What about the transition process?
This was the concern of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) after the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced on Thursday that at least 18.2 million workers will be displaced due to the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe) in the next 5 to 6 years.
ALU-TUCP National Executive Vice President Gerard Seno said the forecast should have prompted the government to start preparing for the impact of modern technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in workplaces.
He said FIRe-related labor displacement is already happening across industries.
“We can confirm that workers particularly in the agriculture, retail and manufacturing are now being impacted with only 1 employee left operating a machine in a production line that used to be manned by 5-10 workers,” Seno said.
ALU-TUCP said the government should have unemployment insurance for the FIRe-affected workers.
Earlier this week, the Social Security System (SSS) finally issued the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the unemployment insurance provision–the first in the country–of the Social Security Act of 2018.
The benefit, however, drew criticism from labor groups since it only provides involuntarily displaced workers with temporary cash aid without any job facilitation and skills training provision.
Seno noted the importance of skills training especially for those displaced by FIRe.
“Affected or displaced workers might have difficulty to cope and acquire new skills needed to cope with the innovation if government will not be able to provide adequate and inexpensive up-skilling sessions for them,” Seno said.