The Future of Labour in the Digital Era. Ubiquitous Computing, Virtual Platforms, and Real-time Production

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Digitalization, automation and increasing robotisation in health care, industry and beyond, coupled with the advent of platform-based competitive mediation of work (crowdworking) – all impact on the future of work and labour. The associated challenges to the labour market, working conditions, wages, and the blurring boundary between private and professional life are the topic of intensive political and societal debate in many countries. Just take the conflicts surrounding Uber and AirBnB and their entry to traditional markets, as well as the vision of the so-called Internet of Things or cyber-physical systems, as the most prominent issues. Technology assessment (TA) always tries to be at the forefront of such debates. It is therefore not surprising that the member institutions of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) network have already devoted a number of projects on labour issues related to digitalisation. The Annual EPTA Conference 2016 “The future of labour in the digital era: Ubiquitous computing, virtual platforms and real-time production” was thus devoted to this timely and exciting topic. This report continues a series of similar reports compiled by the respective presidency of the EPTA network. As in previous years, it is a collection of contributions written from the perspectives of all full and associate members of EPTA. This report also includes a general introduction and a synthesis that gives the reader a compact summary of the state-of-the-art in the EPTA countries. The report was originally intended to inform the participants of the Annual EPTA Conference held in the Austrian Parliament in Vienna on 21st October 2016. After the conference it has been amended to reflect the lively debates and to include the preliminary results of the conference debates. Publisher: EPTA – European Parliamentary Technology AssessmentPublished: Vienna; November 2016Editor: Michael NentwichAuthors of country report "Austria": Tanja Sinozic, Michael Nentwich, Walter Peissl, Georg Aichholzer & Johann Čas