The future of work is here: revisiting labour rights
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 14 October 2022 (34th sitting) (see Doc. 15620, report of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and
Sustainable Development, rapporteur: Ms Selin Sayek Böke). Text adopted by the Assembly on
14 October 2022 (34th sitting).See also Recommendation 2239 (2022).
1. Across Europe
and worldwide, work has been and is likely to remain central to
human life. It ensures subsistence, access to an independent life
and enjoyment of various benefits and rights. Work can also give meaning
to one’s life and underpin one’s sense of dignity by providing a
role in society and enabling one to contribute towards shared prosperity:
work binds us all together. In recent years, new technologies and
the Covid-19 pandemic have radically transformed the world of work,
affecting the organisation of work, workers and workplaces. As we
see a massive shift towards atypical forms of employment and increased
teleworking, some fundamental aspects of labour rights and policies
require an open societal debate to correct imbalances so that no
one is left behind and economic security is guaranteed for all.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly notes that this new reality has
led to substantive changes in working conditions and relations between
employers and employees, with direct and indirect effects on the
health, well-being and socio-economic rights of people at work.
While it acknowledges the possibility of positive effects on productivity,
the Assembly views with concern many situations of precarious employment
and discriminatory practices at work, in particular regarding women
with caregiving responsibilities. The changing nature of jobs also
has an impact on workers’ rights to organise and to bargain collectively,
as well as on the functioning of trade unions, and increases the
risk of an abusive recourse to surveillance or worker control technologies. Furthermore,
given that globalisation of work weakens the reach of national social
protection systems and individual protections across borders, the
Assembly sees an urgent need to mainstream higher minimum labour
standards worldwide, including basic occupational health and safety
norms, under the guidance of the International Labour Organization
(ILO).
3. Moreover, the societal emphasis on paid work fails to mirror
the complexity of human nature and life. It ignores the huge amount
of unpaid work that billions of women around the globe provide to
society by caring for children and other household members (usually
the elderly): in most countries women still do two thirds of all
unpaid care work, a trend that worsened further during the pandemic.
Such an approach also devalues paid care work, as well as volunteer
work. The Assembly therefore advocates an overhaul of labour policies
to ensure better recognition of unpaid work and build a more socially
just society.
4. Teleworking swept into the world of work like a tidal wave
during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Assembly is convinced that teleworking
will remain a permanent feature of the organisation of work for
knowledge workers, mostly in the form of hybrid arrangements which
combine online and physical presence at the workplace. Governments
and their social partners (employers, employees and professional
associations/trade unions) are therefore called upon to facilitate
and better accommodate increased recourse to teleworking on a permanent
basis by providing a level playing field and maximum flexibility
for both workers and their employers through legislative measures,
while guaranteeing that socio-economic rights are well protected.
In this context, the Assembly insists on teleworking policy approaches
that maintain and enhance the protection of socio-economic rights
as set out in the European Social Charter (ETS No. 35) and the revised
European Social Charter (ETS No. 163).
5. The Assembly notes that there is research and data evidence
that points to the changing work culture, with a new generation
of workers who value flexibility of working hours and location and
a reduction in working time much more than their predecessors. The
Assembly further notes a need to better define the “right to disconnect”
in national legislation as well as at European and international
levels. Greater autonomy for workers and more regard for workers’
own preferences have been shown to result in higher productivity,
which is beneficial to all social partners – workers, employers
and society at large.
6. The Assembly is concerned that stress levels have been escalating
in many workplaces, with dramatic consequences for both individuals
and society at large. Recognising stress at work as our collective
challenge, it reiterates the recommendations formulated in its
Resolution 2267 (2019) “Stress at work”, in particular as regards “a stress-reducing
organisation of work with shorter, four-day weeks (with 28 to 32
work hours per week), flexible work time options, greater autonomy,
teleworking possibilities and job-sharing schemes, notably for working
parents and carers”.
7. As automation, artificial intelligence applications and digital
labour platforms progress further, they could present new forms
of inclusion by providing additional job opportunities for persons
who are marginalised in traditional labour markets. In order to
embrace this trend with confidence and avoid any precariousness
that could result for the workers concerned, the Assembly believes
that member States should introduce essential legal safeguards regarding
irregular working hours and income, remedy a lack of access to basic
social protection and collective bargaining rights and to the judicial
system where relevant, and put an end to discrimination caused by
the use of opaque algorithms. The Assembly also notes that the growing
cross-border mobility of labour, including teleworking where the
employer and employee are based in different countries, has implications
for labour and tax laws across jurisdictions that need to be addressed.
8. Drawing lessons from the pandemic, major trends in the world
of work and selected examples of good practice in member States,
the Assembly emphasises the importance of increasing flexibility
(in terms of workplace location and working hours) in the organisation
of work in order to serve the new needs of workers, employers and
labour markets in a balanced manner. With a view to adjusting their
existing regulatory frameworks and labour policies, better protecting
socio-economic rights, enhancing public health and ensuring personal
well-being at work, the Assembly recommends that member States:
8.1 with a view to improving minimum
labour standards and defending essential socio-economic rights,
in particular basic occupational health and safety norms, worldwide:
8.1.1 ensure full implementation of
the ILO’s core conventions and guidelines;
8.1.2 pursue implementation of the United Nations Sustainable
Development Agenda 2030, in particular its Goal 8, in seeking to
achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive
employment and decent work for all;
8.1.3 seek harmonisation of regulatory frameworks across different
jurisdictions with regard to platform work, notably concerning employment
status, social protection and access to basic social rights, as
well as working time, pay, dispute resolution, personal data protection
and privacy;
8.1.4 guarantee adequate corporate social responsibility by
multinational enterprises operating on their territory and beyond;
8.1.5 update national strategies in this regard to cover new
forms of work and the fragmentation of work;
8.1.6 increase institutional capacity to ensure that national
labour inspectorates have sufficient powers, resources and training
to better control occupational safety in the new era of work by
prioritising prevention and risk-based approaches;
8.1.7 ensure that national laws and collective agreements clearly
define the responsibility of the employer for the protection of
the occupational health and safety of employees and, in the context
of teleworking, take into account both the psychosocial and ergonomic
risks;
8.2 screen, assess and adjust their labour legislation and
policies in the light of the requirements laid down in the European
Social Charter and the evolving needs of labour markets, in particular:
8.2.1 concerning work organisation,
examine options for shortening working weeks and/or daily working
hours while maintaining the same pay, so as to shift the focus from
hours worked to results to achieve, cater more flexibly for those
multitasking at work and using job-sharing arrangements, enable
high-intensity work, accommodate atypical forms of work while protecting socio-economic
rights, support working parents and contribute to socially and environmentally sustainable
development;
8.2.2 with regard to teleworking and hybrid working:
8.2.2.1 ensure that specific legislation
is in place to balance the needs and priorities of workers, employers
and society as a whole, while giving as much autonomy as possible
to workers and their individual work preferences;
8.2.2.2 define and codify in law the right to disconnect from
work and the obligation for employers to prevent occupational burnout;
8.2.2.3 study the environmental and public health benefits of
teleworking and consider schemes for mandatory teleworking for knowledge
workers on a few days per week aimed at alleviating local transport
flows, reducing pollution and saving energy and other resources;
8.2.2.4 provide adequate equipment and compensate additional costs
incurred by workers engaged in teleworking and achieve a fair sharing
of the productivity and cost benefits accrued through remote or
hybrid working;
8.2.2.5 ensure that workers who telework full-time or as part
of a hybrid set-up are not penalised or discriminated against;
8.2.3 with a view to optimising the structure and dialogue of
the national social partnership:
8.2.3.1 include
self-employed workers, reach out to those involved in unpaid care work
and to migrant workers and correct the (mis-)definition of the employment
status of those involved in the platform economy;
8.2.3.2 improve the access of workers in atypical forms of employment
and in platform work to collective bargaining and professional associations/trade
unions, information and training, and protection from intrusive
surveillance technologies;
8.2.3.3 negotiate all legal frameworks with all social partners
and formally institutionalise these mechanisms for social dialogue;
8.2.3.4 study options for using digital instruments and public
policies to improve freedom of association and support labour organisations;
8.2.4 as regards action fostering decent work and quality employment
for decent and dignified living, while ensuring that the digital
transformation of work benefits everyone and that no one is left
behind:
8.2.4.1 launch a public debate
on upgrading the social contract to a society centred on human needs,
solidarity, public interest and rights;
8.2.4.2 invest public resources and engage private enterprises
in strengthening people’s employability through lifelong learning
schemes, reskilling and upskilling programmes, and institutional
efforts for the creation of decent and sustainable work, in line
with the ILO’s Centenary Declaration
for the Future of Work;
8.2.4.3 increase public investment in digital infrastructure so
that quality digital tools are accessible to all;
8.2.4.4 consider implementing personal training accounts for all
workers, which would entail putting positive obligations on all
employers to set up skills development plans or training for current
and potential workers, including young NEETs (“not in education,
employment or training”), persons in unpaid work or those unemployed
and retired persons who wish to continue working but need to upgrade
their skills;
8.2.4.5 give labour policies a more prominent role when managing
the economy and mitigating socio-economic inequalities, based on
better policy coherence and support for fundamental rights at national,
European and international levels;
8.2.4.6 if they have not yet done so, ratify the European Social
Charter and its Additional Protocol Providing for a System of Collective
Complaints (ETS No. 158), lift any existing reservations to the
Charter, scale up political support for the implementation of the
Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5)
and promote the full application of these fundamental treaties across
Europe, including to the Council of Europe’s own staff;
8.2.4.7 root out abusive employment practices such as unpaid employment
trials and zero-hours contracts, harmonise the protection of rights
for different categories of workers by reducing differences in tax
treatment for different types of contract and guarantee universal
minimum social coverage for all;
8.2.4.8 seek better recognition of unpaid work by making it more
visible, providing more family-friendly policies (such as the adaptation
of working hours and provision of affordable and accessible childcare
for working parents, with extra financial support for the vulnerable),
clarifying the monetary value of such work (by measuring and estimating
its monetary worth) and better supporting it through social benefits
or a basic-income approach alongside public provision of quality
healthcare services accessible by all;
8.2.4.9 update national legislation and strategies on occupational
health and safety to better cover new forms of work, different categories
of workers (including the self-employed) and the increased mobility
of workers between workplaces and across borders;
8.2.4.10 ensure that workplaces are free from all kinds of harassment
and online surveillance;
8.2.4.11 design new policies with a focus on multidimensional equality
and revisit the age-related nature of work so as to guarantee the
inclusiveness of the labour market and effective implementation
of non-discrimination principles;
8.2.4.12 consider the need for new institutional structures and
increase the capacity of public institutions in order to identify
trends, emerging risks and regulatory needs, and to assess the impact
of the structural transformation of work in terms of environmental and
social sustainability (including gender, age, skills diversity,
etc.) as well as professional evolution (the quality of work);
8.3 encourage local authorities to provide online market platforms
for businesses in their region to sell online.
