Unite spokesman Tony Burke has spoken of his unions fear on how technology is going to change the workplace forever. Burke on a Sky News report said the world is facing a change in employment as we have never faced before. It will impact mainly on the poorest who do everyday jobs with a possibility of 15 million jobs disappearing in the future.
It will impact even those jobs that lead to a promotion for ordinary people hoping to get a better position and more pay. In a sense, this Rise of the robots and artificial intelligence is like a second industrial revolution, and back then people lost their traditional jobs with the age of steam for example.
But this second industrial revolution is more widespread and will impact everyone at work, and only those who are trained and ready for this will be ok.
For years this technological revolution has been foreseen, but nothing has been done by the by the governments of the world. In answer to this, a spokesman for the Government has said it has commissioned a report to look into it by German industrial giant Siemens.
Labour looked into universal basic income
Some time ago Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said Labour would be looking into UBI or Universal Basic Income. This process of looking into this payment would take some years and so the findings of this investigation as to whether it can be put into practice may take some time.
The concept of UBI is that it would be paid to people whether people worked or not and therefore many means-tested benefits could be scrapped. Switzerland a while ago had a vote if the state should introduce this form of payment but it was narrowly defeated never the less I feel UBI's time is coming.
UBI has been suggested by those on the left because automation will, by and large, put poorer people out of work.
It will also end the stigma of people being out of work and hopefully inspire a new age of leisure and volunteer work in theory at least.
The current welfare laws for people in work or out are out of date still reflecting a 1950's attitude to work and need to be updated. Welfare should now reflect the coming change that is going to happen in the world of work because of technology and prepare for UBI to be rolled out.
As long as this present government is in power it is doubtful a move to a UBI state will happen but something will need to be done as technology is changing the way we work fast.
UBI: Will it create a utopian society?
One would like to think that the introduction of UBI to compensate for the lack of employment as automation comes in would create a utopian society. A world where the government pays UBI for people who are still lucky enough to be working and those people who are not.
Once UBI is rolled out and introduced will less be paid to those working in the new technological industries (as presumably, they will already be on a high salary) and more to those not working? It is all very well suggesting UBI, and I am not in disagreement with it but how it will be paid and what amount to whom is still unknown.
Will people despite receiving UBI and pursuing their leisurely lives get bored with this new lifestyle foisted upon them by technology? It is probable that many people will accept this transformation to society but some may not and therein lies the trouble.
Meanwhile, whether we work or not right now we have to exist in the society we have at the moment.
