REPORTS FROM WORKSHOPS

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Reports From the Workshops

Dave Spooner chaired the afternoon sessions and asked for brief reports from the parallel workshop sessions that had followed lunch. The LTC sought to elicit recommendations to policy-makers and Parliamentary decision-makers in the UK, to the trade union movement as a whole, and to the LTC itself. The delegates at each workshop had been asked to think about these.

1.The Export of Jobs
Stuart Howard (Secretary, Civil Aviation Section, ITF), Jo Seary (Head of Research, BIFU)

2. Organizing without workplaces
Brian Homer (Teleworker & Consultant) and Bill Walsh (National Officer, MSF)

3. Women and the new workforce
Clem Herman (Coordinator, Women's Electronic Village Hall)

4. Flexibility or exploitation?
Elaine Cook (National Officer, UCW) and David Souter (Head of Research, NCU)

5. New forms of employment
Claire Shearman (European Liaison Officer, Manchester City Council)

This was a difficult workshop, according to the rapporteur. This workshop paid attention to the international division of labour. At the same time it attempted to explore how the loss of British jobs could be minimised without falling into the trap of perpetuating the notion of "British jobs for British workers".

Ten points were made:

• Political parties should re-examine their rhetoric on ownership and regulation.

• There should be regulation of, and financial support for, open access to the information superhighway, for example through libraries and schools.

• The British trade union movement should work more at a European level; particular in accessing European resources for training and in lobbying for the adoption of Directives.

• Unions should reach out beyond their traditional membership towards those involved in the "telework movement" such as individual teleworkers and rural telecentres.

• The forthcoming ILO Convention on Homeworking could be used to focus discussions and debates.

• The role of public ownership and the provision of superhighway networks was emphasised. An example was given of the expansion of the SuperJanet academic network to include further education colleges and individual schools in the UK.

• Support should be given to the creation of telework centres with childcare facilities. This would overcome some of the problems of isolation.

• The use of English as the dominant language of the Infobahn presented opportunities for the British economy. There is a need for technical developments to overcome cultural imperialism and obstacles to international communication.

• There is a need to bring together people affected by teleworking and this should be done at a global level. Appropriate mechanisms for this would be the International Trade Secretariats and other international trades union bodies. A conference should be convened to bring together such workers.

• There is a need for social legislation within international trade agreements, such as GATT and its successor, the WTO.

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Participants agreed that the information superhighway should be accessible and available to as many people as possible. Most of the workshop discussion was devoted to the trade union movement and its use of the new technologies.

A comment was made in the workshop that most of the conference participants were already converts to the information superhighway. The workshop questioned whether this was true of the policy-makers in the unions and those who commit money to these projects.

Three types of teleworkers workers were identified:

• those who have chosen to work at home or elsewhere under the same terms and conditions as other employees;

• those who traditionally work outside common employment, for example the self-employed or salespeople;

• those whose workplaces had close down forcing them to work from home or elsewhere.

• The labour movement must remember its roots and continue to talk to people.

• The information superhighway can be used by unions for education and training, for joint marketing and to offer services such as financial and legal advice and assistance.

• The information superhighway is a European and global issue, not just of concern to the UK.

• The LTC should establish a directory of all trades union users of e-mail and provide support for new members and guides for new users.

• The TUC should also be developing these services.

• Some thought should be given as to whether the labour movement as a whole should have a network of its own. Efforts should be made to ensure that any such network is user-friendly.

• A list of the e-mail addresses of all conference participants would be useful.

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For women, some of the issues related to teleworking are similar to the whole area of home-working. They include social and psychological issues and issues of class involved in the types of work done by women in the home.

The group examined the relationship between teleworking and the domestic division of labour, and how women returning to work at home can be affected by the unpaid housework and childcare they already do there.

These workshop focused on the measures involved necessary to secure good practice in telework contracts and made the following recommendations:

• There should be a good practice guide for employers and trade unions with specific reference to women workers. This should include pay and conditions, case studies, advice and guidelines on bargaining issues and should be publicly and easily available.

• Networking on-line should be encouraged in an attempt to get women teleworkers to contact each other and thereby overcome some of the isolation. This would include trying to provide access for teleworkers to on-line networks, either in the home or from publicly accessible places.

• Political policy makers should investigate a new benefits system flexible enough to meet the needs of teleworkers on short contracts who may face the loss of social benefits. To encourage and enable women returners, there must be a system in which they can gradually return to full-time work without losing benefits.

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The workshop saw the first problem in discussing teleworking as one of definition. It identified two distinct groups of teleworkers:

• those in "conventional" employment with a particular employer, such as BT, which has agreements with some teleworkers as employees;

• those in casual employment or the self-employed, and those teleworkers who have to contract for work.

The first category is relatively straightforward. The difficulties come with the second category.

The workshop made the following recommendations:

• Facilities should be made available for people to gain access to teleworking.

• Facilities could be provided (by local authorities perhaps) to alleviate isolation.

• Ways should be found to give workers on short contracts access to the benefits structure, tax, pensions, and a minimum wage.

• Unions need to determine ways of enforcing agreements, and examine how they provide services to individuals and contractors in this type of employment.

• The Labour Telematics Centre should continue to facilitate this debate.

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Recommendations to policy-makers:

• Broaden out the agenda to include social actors as well as technocrats.

• In order to achieve that, establish forums for discussing the social impact of the infobahn using existing networks like the European Commission's Telecities and the Workers' Educational Association.

• Clarify the language of communication at a basic level to enable a wider group of people to engage with the debate.

• Encompass the regional dimension (to bring in grass roots players and stimulate diversity).

• Aim at universal access so that traditionally disadvantaged groups are not disadvantaged yet again.

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