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Digitalized Labour and the Risks Workers Face

Roskilde University, Denmark, 9th March 10 – 12 am. (Action short of strike -ASOS- day)

Hosted by Dr Laura Horn, Associate Professor, Global Political Economy

Discussion led by Christian Damholt, consultant and trade unionist, Dansk Magisterforening

Workers experience exacerbated pressures and risks of psychosocial and physical violence in digitalized work, in the streets and in homes, in the office, and in the factory. This occurs in the context of the emergence of data-driven decision-making; the use of communications technologies such as e-mail; automation; and wearable and software work tracking.

In the digitalized world of work, data itself has power. Indeed, data is used in obscured ways to attempt to neutralize management decision-making on the surface, but it is becoming increasingly evident that digitalized management methods (DMM) themselves; as well as working environments and organizational structures where technologies are integrated; put people into situations where the risks are high. Management methods can be selective, predictive and prescriptive, with the use of monitoring, measuring and calculating techniques, provided by both old and new technologies.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) explicitly indicates that the ‘inappropriate use of technology’ can create risky conditions for workers (ILO 2016b: 39). Indeed, DMM themselves can be seen as forms of bullying or harassment.

Dr Moore will focus on recent research she has carried out for the ILO’s labour division, ACTRAV, where preparations are underway for discussions to be held at the forthcoming International Labour Conference in Geneva in 2018 about a new labour recommendation and convention on the risks of violence in the future of work.

Moore’s commissioned research for these preparations has looked at the rising risks of psychosocial and physical violence in digitalized workplaces, from the factory to the office. In particular, Moore’s research looks at what trade unions are doing in response to these risks.

Speaker: Dr Phoebe V Moore, Associate Professor of Political Economy and Technology, University of Leicester, Management and Organization division, Business School

Everybody welcome, no registration necessary!
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