In Ankara, after the completion of the plenary session of the international conference in the afternoon of the same day held a meeting of the 1st SESSION “FORMING of skills of PEOPLE FOR a BRIGHT FUTURE: BUT HOW?”, where the moderator was Numan Ozkan — Director of the ILO office in Turkey.
The fourth industrial revolution, better known as “industry 4.0”, derives its name from the 2011 initiative led by businessmen, politicians and scientists who defined it as a means to enhance the competitiveness of Germany’s manufacturing industry through the enhanced integration of “cyberphysical systems,” or CPS, into factory processes. In other words, industry 4.0 is the manufacturing side where household items, from cars to to toasters, will be connected to the Internet.
The transition to “Industry 4.0” will lead to a fundamental change in the structure of employment — hundreds of thousands of employees may be left without work, and the countries implementing the fourth industrial revolution will need to employ them to avoid a social explosion. The digitalization of the economy leads to the disappearance of entire industries and at the same time to the creation of fundamentally new ones. That is, we need to know how to occupy the people who are released from these industries.
Although people get rid of heavy and routine work, but complete independence of production from people will lead to massive loss of jobs, which can now be seen in countries where automation is practiced in factories. The development of technology can also cause a widening of the gap between income from capital and labor and, as a consequence, the growth of inequality. On the contrary, the demand for workers with lower education and lower qualifications will decrease. Countries with low-income labour may lose their advantage over developed countries and lag even further behind them. New technologies will radically change labor activity in all industries. Innovation is destroying professions, changing the labor market, increasing the demand for employees with skills in software development and IT. Employment will decrease significantly in middle-income professions, where there are routine, repetitive operations, the implementation of which will take robots. In these circumstances, to build a partnership on new principles, the participants will need to invest. Therefore, public institutions and organizations will have to reconsider their activities. Changes will take place at the national and global levels. Governments will look for new ways to cooperate with citizens and business, and States — among themselves.
Hasi Bayram Tonbul, Vice President, MEMUR-SAINT-Turkey:
The fourth industrial revolution is about ultra-automation of production, the increasing role of robotics and artificial intelligence in business, government, and private life, and the absolute interconnection between humans and machines, regardless of distance and time. The developed countries will benefit. They occupy the first 15 places in the ranking of States receiving potential benefits from the Fourth industrial revolution. At this time, developing countries run the risk of falling seriously behind, primarily because of the abundance of medium and low-skilled labour, which is simply not needed in the new era of universal automation. Countries need major structural changes – from the replacement of an outdated model of education, to the transition to a different culture in the organization of business processes in individual companies. Huge investments in the educational process are needed.
The revolutionary upheavals of the future will affect people in the first place. And if one expects a forced change of activity, the other – new prospects. According to the report of the Davos forum, about 4.7 million office workers, 1.6 million employed in production and about 0.5 million in construction will lose their places in the world by 2020. Among the emerging jobs, almost 500 thousand will arise in business and Finance, 400 thousand in management and it, more than 300 thousand in architecture and engineering, and 300 thousand in sales.
However, the beginning of a new industrial revolution does not mean that people cease to be a valuable resource and everything goes into the sphere of robots and computers. On the contrary, people, or rather their skills and abilities, become an even more valuable resource, the struggle for which among companies and even countries in the future will become even stronger. The problem of brain drain is therefore unacceptable to developing countries. You can oversleep the start of revolutionary changes, but it is impossible to catch up with the advanced developed countries without an intellectual elite. The danger is that with the growing emigration to carry out revolutionary changes, there will be no one to create innovations. The new era and the new technologies that it brings with it are technologies created by people for people. And we will be able to cope with new challenges in order to realize the opportunities that are provided to us, “when we are able to organize interaction between different regions, industries and disciplines.” And in countries where trade unions are weak – they must work, not rely on and hide behind international organizations – they must fight and protect the rights of their workers.
Ahansel Koch, Secretary General, Confederation of employers ‘ associations (TISK), Turkey:
The industrial revolution 4.0 generates new professions, in General, changing the relationship between employers and employees. In this context, it is necessary for trade unions of all countries to cooperate at the global level. In June, the ILO Conference will be held at which it is necessary to raise the issue of investment in environmental technologies and new professions. This is a problem not only for trade unions, but also for our governments. We must work together to confront today’s threats and be inspired by the technology of the future, with special attention to youth employment.
Nurkan Onder, Director General of labour, Ministry of family, labour and social services of Turkey:
Technological progress should identify new forms of work, contribute to the development of new skills among workers. This should involve not only trade unions, but also the government and educational institutions. Everyone should be involved in the process of developing a new model of education. Trade unions play a leading role in employment issues.
Seledin, Starovic, President, Confederation of independent trade unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SSSBIH), Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Every day we are faced with the problems of labor. Our strength is in our unity of spirit and our unity. In the fourth industrial revolution, in the age of automation and industrialization for workers, everything changes. There should be no discrimination on the basis of sex, nation or race in labour relations.