INTEFP: Digitalisation, platforms, data. 

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Digitalisation, platforms, data: toward new challenges for social dialogue?

Céreq researcher Jean-Marie Dubois is auditor at the 36th national session of the National Institute of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training (INTEFP) and financed by the European Social Fund (FSE). This session brings together thirty institutional managers and social actors, a parliamentarian and a journalist, who will all participate in an original exchange of practices and ideas that could lead to a new perspective on the subject.

Digital platforms, by modifying the framework governing labour relations based on the classic employee/employer relationship, challenge social balances and their regulatory procedures. One of the major characteristics opened by the digital is due to the possibilities of communication and remote cooperation based on infrastructures and connected networks. At the heart of these economic dynamics, digital platforms allow the different sides of the offer and the demand to meet and interact, conferring them a central role. 

 

For employers, employees and union representatives, but also administrations and public officials, questioning the nature of the changes at work and making it a real challenge of social dialogue remains a major issue today, in companies and within territories. However, especially in the US, there has been a long-term decline of Unionism. To face these disruptions, beyond the theme of the disappearance of a large number of jobs which tends to monopolize the debate, technological change leads to a major reflection in terms of employment and skills management, given the difficulty of anticipating activities and jobs of tomorrow.

Through multiple uses and practices, the digital economy recomposes the forms of activity of work and employment. A plurality of situations questions the boundaries and markers that allow to qualify the status of "workers", notably to operate the employee/self-employed distinction. The development of new forms of employment related to digital platforms raises concerns about legal uncertainties and criticism of the asymmetry of competition constitutes a lever to contribute to the integration of workers on the labour market.

 

New York, French consulate, November 1st 2018
                                                                    New York, French consulate, November 1st 2018

The 2nd module took place in Boston and New York (USA) from 27th october to 3rd november 2018 where the group met different experts on the subject of digital platforms and social dialogue: Union representatives, researchers from prestigious universities (MIT, Harvard, New York University, Brandeis University), digital platforms/marketplaces, old members of the Ministry of Labour, big companies (IBM) and external observers. 

Berlin, French Embassy
                                                                                   Berlin, French Embassy, March 4th 2019

The 4th module just took place in Berlin (Germany) and Brussels (Belgium) from 3rd to 8th march 2019 where the group also met different experts both at the German and European levels. In Berlin, they discussed the subject of digital platforms and social dialogue with public institutions (Ministry of Labour), representatives of the two most important Unions (IG Metall and Ver.di) and one employers’ organisation (BDA), a digital platform and a researcher from the technical university of Berlin. At the European level, the regulation of digital platforms has recently been a major concern: the group met representatives of different DGs of the European Commission to discuss their initiatives, and also union representatives, employers’ organisation, digital platforms to talk about their experiences.

 

This 36th national session will last almost a year and is composed of 5 modules: 

  Places Dates
MODULE 1 Marcy l'étoile (France) from 3rd to 6th july 2018
MODULE 2 Boston/New York (USA) from 27th october to 3rd november 2018
MODULE 3 Marcy l'étoile (France) from 10th to 13th december 2018
MODULE 4 Berlin (Germany) and Brussels (Belgium) from 2nd to 9th march 2019
MODULE 5 Marcy l'étoile (France) from 23rd to 26th april 2019

 

Contact (Céreq):  Jean-Marie Dubois

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INTEFP: Digitalisation, platforms, data. , https://www.cereq.fr/node/6914