Page 10 - October 2019

management & education news

MOST WORKERS FEEL AUTOMATION

HAS ‘MADE WORK LIFE BETTER’

THE VAST MAJORITY of workers in the
UK believe technology and automation
are changing their working lives for the
better, according to a survey.
In a poll of 14,500 UK workers,
conducted by Hays UK, 86 per cent said
they embraced the implementation of
automation in their workplace, while
73 per cent reported having an open
mindset towards digital transformation.
The data also revealed that workers
were less fearful of automation in
organisations where the technology
was already present, according to
People Management.
Of the respondents working for
organisations that had invested in WORKERS REPORT THAT TECHNOLOGY HAS IMPROVED THEIR LIVES
automation, 92 per cent said they
would embrace it and only eight per Edward Houghton, Head of Research gives more opportunity to add human
cent would fear it. This compared to and Thought Leadership at the value and enables the organisation to
81 and 19 per cent respectively for CIPD, welcomed a more positive and make the most of the human elements of
workers in organisations that had made optimistic take on technology in the work, such as building relationships that
no investments in automation. workplace, and said he was interested are very hard to automate.
The results formed part of Hays’ to see respondents mirroring attitudes “Where employees are given less
What Workers Want 2019 report, which prevalent among HR professionals. mundane tasks, the job becomes more
surveyed attitudes towards technology. Houghton said: “Automation definitely complex, interesting and exciting.”

UK FACES VICTORIAN AGE OF INEQUALITY, SAYS TUC

3.7 million people in insecure work, and in sham self-employment.
and 1.85 million self-employed people “We urgently need to reset the
earning less than the minimum wage. balance of power in our economy
Despite the recent pick-up in earnings, it and give people more of a say about
said workers were still facing the longest what happens to them at work. We
pay squeeze for 200 years. know that collective bargaining is the
The report added that the share of best way to raise wages and improve
economic output going to wages had conditions – so let’s expand it across
declined from an average of 57 per cent the whole workforce.”
in the three decades after the Second O’Grady added that a hard Brexit
World War to 49 per cent in 2018. would hit poor people first and hardest.
FRANCES O’GRADY During the same period, the TUC “Michael Gove is talking about
said anti-trade union laws and bumps along the road, but they will be
BRITAIN RISKS TURNING the clock industrial change had resulted in union earthquakes for those drowning in debt
back to the working conditions of membership and collective bargaining who haven’t got a magic money tree at
the Victorian age unless unions coverage falling – from 54 per cent and the bottom of the garden,” she said.
have greater powers to organise and over 70 per cent in 1979 to just 23 per O’Grady said that many of those who
negotiate, the head of the TUC has said. cent and 26 per cent respectively in 2018. voted leave in the referendum did so
Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s General O’Grady told The Guardian: “We’re because of frustration about low wages,
Secretary, said that without a shift in at risk of going back to 19th-century insecurity and zero-hour contracts and
the balance of power from employers working conditions. Millions of “uber-globalisation”, which had seen
to unions, the UK would face rising workers have no control and no voice “a shift in power and wealth to a tiny
inequality and insecurity at work. at work, with increasing numbers minority at the top while everybody else
In a report, the TUC said there were stuck on low pay, zero-hours contracts, had to do with the crumbs.”

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News.indd 5 19/09/2019 15:05