The seminar „Workplace digitalization – a need, alternative or necessity? New ways of work and education” took place in Lublin (when it comes to the organisational aspect) but generally it took the online form - which was caused by the current epidemic situation in Europe. The seminar began on 18th and ended on 19th June 2021. During the seminar we hosted members of worker’s organisations from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Portugal, Albania, Spain, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Malta, Ukraine (as guests). The seminar was organised by Europejski Dom Spotkań - Fundacja Nowy Staw and was supported by EZA and the European Union.
The aim of the seminar was a debate on process of digitalization of workplace in modern world with particular attention to such aspects as:
- opportunities and threats of digitalization
- psychosocial aspect of the digitalisation - employer and employee perspectives; team management strategies and work-life balance
- digital education - needs, challenges and good practices
- worker participation in shaping fair digitisation - the role of trade unions
- protection of "digital" workers - legal regulations on the example of selected european countries
A very great value of this seminar was the exchange of experience and good practices between representatives of different European countries and the perspective of both: representatives of trade unions and workers' organizations and representatives of scientific, research and educational institutions.
Digitalization of workplaces is a process that has been going on for years, still developing but in the era of the Covid - 19 pandemic it’s particularly important. There is a need of a new discussion on its role and the conditions of its implementation in the changing world of work and social relations.
During this 2-days seminar speakers and seminar audience could exchange knowledge and reflections connected with different aspects of digitalization:
- new economy – based on knowledge, robotization of production
- acceleration of digitization by pandemic COVID -19
- new forms of bussines and globalisation of economy
- digital competences and the problem of digital exclusion; gaps in digital competences in the teaching staff and among students, as revealed by the pandemic, the urgent need to develop these competences;
- safety issues in remote working
- labor law, worker protection, legislative issues in relation to platforms such as Uber, labour relations
- distinction between remote working and teleworking – organsiational and legal aspect
- psychological barriers and willingness/resistance to work remotely and to develop digital skills
- tips/good practices on how to effectively work remotely were also presented
- the impact of remote working on union activity – in many case this impact was negative
- role of trade unions in shaping fair digitalisation; using new technologies in trade unions as a way of promotion and recruitment of new members
- legal problems connected with platform work (also on the example of uber case) and exchange of good practices in each countries
The seminar was largely in the form of a debate where the speakers could refer to the topic of discussion in their speech bringing a high substantive value. All speakers prepared high graphic and content quality multimedia presentations and also films – as presentations – recorded before seminar and presented in the panel about law regulations. Despite the online formula, it was possible to exchange experiences and questions, which were asked directly or in written form using chat. During the the seminar there were also presented by prof. Agnieszka Ziomek (Department of Business Activity and Economic Policy, Poznań University of Economics and Business) results of the project „The impact of digitization of the economy on the skills and professional qualifications and their impact on working conditions and labor” prepared for the European Commission. Main conclusions of the project aaccording to the survey conducted are as follows:
- Trade unionists do not attach as much importance to digitization as managers and employees
- Employees are often unaware of the company's training offerings, although many of them want to acquire new competences
- Managers and trade unionists recognize the need for collective bargaining in companies, in digitization and worker protection
During our discussion panels and exchange of knowledge and good practices following conclusions and recommendations have been developed:
- both technological development and the socio-epidemic situation in the world are forcing adaptation to the digitalization of workplaces which has both advantages and disadvantages. Digitalization is a progressive and irreversible process that requires adaptation on the part of both employer and employees
- the situation of the transition of a large part of the population to remote working has shown many shortcomings in the systems of labour protection, the legal regulation of organisational aspects, as well as those related to digital competences; a very visible and common conclusion from our considerations is that pandemic has change and will change the workplace and organizational culture of companies permanently and this change is irreversible; we need to adapt mentally and prepare for the new reality - much more digitalized
- all European societies have had to deal with the situation of remote working during a pandemic which has shown the multiplicity and diversity of educational and legislative problems but on the other hand it had an impact on our mentality and gave us chance to overcome mental barriers to digitization
Recommendations:
- Strengthening the role of digital education among young people and also older generations to prepare them to the new ways and conditions of working
- Enabling employers to develop their digital and management skills for better management of distributed workforces as well as their ability to provide online training to staff
- Drawing attention to the problems of social isolation in remote working situations and providing employees with appropriate care and protection, both physical and psychological
- Introduction of appropriate legal regulations related to telework and remote working as well as awareness of the rights and obligations of both the employee and the employer; developing legal solutions and social protection for platform workers
- Strengthening the role of trade unions in shaping collective agreements and protection of jobs in the situation of pandemic and also when new technologies very often replace human labour
- New technologies and social media can be very usefull tools for promotion and recruitment of new members of trade unions and other workers organisations; and new form of communication and promotion of their activities – which is very important in a changing world (this implies the need to train senior union members in modern forms of communication)
- Cooperation of research institutions, non-governmental organizations and workers' organizations in supporting the process of organizational and mental changes on the part of both: employees and employers (requirements for employees, work-life balance, lifelong learning, the right to be offline, substantive and psychological support, providing a safe workplace)
- Need for new leadership education - leadership requires new solutions and new approaches to work and to motivate employees in remote working situations