Experts warn that this system is unsustainable in the long termThe pandemic is accelerating changes in the work structure. Some of them, as a greater relevance of teleworking, have already been noted, while others will be developed with more intensity in the coming months: project work, automation, new curricular designs ... But these transformations also bring new risks linked to the precariousness of the labor market .
All this was discussed this week in t...
The pandemic is accelerating changes in the work structure. Some of them, as a greater relevance of teleworking, have already been noted, while others will be developed with more intensity in the coming months: project work, automation, new curricular designs ... But these transformations also bring new risks linked to the precariousness of the labor market .
All this was discussed this week in the web conference The new configuration of work after the pandemic , organized by Esade, in which the director of the Institute of Labor Studies of the business school, Anna Ginès, and the dean of the Faculty of Law de Icade, Iñigo Navarro, listed the main threats presented and emphasized the need to design a legal system that protects workers. “The pandemic is spoken of as an opportunity, but this alone will not solve the problems . The future depends on what we do now and, above all, on how we want it to be ”, justified Ginès. These are some of the risks:
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Precariousness . "The health crisis has brought out the shame of the labor market," criticized the Esade directive. Spain is the second country in the European Union with a higher rate of temporary employment, in fact, it affects more than 26% of employees. A problem that is linked to the generalization of false self-employment, which has meant the exclusion of these people from basic social protection. The future, said Ginès, is then to promote employment, but also to ensure that it is of quality and to fight against irregularities.Uberization . In relation to the previous point, Navarro was especially concerned about the precariousness linked to the new digital platforms. “It could happen that instead of workers we have a real human cloud of work. Thus, each one would carry out the functions at home and when a company needed to carry out certain tasks, they would hire one of these free agents to serve at a specific time, "said the professor at Icade, who also insisted on the importance of that in telework the guarantees and working conditions prior to it are maintained.Adaptation and health . Although the response of many companies to enable teleworking has been very positive and in less than a week they moved their operations to the online world, there have also been significant deficiencies, such as the lack of technical resources for employees those who carry out their activity. “The ability to adapt in terms of occupational risks has been anecdotal. Very few companies have given specific guidelines on how to tackle telework in a healthy way, ”criticized Ginès, who also recalled that it is not recommended to spend eight hours of work in front of a laptop. It is the responsibility of the company, he continued, to guarantee the security and protection of data, despite the fact that the work is not carried out in its facilities.Reconciliation and disconnection . To take advantage of the benefits of working remotely, it must be implemented respecting certain guidelines, since the way in which it has been done during these months is unsustainable, especially with closed educational centers, claimed the Esade spokeswoman. "Teleworking only facilitates conciliation if it is associated with autonomy in the management of times and schedules," recalled Ginès. In this line, the expert warned about how the new scenario has demanded a greater effort by everyone, which has translated into more hours worked. A fact that has highlighted the need for digital disconnection policies. "The borders between working time and rest time have been blurred even more," the Esade expert criticized. A claim to which Navarro also joined: "During these months we have worked and lived in the same space, without there having been completely watertight moments".Collective bargaining . At first it was believed that the atomization of employees and the fact that there was no proper workplace, would have dire consequences for the association capacity, but the reality has overcome this fear. "Workers on digital platforms have shown that they can use the new tools for collective bargaining," said Ginès.Gender . There is still no data to analyze how telework affects each sex, however, if this possibility is presented as a tool for conciliation, there is a risk that, as usually happens with this type of policy, it is exclusively women who end up using it. To avoid this, the Esade board of directors urged to offer this model as a formula to combine professional and personal life - not just family life - which any worker, regardless of his or her vital moment, can use to gain quality of life .Culture . Offering teleworking as an option is not enough, but the entire structure of the company must be consistent: if face-to-face meetings are organized on a daily basis, remote work will be impractical. "These months it has worked because we were all in the same conditions, but you have to see what happens with a hybrid system," recalled Ginès. A format that also requires new skills: "Presenting a project well through a video call will be as important as doing it in person," Navarro concluded.
