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  • Writer's pictureChristina J. Colclough

Training material - Digitalisation of Work and Workers

The global union for public services unions - PSI - is running a 3-year capacity building project called "Our Digital Future". The Why Not Lab is fortunate to be working with PSI on this project. It trains trade unions in all regions of the world on the issue of the digitalisation of public services and employment. We are making all of the training material public. Read on!


Digital Rights Organisers

The project works with 3 distinct groups of trade unionists. Firstly, in each region: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin-America and Europe, North America and the Caribbean, Digital Rights Organisers participated in 3 in-depth sessions aimed at equipping them with key insights. knowledge and practical tools to become the regional experts who can support unions in their collective bargaining and political advocacy for much stronger rights for workers in digitalised workplaces. See the training material for Europe, North America, Canada and the Caribbean below. If you are interested in the material for the other regions, please contact me.

Digital Rights Organisers NA_EU_CA Training Material
.pdf
Download PDF • 2.12MB

Union Leaders

The second group we held workshops for were executive level trade union leaders. They are the gatekeepers of union transformation and standing in murky waters as political, organisational and strategic decisions need to be made yet with little union-specific direction available. These workshops offered the union leaders a space to share their concerns, experiences and strategies. Once again, the material for these workshops is available for all regions upon request, including our bespoke Digital Impact Framework - an online guide to help unions tap into the potentials of digital technologies yet at the same time protect their members privacy and uphold human rights.


Image from Digital Impact Framework

Collective bargaining officers and negotiators

Front page of training material for bargaining officers/negotiators

The third and final group we worked with are those who are responsible for collective bargaining and negotiations as well as the union staff who are there to support them. As more and more workplaces and public services deploy digital tools and systems, and as many workers across the world have very few legal rights and protection, collective bargaining will be key to reshaping digitalisation so fundamental rights and freedoms are protected.


These hands-on, practical workshops were held autumn/winter 2022-2023 and introduced participants to 3 tools developed for this project:

  1. The Negotiating Data Rights Tool - an online tool that step-by-step helps bargaining officers traverse the complex fields of data protection and managerial opaqueness with the aim to bridge legal gaps and ensure workers have strong, collective data rights.

  2. The Co-Governance Guide to Algorithmic Systems - a guide consisting of 7 themes and 21 questions workers should be asking management to ensure digital transparency, liability and responsibility at the same time as working with management to ensure these systems protect labour market diversity and rights. (sneak peak the guide here)

  3. PSIs Digital Bargaining Hub - a searchable database of collective bargaining clauses related to digitalisation. These clauses and framework agreements are from public and private sector unions from across the world, organised in a taxonomy.


As mentioned above, we can share all of the training material for all regions. Simply ask

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