Digitalisation
Getting to grips with digitalisation
Digitalisation has the potential to positively transform public services and the jobs of public service workers. Quicker and easier access to services and increased participation of citizens can be combined with better quality jobs as repetitive work is replaced with more fulfilling tasks. However, trade unions must be involved in the transformation process not just to ensure that workers have their fare share of the benefits of digitalisation but also to deal with the potential downside. This briefing, produced for EPSU's 2019 Congress, highlights some of the work done on this issue in recent years and sets out the current priorities.
Digitalisation in home care and public employment services
While digitalisation has helped with time management in home care services and with removing routine tasks for public employment service workers, the evidence so far points to many more negative impacts in terms of psycho-social risks, physical wellbeing and increased management monitoring. These are initial findings from research being carried out for EPSU by the OSE research organisation and presented to EPSU's Quality Employment conference by Ramon Peña-Casas. The focus of the research is on the impact of digitalisation on job content, looking at work organisation, workloads and a range of
Union raises concerns over surveillance of care workers
Public services union UNISON has highlighted the case of care workers employed by the national charity Community Integrated Care who are being subjected to excessive surveillance. Staff have to sign-in on an hourly basis with their photos being taken and their identity also being checked with finger prints. The workers argue that the process actually hampers their ability to deliver proper care to clients. UNISON is also concerned that the company's use of biometric data without personal consent might infringe new data protection rules.
Union raises concerns over digital monitoring of waste workers
The FP-CGIL public service union has raised serious concerns about the introduction of Amazon-style electronic bracelets for waste collection workers by a private company in Livorno. The bracelets communicate with waste containers to check they are empty. Union says that this degree of surveillance is excessive considering that there are already supervisors who monitor the work along with GPS systems in trucks. FP-CGIL says that employers should be concentrating more on dealing with the serious health and safety issues in the sector.
Conference to focus on pay trends, digitalisation and quality employment
EPSU is organising a conference on 6-7 June in Brussels that will explore a number of collective bargaining issues. Part of the conference will focus on quality employment and will discuss in particular research on quality employment in two sectors - prisons and childcare. Other sessions will debate new research commissioned by EPSU. This includes an updated analysis comparing pay trends in the public and private sectors; union action to tackle low pay in sectors dominated by women and the impact of digitalisation in home care and public employment services. There will also be a panel debating