Essay on digitalization of work, Tesine universitarie di Diritto del Lavoro

Scarica Essay on digitalization of work e più Tesine universitarie in PDF di Diritto del Lavoro solo su Docsity! Antonutti Lisa- 967519 Economic and social regulation of the global workforce (2020/2021)- Professor Lisa Dorigatti Essay topic: The main impacts of the digitalisation of the economy on employment relationships Technology is having an outstanding impact on the world of employment. Now more than ever, the world of work is constantly changing and we are now living in what has been referred to as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. Artificial intelligence already exists among us in our everyday lives, and whilst they are predicted to take some human jobs, they still need humans to control and program them: the debate on the digitalization effects on employment relations is far from closed. If anything, it has just been open for discussion. Simply starting from definitions: Digitalization is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.* The digitization of work is not a subject that can be easily exhausted in a few words, but it is possible to trace its general lines, because it takes, first of all, a double path in the "moving" of the work into the digital world. The first of these displacements concerns the workforce strictly understood: therefore, digitization means the passage of work from being completed by human hands to being accomplished through robotization and automation. The second move is to be understood physically: the work is completed online (intemet-based business models). A complete discussion leads to consider the 4 areas on which the greatest change is imposed: 1. How do we understand the work and the worker-employer relationship > Freelancing and avoidance of the employment relationship 2. Who will perform the job + Automation (job substitution/technological unemployment) 3. How will work be carried out > Changing work processes (Discussion between two ideas: employees will be mere executors of the machines’ will or employees will take up more “intelligent tasks”), Blurring of the boundary between work and life 4. How will employers manage performance monitoring + Monitoring and managerial control 1.The new way of conceptualizing work is defined as “gig economy”: a labour market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. A significantly large cohort of populations works in the fastest-growing segment of the gig economy known as The Human Cloud. The labour market so conceived is that of self-employed workers that are paid to do short-term freelance tasks. Some fear that the outsourcing of digital-service jobs from Western countries to developing nations could result in a global drop in wages. In wealthier countries, some workers see the gig economy as a legitimate threat, and not as an opportunity. Many online platforms, intermediaries between customers and gig workers, don't limit the number of freelances that work in a day. This can swamp the market, enhancing competition and cutting earnings. But the fundamental complaint arising is that regarding basic employment rights such as sick pay and job protections that are denied to most gig economy workers. For example, talking about the delivery job workers: they don't have any ability to set the price of their labour, they don't have any ability to negotiate with the client and they have next to zero protection. The union of delivery workers is mounting legal challenges against large companies operating in the gig economy (see the movement of strike and protest of delivery workers in Italy at the end of March 2021)?. 2.The image of a relentlessly efficient employee, that works 24/7 without complaints poses a threat in the mind of many people. However, a growing body of research suggests artificial intelligence and machines could create at least as many jobs as they displace. One report estimates that while 75 million jobs will be lost globally by 2022, there could be 133 million new ones?. One of the reasons some experts and economists are sceptical about robots taking over the workforce is that this discussion has happened before. There was a spike in automation anxiety in the late 20s, early 1930s when machines were starting to replace jobs on farms and also in factories. Automation anxiety surged again in the late 19505, early 1960s. During this period, technology displaced farmers, factory workers, railroad workers, telephone operators, gas-pumpers, elevator attendants, travel agents and the list goes on. Yet, human-led work persisted. The key economic logic here is: automation does indeed displace workers who are doing work that got automated, but it doesn't affect the total number of jobs in the economy because of these offsetting effects. While technology eliminates some jobs by automatizing them, it creates some other form of employment as well. This doesn't mean that the new jobs will show up right away or that they'll be located in the same place or pay the same wage as the ones that were lost. All it means is that the overall need for human work hasn"t gone away. Of course, not everyone shares this idea: for some other researchers, times now are different, so the outcomes of this wave of automation might be as well. The Iynchpin of this side of the argument can be summarized as follows: the wealth that technology creates isn't necessarily shared with workers. ! Definition provided by the “Gartner Dictionary” (online version) ? https:/Awww.wantedinrome.com/news/no-delivery-day-in-italy-as-riders-strike-for-rights.html # Source of the data: World Economic Forum (2018)