By Martín Padulla for staffingamericalatina

A few days ago, the World Employment Confederation launched its Manifesto in Paris, under the title No future of work without social innovation: How to build open, inclusive, sustainable and enabling labour markets.

The changing world of work is characterized by a series of notorious structural movements.

Complex and volatile economic environments are challenging traditional business models. Massive customization is replacing massive production, business are going into platforms as a result of the on demand economy, and there is a kind of startups revolution and an increase in the entrepreneurial activity that challenges traditional employment. The borderline between services and production is becoming blurry, and consumers are turning into prosumers, reflecting the blending process between production and consumption.

New ways of work organization, based on global talent supply chains management that coexist with new attitudes towards work, question the corporative world. There is a strong demand of individualization of the labour relationships, portfolio workers with multiple activities, collaborative management with flatter structures and even Holocracies that seek to promote business competitiveness.

Digitalization is redefining labour conditions and management. The bordelines between private and work life have blurred. With the development of coworking spaces, telecommuting and online working, work is no longer a place to go to. Smart factories are being created, and companies are adapting to diverse forms of work and implementing “total talent management” policies.

Skills and competences become “open source”. The Human Cloud is creating a flatter world of work, the widespread use of online training is changing the workforce, the development of skills and the idea of life-long learning and artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation of process are eliminating jobs, but they are also creating other employment opportunities.

These changes generate challenges that need solutions. How do we classify these new forms of work? How can we protect vulnerable workers? How can we guarantee safety and health conditions for nomad or remote workers? How can we provide support to new workers in terms of inactivity, illness, or pensions? How can scattered and online workers organize and gain representation? How can disloyal competition or social dumping among the different forms of work that emerge be avoided?

The Manifesto provides some recommendations that are particularly relevant in Latin America.

• Access for all: secure equal and full access to labour markets through diverse forms of work. Secure appropriate regulation to ensure fair competition between diverse forms of work. Prioritise labour market policies for vulnerable groups.
• Decent work for all: guarantee meaningful & decent working conditions regardless of an individual’s work contract, while also considering workers preferences
• New Social Deal: implement modernised social protection schemes to reflect new workplaces. Organise social benefits (health, pension, sick leave, paid holidays etc.) in a portable, easily transferable way, ensuring individual security and workers’ rights when a labour contract cesses. Avoid inequality between different forms of work with regard to labour costs and social contributions. Favour labour market security over job security.
• Equip all workers with the skills they need to succeed in the labour market: Implement a strategic approach that develops cognitive skills. Remove barriers to skill development and ensure lifelong learning policies become a reality. Use periods of unemployment as opportunities to upskill and/or reskill workers.
• Responsible intermediation: Support three-party work relationships as a way to reconcile flexibility and security. Public & private employment services working hand-in-hand to assist support workers build their career

Structural changes, new business models, new visions from digital natives regarding work, demographic factors, the need to learn to unlearn in order to relearn, and technological convergence, among other variables, demand answers that labour markets with 20st century regulations cannot provide. This need demands rethinking the reality of work in our countries and in certain cases, the consequence results in labour reforms that may seek to modernize the labour market protection the concept of decent work. The ratification of ILO Convention 181 grants answers in terms of decent flexibility, not only for private employment agencies, but also for platforms that match work supply and demand, providing a formal framework that offers more guarantees than the current ones.

Economic growth and sustainable development require, as a condition, for dynamic, formal, and inclusive labour markets. We need to urgently generate transformations that fluently connect education, labour training, and the jobs of the future. A labour market grounded on permanent training of skills based on the demand that, by consistently aiming at pertinence, can include different forms of formal work.

The agenda of the future of work actually is the agenda of the future of our societies.

About Martin Padulla

Founder and Managing Director of staffingamericalatina. Martin Padulla is Sociologist (USAL), MBA (UCA) and labour markets expert. He published “Flexible Work in South America” and “Regulatory framework for private employment agencies in Latin America” two books about the new realities of work in Latin America.

Follow Martín Padulla on Twitter: @MartinPadulla

mpadulla@staffingamericalatina.com

About staffingamericalatina

It is the unique independent digital media specialized in Latin American´s labour markets.

Produce and spread contents, researches and developments about issues such us Employability, Youth Employment, Training for Employment, Decent Work, Private Employment Agencies, Active policies for employment, Teleworking, Public and private actions for the creation of decent work, Green Jobs and Corporate Social Responsibility.

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