In many industries within the services sector of our economy, workers face the challenges of a cost of living crisis and the impact of technological change.
The move to a greater amount of remote working has benefited many workers, but this opportunity is largely unavailable for those employed in the services sector due to the necessity that they work ‘on-site’.
Indeed, rather than technology freeing up service industry workers the spread of platform work, where workers’ lives are tied to the algorithm of digital apps, has only resulted in increased pressures and demands.
To counter these negative trends the Union is working to establish conditions that will give workers greater stability in their jobs. These include minimum periods of notice on weekly rosters becoming part of Sectoral Employment Orders and other measures.
However, our organisation and our movement has to adapt, and do so quickly, if we are to catch up on and then get ahead of the change being driven in our workplaces through advances in digital technology.
This subject will be central to the upcoming SIPTU Services Divisional Conference that will take place in Galway on 10th -11th October.
The theme of that conference is ‘Union Renewal – A Fair Deal for Workers’. This slogan encapsulates the need for not only change within our Union, so it can best meet the challenges of the future but also that we need to strive to ensure no matter what the developments in our wider economy that workers’ interests are placed at the centre of public debate.