Work 4.0: Work and Codetermination in digitalized production systems

Background and objectives

The research project “Work 4.0”, financed by the Hans Böckler Foundation, had two starting points. The first starting point was the debate on “Industry 4.0”. Industry 4.0 was initially little more than a vision and a model for the future of industrial production based on digital networking and the development of cyber-physical systems. However, the vision of the "new machine age" was accompanied by forecasts and scenarios of radical job cuts, new requirements on work, qualification and flexibility, or even ways of digitally controlling work. Thus, Industry 4.0 became a central topic in the industrial sociological debate. The second starting point was new activities and projects of the trade union interest groups to shape digitization, which were developed in parallel. For the trade unions, much was and still is at stake: the predicted decline in employment posed a fundamental threat to the future of industrial work, and Industry 4.0 seemed to shake the foundations of skilled production work, which remains at the heart of trade union organizational power in the industrial sectors. With the project "Work 2020 in NRW", the three industrial trade unions IG Metall, IG BCE and NGG launched a trade union project aimed at actively shaping the technological change processes rather than preventing them.

The "Work 4.0" research project aimed to provide scientific support for the trade union project. To this end, an interdepartmental team was set up with Prof. Dr. Gerhard Bosch, Prof. Dr. Thomas Haipeter, Dr. Tabea Bromberg (who unfortunately left us before the end of the project), Jutta Schmitz and Anne-Christin Spallek. This team pursued three overriding goals in the research process: The evaluation of information on the status of digitization, the analysis and assessment of the instruments of the "Work 2020" project such as the project workshops, the creation of a works map, the negotiation of future agreements with company managements, and thirdly and finally the investigation of the project's impact on the co-determination practice of works councils.

Research methods

These questions were approached with a new type of field approach, which focused on process support for the project. In this way, 19 of the approximately 30 cases from the first project phase of "Work 2020" were covered by our investigation – at the time our project duration ended, a second phase was added. The form of this monitoring was based on observational participation or participatory observation: the scientists were observers and recorders of the processes and recorded the course and results; they also intervened with their own questions and ideas and were part of the active consulting and support team in this role. The participatory observation was supplemented by expert interviews with works councils, trade union project secretaries and consultants.

Results

The findings can be bundled into three result clusters along the lines of the questions mentioned. The information collected in the consulting workshops on the spread of digitization suggests that digitization in the companies under investigation should be interpreted as an evolutionary process. Evolutionary means that new technologies dock on to old technological paths, that technological innovations take place gradually and that in most cases there is no overall digitization strategy in the companies that would have outlined digitization or Industry 4.0 as the technological target vision. The situation is different when companies are equipped with new control software, the so-called ERP systems. These systems have been introduced on a large scale in companies and are linked to many new – or old and adapted – systems, for example in production planning or design and development.

The collection of this data was also the decisive step on the way to the company map, one of the central instruments of the trade union project "Work 2020". The company maps are a graphic instrument that can be used to organize and graphically process the data on the development of digitization and working conditions in the respective departments or functional areas of the companies. However, the company map is more than just an information tool; it is also a dialogue instrument for the collection and use of the data. In the company agreements on the future of the company, the works councils agreed with the company management on extended options for shaping the future. As a result, seven future agreements were negotiated by the end of our research project, which primarily regulate co-determination processes such as commissions with equal representation. The future agreements thus formulate a mandate for action for the works councils that goes beyond the "Work 2020" project.

The "Work 2020" project has generated new impulses for co-determination among works councils. For quite a number of committees, the project provided the impetus to look into the development of their companies for the first time in full-day workshops and to exchange their experiences intensively. Some of the committees have developed more professional structures and reorganized their internal division of labour with committees. Secondly, the participation processes set up in the project meant new territory for many works councils. In two of the companies investigated, the participation offerings were also expanded through surveys and departmental meetings, which were strategically used to identify issues and strengthen the legitimacy of the representation of interests; in a third case, the trade union shop stewards were involved in the project from the outset. All in all, this enabled the works councils to significantly increase their level of competence and, where negotiations took place, to negotiate with management on an equal footing, on an issue of which most works councils had only approximate ideas before the project.

The "Work 2020" project opened up new resources and sources of power for works councils, strengthened their legitimacy and sharpened their interpretations of labour policy problems. It thus linked trade union company and industrial policy and showed that cooperation between works councils and trade unions in companies is becoming increasingly important. This applies above all to smaller companies, whose works councils usually have a considerable difference in competence compared with works councils in large companies.