British workers shouldn’t be worried that the robots are coming, but that they may not

Sweden’s unions have a saying that workers should not fear the new machines, but old ones. Likewise British workers shouldn’t be worried that the robots are coming, but that they won’t.

That’s why the BEIS Committee is right when it says the problem facing the UK is not too many robots, but too few (see more here). If developed and deployed imaginatively and collaboratively, these new technologies could offer exciting opportunities to enhance work while massively increasing productivity.

As the TUC has recognised, automation offers a route to more interesting and better paid work, and eventually benefits such as reduced working hours (see more here). A survey of Prospect members in 2018 found that younger workers are much more positive about the impact of technology on work, with 54 per cent of workers aged 25 and younger saying that they were optimistic about tech and only 5 per cent expressing pessimism (see note).

But as the BEIS committee points out, the UK’s slow pace on automation has allowed other countries to seize the advantage. We have missed the chance to lead the world in the development and export of industrial automation technologies, and we are well behind comparable economies when it comes to introducing robots into our industrial processes — which could be a key cause behind our lagging productivity. If uncertainty around Brexit wasn’t bad enough, we are also losing out on opportunities to define both the rules for the new economy and to gain the early benefits from building on UK innovation.

The Committee rightly points to employee engagement as a precondition for successfully navigating these changes. The trouble is that we live in an economy where trust has broken down. In previous eras of industrial change, workers saw the benefits from increased wages, greater and higher-skilled jobs, and an increase in health and well-being. Since the 1980s that bargain has broken down with the greater accumulation of income at the very top, more precarious work for the rest of us, and rising inequality. Duncan Exley writes more about this in his recent book on The End of Aspiration (see here).

YouGov polling conducted for Prospect in May 2019, found that 58 per cent of working people have little or no confidence that they would be consulted or involved in any tech changes at work (more here). The experience of many of our members working at the cutting edge of technological advance, or in roles where AI could change their roles, is similarly mixed. These experiences show that the voices of workers affected by change, and those developing technology, need to be central to this debate. According to research by Doteveryone, more than a quarter of tech workers have seen decisions made about technology that they felt could have negative consequences for people or society (more here).

Worker voice is key to unlocking many of the other problems highlighted by the Committee, which links the UK’s failure to take full advantage of the opportunities of automation to short-termism, under-investment, and skills shortages (exacerbated by the barriers faced by women in STEM). Evidence shows that economies in which workers are involved and represented put the most money into long-term research and development. The evidence also shows that employers who recognise trade unions are more likely to train their staff, and take equal opportunities seriously.

A recent comparative study between the US and Europe explores the implications of this in other ways: “Recent research has shown that industrial robots have caused severe job and earnings losses in the US… Robots have had no aggregate effect on German employment, and robot exposure is found to actually increase the chances of workers staying with their original employer. This effect seems to be largely down to efforts of work councils and labour unions…”

The BEIS Committee calls on Government to develop a much more encompassing Robot and AI Strategy by the end of 2020, bringing together business, workers, researchers and government. They also highlight the opportunity for “businesses and workers to consider new models of investing in technology, including more co-operative approaches” such as New Technology Agreements.

This is the right way forward. Prospect moved a motion at the TUC Congress in Brighton in September, alongside union friends in Community, Accord and the FDA, calling for a renewed focus on worker voice in new technology (see more here). The motion is now TUC policy and calls for a campaign on worker voice in the development, introduction and operation of new technologies in the workplace, as well as at national policy-making level. The Commission on Workers and Technology, chaired by Yvette Cooper MP, and hosted by the Fabian Society and Community has also picked up on the issue of automation and workers (see more here).

Work is changing at an ever-quicker speed. The development of automation and AI-powered technologies are going to transform work in ways that are potentially greater than more challenging that previous industrial revolutions. We need to get this right, setting out the rules for how this new world of work should function, and allowing the UK to maximise the benefits from its deployment. Alongside the technological transformations that are spreading through our economy, we should be looking to effect a transformation in how innovation and change is managed and steered in our workplaces and industries — from something that is done to workers, to something that is done with them.

Andrew Pakes is the director of communications & research at Prospect Union.

Note:

54% of young Prospect members were optimistic about the impact of technology on their work, compared to just 5% having a pessimistic view of the impact of new tech on their work — Prospect survey of members, 2018.