DATA and digitisation are changing the way we work and Scottish trade unions are today looking to Scandinavia to help them adapt for the digital age.
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) is hosting an international conference in Glasgow exploring strategies for dealing with technological change in the workplace.
Behind Closed Circuits will also consider how new technology can influence the jobs of the future.
The keynote speaker will be Mathias Askholm, of the Danish union HK – with 275,000 members Denmark’s biggest union for salaried employees – who will present work on establishing an “innovation lab” which helps design future jobs for members.
It uses big data to predict which members and potential members the union should be engaging with, depending on changes in the labour market.
Askholm said: “Unions often complain that jobs will be lost as a result of technological change, and they usually have in mind the jobs where they have high numbers of members.
“But HK and other unions in Denmark and across Scandinavia are investing in technologies to ensure that unions continue to grow and support workers in the new areas of the economy that are expanding like never before.
“Already we are seeing promising signs … and I am delighted to be sharing our insights with movement leaders in Scotland.”
App-driven work in the gig economy, such Deliveroo and Uber, will also come under inspection, as will Amazon, where technology-based control systems dominate.
The conference will address whether automation and data-driven innovation will undermine an economy built on full, regular employment. Last year an STUC report suggested the impact of technological change will depend on workers developing forms of collective control.
STUC assistant general secretary, Helen Martin, added: “We are aware that the decline in union membership is in part a result of changes in technology, which often reduce staff numbers in workplaces where unions have a strong presence, and expanding jobs in areas where unions are less active.
“Correcting these trends will not happen with the push of a button, but learning from our counterparts in Denmark about the investment and movement-leading innovation they are introducing will help us to focus on how to reform and prepare for the future.
“This conference gives Scottish trade unions the insight to lead the way in advancing the interests of millions of workers in every sector of the economy affected by data-driven change and digitalisation.”
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