25 Points from the ETUC on
Industrial Relations in the Information Society
1. There is a need for a new regulatory framework, if Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are to promote the cohesion of European societies. The transition to new forms of work organisation shaped by ICTs should take place in a spirit of mutual cooperation between the social partners. So far, public debate on the institutions of working life is often confined to simplistic arguments on regulation or deregulation.
2. ICTs offer a possibility to overcome one of the major weaknesses of European industry, the lack of relationship between technological and organisational innovation. ICTs have to be looked at from an integrated approach linking the introduction of ICTs with education and training and with organisational transformation.
3. The form taken by the Information Society will change the social relationships between people in their lives. The interests of citizens take precedence over economic interests. For workers, work and training and humane working conditions are the basis of their livelihood, and this continues to apply in an Information Society. Privacy and consumer protection are indispensable for all citizens. The ETUC is looking for dialogue with all interested parties which intend to use ICTs in such a way that they promote employment and improve working conditions.
4. The application of ICTs is “reshaping work, skill structures and the organisation of enterprises”, as the Commission’s Green Paper on Living and Working in the Information Society has put it. They are bringing fundamental change to the labour market, and to society as a whole. More detailed analysis is essential about what consequences the use of ICTs could have for which regions and industries, and how the breakdown of jobs by gender is likely to develop.
5. It is possible that the future organisation of business will no longer be characterised by a pyramidal hierarchical structure but instead by a network of relatively autonomous project-driven business units. As a matter of principle, however, the exchange of information via electronic media cannot be equated with communication between people. The firm as a forum for creativity and the exchange of ideas cannot be replaced by a virtual company, however perfectly it may operate. ICTs will only bear fruit if they are introduced with the fullest participation of workers. Since participation is the key concept in technological change, the ETUC calls on the Commission to include a specific chapter concerning “Participation and Human Resources” in its Framework Programme of Research.
6. ICTs offer new opportunities in the field of health and safety at work, for risk assessment, dissemination of information, training, as the Green Paper rightly points out. However, at the same time, ICTs entail new risks. There is an urgent need for reliable data concerning the health and safety of teleworkers. The effects of isolation from fellow workers have not yet been studied, nor have the effects of being constantly on call for work, nor have the consequences of the close relationship between family life and working life, if telework is performed from home. What telework means for the family is largely unknown, and the possibility of family-traumata should be studied deeply. There is an urgent need for reliable data concerning a series of other problems related to ICTs, ergonomics for example, and the potential risks which exposure to electro-magnetic waves and fields entail for health and safety have to be explored.
7. ICTs underline the necessity of further community action in health and safety in the working environment. There is no European Union regulation for work-related upper limb disorders, and stress should be dealt with urgently at European level. The VDU-directive should be transposed without any further delay and implemented in all the member countries. The European health and safety directives should be extended to the self-employed as well. ICTs call for new ways of co-operation between the different actors: individual workers, their trade unions, employers, labour inspectorates, health insurance funds, health and safety delegates, internal control.
8. Trade union access to corporate networks is one of the keystones of a new system of industrial relations in the Information Society. Teleworkers should have the right to use company networks for communication, especially with trade unions and workplace representatives. Trade unions and workplace representatives should have the right to distribute information to teleworkers via the company-networks. Online-workers should have online rights.
9. Labour law needs to be developed further, the notion of undertaking and employee has to be enlarged. Worker representations which go beyond one undertaking or one plant should be possible.
10. In order to protect teleworkers effectively in the information society, they should generally be considered as employees. The burden of proof should be reversed and it should be up to the employer to prove that the person concerned is not an employee, but self-employed.
11. The high-level expert (DG V) group drew attention, in its final report, to the possibility that a more extensive working week could be a consequence of ICTs, and that work will become more abstract. More work could take place late during the day, at night and during the weekend. Reductions in working time, financial incentives for companies with innovative arrangements for working time allowing employees autonomy in managing their working time are therefore necessary.
12. The Commission and the Member States should carry out detailed employment studies, so that we can better understand the impact of the new technologies on employment in particular industries and regions, and plan the necessary re-education, retraining and reskilling programmes.
13. There is a big need for improvement of education and vocational training, for facilities to acquire new skills. Training should become a matter of negotiation between social partners on all European levels. As many employees as possible should be involved in measures to improve general and vocational training. Basic and advanced training of the unemployed should not be pushed into the background.
14. Technical and social competencies are equally important in terms of training. Just as important as computer literacy is the possibility to communicate with real human beings, to listen to them, to understand them, and to make compromises. Real colleges and real firms are indispensable for that to occur.
15. Telework has to be seconded by additional measures, such as improvements in public transport, infrastructure, if it is to make a genuine contribution to the development of rural areas. The potential of information technologies to create employment in rural areas is thus closely linked to the introduction of a universal service.
16. Workers are showing interest in teleworking because it can offer them greater control of their time, and enable them to combine their work and leisure more efficiently. Some workers regard teleworking as an opportunity to be more creative in exercising their profession, although on the downside they view being isolated or being cut off from everyday life in their company as risks that go hand in hand with teleworking.
17. Teleworking should neither be condemned out of hand nor glorified. The crucial question is how it will be organised – preferably in such a way that the “tele-” aspect of the work in question is placed in a complex setting that stimulates human skills and activities. The decision to opt for teleworking must be voluntary and reversible. Teleworkers must retain the status of employees. Payment and labour relations must not be allowed to deteriorate with the transition to telework. All social security and health insurance rights must be preserved, teleworkers must be guaranteed social protection, and health and safety standards must also be applied to telework jobs. Teleworkers must have the same career opportunities, the same access to in-service training and advanced training as other employees. All basic conditions governing teleworking must be negotiated with the relevant workforce representatives. This applies in particular to working time, and the European Commission is requested to take this factor into account in a directive on teleworking. The Member States of the EU are urged to ratify the ILO Convention on homework.
18. Teleworking should be negotiated in all cases between workers’ representatives and the firm that wishes to introduce teleworking. Anyone who adopts teleworking should do so voluntarily, and retain his or her status as an employee. The conditions for teleworking should be laid down in a collective bargaining agreement.
19. Atypical and precarious working conditions are widespread among teleworkers. Protection through social security, access to health insurance and unemployment benefit are urgently required for all. Employee status for teleworkers would offer the best solution for problems in relation to social security. If teleworking is carried out for various employers, social security contributions should be paid in the country where the teleworker is employed. Social security thresholds should be lowered to guarantee social security cover for all.
20. For teleworkers, it is very important that they retain their rights to participation. Employee representatives should also be responsible for teleworkers, and they should also have the right to meet at regular intervals. This would be extremely important for teleworkers working mainly at home. The opening up of corporate networks for trade union information would be important with regard to the concern for guaranteeing teleworkers rights to participation.
21. There should be clear rules for data protection and privacy. Teleworkers must be entitled to disconnect from the network. Rules are required with regard to the supervision of teleworkers, since for example, interactive video offers enormous potential for control of workers, which must not be used.
22. The application of information and communication technologies is bolstering the development of outsourcing and the emergence of small, flexible networking companies; fixed employment contracts are threatening to disappear, turning employees into nomads. In the long term, the use of information and communication technologies could lead to a blurring of the distinction between work and no work, with terms like work and working time being emptied of their meaning. The possibility is emerging for the payment of wage and salary conditions to be replaced by a type of “Verlagssystem” as at the beginning of the modern era.
23. This development is threatening to undermine social security systems which are also tied to a specific company and entail a spatial connection with the workplace. New revenues will be necessary to maintain the social security system. The Commission should explore the possibilities of alternative sources of funding for social security, including sources of funding that are orientated towards real wealth creation.
24. The changes emerging with the IS are profoundly affecting the relationship between work and family life. The IS can provide new possibilities for increasing access to work and for developing. It should be examined how change in the IS can promote desegregation of the labour market and promote reconciliation of working and family life.
25. The assumption, however, that women can now at last run their household, look after their children and earn extra housekeeping money, all at the same time, is an illusion. Teleworking is no substitute for the fair division of domestic labour and may on no account be allowed to become a convenient refuge from social responsibilities such as creating working times to suit family life or creating child care facilities. As a result, companies’ introduction of teleworking should go hand in hand with plans promoting equal opportunities.
Willy Buschak
