From the outset the possibility of continued retraining should be envisaged as an aspect of working life and a positive attitude to retraining for alternative employment encouraged.

The increased mobility of the labour force and work opportunities in other countries, eg under the freedom of establishment and freedom of movement provisions of the EU, emphasise the importance of language learning as part of basic education.

Further work should be expected in the legal and health fields. For example how far can stress or confusion affecting computer users be recognised as a work-related illness?

Work should also be done on the calculation of the fair remuneration of work done in new conditions made possible in particular by the new information technologies (the new cottage industries).

In conclusion we can recall the principle set out in the original motion (Doc 7437) that social policies should concentrate on developing technologies that create jobs rather than those that may lead to job losses.

Proposed amendments to the draft recommendation in Doc 7713

Para 1: reword the final sentence to read "However, the dynamic ... are complex: the quality of employment has tended to improve but the quantitative effect has been more uncertain".

Para 8: add at the end "A general principle should however be to concentrate on developing technologies that create jobs rather than those that may lead to job losses".

Add after para 9 (ii) three new sub-paragraphs:

• "ensure that basic education bridges the gap between the sciences and the humanities, concentrates on abilities to learn and encourages a positive attitude to retraining for alternative employment"

• "adapt health infrastructures to the evolution of illnesses, such as stress, related to the new technologies"

• "revise legislation relating to employment conditions and pay in order to take account of the impact in particular of new information and communication technologies on working conditions (the new cottage industries)".

At the end of para 9 (iii) replace "technological and social development" by "technological development and the maintenance or improvement of social standards".

Reporting committee: Committee on Science and Technology (Doc. 7713)

Committee for opinion: Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee

Reference to committee: Doc. 7437 and Reference No. 2049 of 10 January 1996

Opinion approved by the committee on 7 January 1997

Secretaries to the committee: Ms Coin and Ms Meunier

Note: 1by the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee