Automation of production, digital revolution, robotisation, machine learning and further technological progress create new opportunities in the labour market through the need to build new industrial relations.
Building new relations arises, on the one hand, from changes in the structure of the labour market (e.g. new professions, sectors) and, on the other hand, from new forms of cooperation between an employee and an employer in the labour market (e.g. flexible employment, employment precarisation).
As a result of changes in the structure of the labour market, new industrial relations between economic operators and those involved in the social sphere (business, science, public administration, NGOs) as well as employees (e.g. flexible forms of employment) will be of significant importance.
Labour Demand
The development of information technology is gradually leading to the economy less and less dependent on the workforce. Reduced labour demand is the result of that development. Nevertheless, new technological advancement (e.g. an application, software or an information system) will bring about a greater demand for professions related to the identification and understanding of customer needs, as well as new forms of employee mobility.
Concurrent competition and cooperation in various sectoral areas generates new development perspectives, and the combination of science, research and implementation with the business environment allows for new quality and higher profitability of the entire economy, including the labour market.
New industrial relations resulting from the 4.0 revolution will have an impact, through a new dimension of capital productivity, on labour productivity and thus on economic efficiency, production and income growth. Higher labour productivity will create opportunities for pay rise which, together with falling unitary production cost, will increase prosperity.
Some workplaces will be lost, while new opportunities to stimulate labour demand will be created. There will be a qualitative shift from the competitive model of industry, so far based on low labour costs, towards the use of modern mechanisms of generating knowledge and technology.
Change in the Structure of Industry
The stratification of labour market structures will be accompanied by the emergence of new industries with a high degree of automation and individualisation of products and services. New industrial relations may be assumed to contribute to the change in the structure of the industry – both from the intra-industry perspective (new products and services as well as functional advancement in value chains) and from the inter-industry perspective (new innovative sectors). The aim will be to create the market demand for final goods. An essential role will be played by measures aimed at selectively selected sectors of industry, having the ability to compete in global markets, with a stable market position (including traditional ones) and key importance for the economy, with a significant percentage share in production, export, or showing high growth rate in both categories.
New industrial relations will be feasible to be built by means of launching initiatives that will support the process of industrial transformation towards the digitisation of technological and management processes of enterprises and other organisations, as well as reforming vocational and continuing education in terms of strict harmonisation with the labour market.
