A seminar was held in Limonest, France from 18-20 September 2025 on the topic “Digitalisation serves people, not people serve digitalisation! The role of workers' organisations in occupational safety in the digital transformation process”, organised by the ECWM - EBCA - MTCE (European Christian Workers Movement) in cooperation with EZA, and funded by the European Union.
45 representatives of workers' organisations from Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Portugal and from Switzerland (as guests) participated in the seminar.
The seminar focused on the discussion around digitalisation and the role of workers’ organisations on the issue of job security in the digital transformation process. The framework was structured to enable participants to exchange their expertise on specific issues. An example of this was the video contributions we had collected from various European countries, in which workers (from managers, caretakers, cleaners to secretarial staff, etc.) made statements about the importance of digitalisation in their respective working environments. The contributions formed the starting point for the deliberations and were enhanced by the experiences of the participants. Prof. Pascal Marin from the Catholic University of Lyon (UCLY) gave a presentation on “Challenges relating to artificial intelligence”. He also participated in the panel discussion on “Digitalisation at the service of people in the context of the protection of job security”, attended by: Joachim Kerer (Managing Director of the IT company Kerer, South Tyrol, Italy) and Marc Andreu Acebal (Member of the Board of Directors of the CCOO trade union, Spain). The Vice-President of the Lyon metropolitan area, Ms. Émeline Baume, attended the seminar and presented the comprehensive digitalisation process of the community in the municipality of Lyon and the measures to support citizens in this process.
The video contributions from various European countries highlighted the importance of the relevance of digitalisation in the workplace. The massive acceleration and blurring of boundaries between private and professional life were identified as particularly problematic areas. The explanation and classification of “AI” from a philosophical perspective demystified the processes and emphasised the essential fundamental social issues of an anthropology that takes human dignity into account.
Meetings were held in three institutions to hold specific discussions on the topic. The excursions to Maison Sésame, a training centre that enables migrants to access IT tools, to CFDT, with a presentation of the union's measures on the use of digital tools in the workplace and to the Lyon metropolitan area, with insights into the digitalisation of administrative processes, anchored the observations with practical views and served to create a network of solidarity.
All these suggestions were further discussed in additional working groups on Saturday and ultimately incorporated into the final statement, which is attached here.
ECWM (European Christian Workers' Movement) 2025 final statement
"Digital technology at the service of man, not man at the service of digital technology"
We, the members from the ECWM travelled to Lyon to attend our seminar from Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, as we are challenged by the impacts of digital tools on people's work and daily life.
We see that these digital tools are now essential in all aspects of our lives. These tools facilitate specific tasks and reduce certain journeys. They can also be dehumanising for many, particularly workers. Some people are excluded: the elderly, disabled people, migrants, workers in precarious situations, lack of Internet access (coverage blackspots).
Workers are facing greater pressure owing to:
Requirement for urgent responsiveness, the speeding up of processes
Excessive monitoring of workers by employers (total surveillance of workers, at Amazon for example)
Remote working may be dehumanising because it removes social relationships (isolation)
The boundaries between professional and personal life may disappear.
We have observed that AI is increasingly present in daily life and in the workplace.
The term "Artificial Intelligence" is an illusion: It is only a collection of data that imitates human behaviour, but which produces no creative output. It suggests that humans could be replaced by machines. This pseudo “Artificial Intelligence” has neither consciousness nor the capacity to act. In this sense it is dehumanising and is a tool for the exploitation and domination of workers by multinationals among others.
The multinationals and GAFAM[1] collect data and privatise it for economic and political purposes (by conveying extreme ideas) in an unbridled ultra-capitalism: "Artificial Intelligence" guarantees they can operate in a totally unregulated world.
These "artificial intelligence" tools have a considerable environmental impact both at an ecological (resources required and considerable energy consumption) and at a human level (physical and mental health). They are also a source of exploitation of workers worldwide who enter data or control content published on the Internet (the "click workers").
This requires us to adopt a "techno-critical" attitude that does not reject the digital tool but demands that it be used with discernment.
Our movements and the ECWM are facing numerous challenges: The issue today is to consider the world in which we all live.
How can we act at a personal and institutional level?
By protecting data that is used for commercial purposes (e.g. the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at a European level
By providing support and raising awareness of the people around us and in our movements
Through training and education
By increasing social dialogue and promoting union actions
By demanding the implementation of the European Union directive (2024/1760) on the duty of companies to promote sustainable and responsible corporate conduct in their operations and across their global value chains: Products manufactured or imported must comply with the relevant social and environmental criteria
We are vigilant in the defence of democracy. This is now under threat from the rise of populism and the extreme right who use social networks to spread fake news.
Actions are already being implemented by local authorities, associations, unions and institutions. Some refuse to use the tools offered by GAFAM and use free software, which is more ethical.
So, what are we going to do?
[1] GAFAM = Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft