In a breakfast meeting with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), COMECE discussed on Thursday best practices to ensure a decent work-life balance for the ongoing process of digitalisation of the world of labour.
(Credit: COMECE)
The event was organized by the European Sunday Alliance as a follow-up to last year’s conference “Work-Life-Balance 4.0 – Challenges in a time of digitalisation”, and gathered a group of 60 MEPs, researchers and representatives from the private and public sectors in order to discuss the impact that new technologies have on the traditional model of work in Europe.
The participants to the breakfast meeting shared their studies and experiences, highlighting risks, opportunities and challenges for workers and employers in the on-going digitalisation of the labour market, and dedicated a particular focus to the increasingly widespread practices of ICT mobile work and telework.
According to a recent ILO/Eurofound report, “the expanding use of digital technologies […] can improve work-life balance, reducing commuting time and boost productivity, but it can also potentially result in longer working hours, higher work intensity, work-home interference”. Oscar Vargas – who presented the ILO/Eurofound report – concluded by stating: “a partial or occasional form of telework appears to be more positive balanced than with a higher frequency”.
Mireille Jarry, Counsellor for Social Affairs of the French Permanent Representation to the EU, who was invited as representative of the public sector, illustrated the “Right to Disconnect”, a right that has been recently included in the French legislation with the aim to reduce the intrusion of work-related digital devices after working hours and balance workers’ professional and family lives.
Representatives of the private sector were Christof-Sebastian Klitz from the Volkswagen Group and Burkhard Ober from the Allianz SE European Affairs Office. Both have described best-practice examples carried out by Volkswagen and Allianz in order to improve the compatibility between work and family life of their employees.