Brussels
(Brussels) “Shaping the future of work” – this is the title of the document published by the Social Affairs Commission of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) which deals with the effects on the labour market of digital and ecological transformations in the European society. The text looks to the 2019 European elections and the centenary of the International Labour Organization, stressing the need for “a common European vision so as to ensure that everybody will benefit from these changes”, the introduction reads. Divided into four sections, the paper starts with a reflection on work, understood as a source of income, and also, more broadly, as “an integral part of human identity”. Indeed, work helps “people to find their place in society”, promotes their personal development, and fosters “care for creation” to make “the common house more fruitful for the next generations”. The second section reflects on today’s “risks”: job polarisation creates “more work opportunities for high-skilled people while putting the routine-task jobs of the middle class at risk”; flexibility threatens job security and the right to work; and the line between professional and private life has become blurred as a result of digitalisation. The analysis then, according to the text, continues on how to “shape the current trends towards a decent, sustainable and participative world of work for all”. The document ends with (http://www.comece.eu/) 17 policy recommendations.
