When an employee calls in sick, it is usually a disgruntled colleague who covers. If Bill Higgins has his way, however, it could be a robot picking up the slack.

Mr Higgins is the founder of Steel Collar Associates, a US-based company that acts as a sort of temp agency for robots, where the machines can be leased and ready to work straight away.

He is confident in his business idea, which involves offering the full line of Motoman dual arm humanoid robots to manufacturers. “Humanoid robots provide an unlimited supply of highly reliable labour that is willing to take the dirtiest, most dangerous, and most boring manufacturing jobs and carry out these jobs 24 hours a day, 365 days per year,” he explains.

One of his big selling points is that these robots can work for wages below the minimum wage in the US. The lowest rate is obtained when the robot is used 24 hours, 365 days per year.

According to its website, “Steel Collar Associates take no breaks, no vacation days, no sick days and no holidays. They never have an attitude problem or a drug problem”.

http://www.scoop.it/t/the-new-reality-of-work

Originally published by www.ft.com