Commission on Workers and Technology

Sharing the future: workers and technology in the 2020s is the final report of the two-year Commission on Workers and Technology. It finds that the Covid-19 crisis is accelerating the take-up of job-replacing technologies, especially among low-skilled workers. Without action millions of people now face greater insecurity, harder work and worse pay and conditions in the wake of the pandemic.

The Commission calls for a number of major reforms including:

• Work and Train Guarantees for the unemployed – building on the Kickstart Scheme, the Government should guarantee jobs and free training for everyone who remains unemployed
• Urgent action plans and added support for the retail and hospitality sectors including help for the workers who are most likely to need retraining and job support
• A major overhaul of adult training and skills to better help workers adapt, including free training above level 3; statutory training pay and time off to train; an expansion of the Union Learning Fund and apprenticeships
• A stronger voice for workers in the adoption of new technology in the workplace by extending collective bargaining and mandating worker consultation in large firms
• Action to increase the pay and status of caring jobs and other low-paid key worker roles that are less likely to be automated
• Bringing Government, employers, trades unions, small businesses and self-employed representatives together into new social partnership institutions to work together on the adoption of new technologies in the workplace

The Commission on Workers and Technology was established in August 2018 by Community and the Fabian Society. The commissioners were Hasan Bakhshi, Sue Ferns, Paul Nowak, Katie O’Donovan, Roy Rickhuss, Professor Margaret Stevens and its chair, Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP.

Read the summary report here. 

Read the full report here.