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The ethical aspects of work in the digital age (Industry 4.0)

From 22 to 24 November 2017 took place in Brussels a seminar about “The ethical aspects of work in the digital age (Industry 4.0)”, organized by ACLI - ENAIP (Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani - Ente Nazionale ACLI Istruzione Professionale), with the support of EZA and of the European Union. The seminar was part of the EZA project coordination about “The impact of the digital world of work on the life of workers and their families – socio-ethical considerations”. 67 representatives of workers’ organisations from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, UK, Poland, Spain, Switzerland (as guests), Bulgaria, Argentina (as guests) and the USA (as guests) attended the seminar.

The meeting took place in the furrow laid down by the Goteborg Social Summit (17 November 2017), in which the Heads of State and Government of the European countries indicated the principles and guidelines they intend to follow for the implementation of a social policy in Europe that takes into account the crisis situations we have seen in recent years.

The theme of digitization, which pervades every aspect of the life of European citizens nowadays, is summarized in the formula "Industry 4.0" to signify the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

That issue is central, in the reflection on the Social Pillar of the European Union, as it will involve a disruption of the paradigm based on work and wages, and the replacement of at least 7 million workers with a mechanical-automated equivalent.

A strictly national discussion of this process is impossible. Once again, the European dimension is the minimum dimension in which debate can take place, to face problems and develop solutions.

EZA Vice President Jozef Mozolewski and National President ACLI Roberto Rossini have explicitly addressed the work asking not to forget the human being behind the digitalized/robotized world (Mozolewski) and that it is necessary to implement instruments and systems to preserve the dignity of the workers (Rossini).

The experts who followed have highlighted how the challenge of Industry 4.0 requires a multidisciplinary and supranational approach, as the dimension of the change is epochal (for example, Luca Jahier: not all territories will be able to be reconverted, transforming themselves from big capitals of industry into digital cities, as it will not be easy for all citizens to re-invent themselves to integrate themselves in this transformation), and touches all the dimensions of the person (Markus Vennewald: the work has always been an instrument of integration of the individual into society, while nowadays it is not so, due to the increase in inequality and the risk of the lack of social security that has always been founded on job security).

The speed of digitization of the world of work makes urgent these issues, in 2017 the public opinion have focused the social implications connected with digitization and the ACLI contributed to the public discussion. In an age of misinformation and fake news, it was important to discuss with politicians, academics and experts to learn the-state-of-the-art. First of all, this has been important to share experiences, reflections and instruments that will allow the participants of the Seminar to be active protagonists (or at least informed citizens) of the public debate that is already taking place in every country.

Each passage of age presents a reality to be governed (Nicola Danti) and the European Union has the merit of having kept the themes of work and of the fundamental rights of people high, even in this age of change and of very strong pressures from outside. Even more in the immediate future, only in a European dimension that embraces also the Third Sector and the trade unions it will be possible to continue to resist the centrifugal drive of digitization, as to counteract foreign models that today appear more dynamic (like the US or the Chinese one). A few years remain, to Europe, to re-invent itself and to fix those standards that are the core of its historical task.

The theme of digitization and Industry 4.0 directly invests the world of work, the world of welfare, the organizational aspects of human life and the very configuration of society through places and spaces for production, training and leisure. Some examples of this transformation are the digital platforms (such as Amazon, Uber, AirBnB), which the European Union constantly monitors in order to intervene, if necessary, with regulation, and the ever-increasing mobility and precariousness of the professions due to free contracts -lance, telecommuting, absence of time constraints and freedom of self-organization. The impact of digitization will affect and increasingly affect labor organizations, be they associations or trade unions, atomising workers and making collective protection impossible to assure.

The picture that emerged from the reports was composite but unitary. All the speakers, each for their own area of expertise and for the assigned theme, have contributed to propose ideas and reflections on the theme of Industry 4.0, raising topics, problems, critical issues and objectives that realistically the associations of the Third Sector and the politics should be called to face. The theme of politics is mentioned in the light of the growing capacity of the European Parliament to be the spokesperson for requests from civil society.

In this context, Patrizia Toia, a Socialist MEP of this legislature, recalled that only connectivity and infrastructures are fundamental in Europe to reduce territorial distances, which could produce social distances and divides. The places where innovation is made, she added, can recover marginal areas even inside cities, becoming urban regeneration. It is precisely this, reducing inequalities and fostering social integration, the sense of the associations of the Third Sector and the trade union associations that form the EZA network, whose mission was also found in the words of Daniel Buhr: the benefits of digitization will be truly for everyone?

Care must be taken to ensure that the positive value of connectivity between people is a driving force to improve their living conditions (on the model, for example, of some areas of Europe as the Scandinavian countries) in order to control and contain the destructive and disruptive pressures. Paul Schoukens explained how typical work (today 60% of jobs are considered typical, i.e. stable and indefinite) will be increasingly under pressure in the future, in favour of flexible and hybrid forms (temporary and part-time), up to what he called "minimal functions". The risk is that digitization pushes people more and more towards minimal jobs, which offer neither stability nor security, nor a decent wage, with risks for the medium-long term holding of the social fabric.

Many ideas were launched with the aim of stimulating debate, as for example in the report by Luca Jahier, president of the EESC 3rd Group, the proposal to give formal recognition to non-formal training experiences such as those experienced in associations and in the world of volunteering. Furthermore, he drew attention to the role of social enterprise, which is expanding throughout Europe, called to redraw the welfare and the cohesion of communities.

Results of the seminar

The interventions have contributed to deepening the reflection on the world of work and welfare, but also in putting the very meaning of being social associations in the new millennium at the center of the analysis. Associations must be more and more able to explain the processes, guide people in understanding them and be an incentive to the policy for the fair management of the common good. They will be called to provide training and welfare, to support communities and be multipliers of the instances of the people. To do this, their European dimension today appears fundamental. It is not, of course, a question of extending existing structures on a transnational dimension, but of linking existing associations each other.

The occasion of the seminar was important to foster this process of mutual knowledge and sharing of reflections and common topics, within a path that is not self-conclusive, but which is divided into several stages to reach broader medium-long term objectives.

As mentioned, the ACLIs have in their DNA the social promotion and the protection of the rights of the human person and preserve the experience made in the post-war period when followed those Italians who, in search of work and opportunities, migrated in Europe and all over the world. At the same time, in Italy they have always played an indispensable social role in recognizing the rights of workers and the dignity that the Christian tradition has always placed at the center of human experience in work.