Carer champ in Unison bid

UNISON could get its first female leader as assistant general secretary Christina Mcanea launches her bid to succeed chief Dave Prentis, retiring this year.

Ms Mcanea has fought for health and care workers during the pandemic after a 25-year union career.

She said: “I’ve spent my working life fighting to get a better deal for members.”

THE number of gig economy workers is estimated to have more than doubled to 4.7 million in three years.

Instead of a regular wage, workers are paid for “gigs” such as a food delivery or car journey through the likes of takeaway app Deliveroo and cab-hailing giant Uber.

Companies say the arrangement gives people flexibility over when

ARTIFICIAL Intelligence means machines that are capable of thinking like humans.

And it is already in use. Netflix’s AI system learns what subscribers like to watch and recommends shows, while words mined from the internet have been used to create an AI that writes prose.

BIG changes to how we work will also herald changes to how we live our daily lives in the future.

The coronavirus crisis has already seen millions of people working from home, with surveys suggesting that many want to make this set-up at least semi-permanent.

New technologies will make this even more possible, with massive they work. Critics claim that gig workers have few rights.

They have been among the worst hit by the coronavirus fall-out.

However, Gerwyn Davies, from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the gig economy was likely to continue growing as more hard-up people try to “top up their main income”.

In the NHS, it can be used to analyse scans for suspected diseases which frees up healthcare workers’ time.

AI is used in flight simulators as well as farming, and is crucial to driverless cars.

It has even been deployed to program robotic bricklayers. implications for town and city centres, demand for offices, road building and air travel.

The IPPR’S Carys Roberts said flexible working could become commonplace, even in sectors such as manufacturing.

She added: “That means people having more control over the hours they do and when they do them.”

GONE are the days you could leave school, walk into a job and expect to stay there until you retired. Those entering the world of work now have little hope of a job for life. Research by insurer LV= found the average worker will change employer every five years. Carys Roberts, from the Institute for Public Policy Research, said LIKE the gig economy, the use of zero-hours contracts has risen sharply in recent years. The Office for National Statistics estimates that nearly 900,000 workers are on call with no guaranteed hours. The number could swell further as employees in secure, permanent STUDIES suggest nearly 2.3 million UK jobs could be lost to new technologies. Former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned 10% of British jobs could go as a result. Positions in retail, manufacturing, administration and transport are thought to be most vulnerable, as everything from passport gates to Covid-19 had “accelerated trends in the jobs market by about ten years”. She added: “Nothing is inevitable and government policy can have a huge impact on the nature of the jobs available.” She added policy failures in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis fuelled a rise in zero-hours contracts and “bogus” self-employment. jobs are given the chop by companies scrambling to cut costs. And with vacancies plunging to a record low, they face a battle to find new work, handing enormous power to employers. The fear is firms will exploit this to take on staff in the cheapest, least-secure way possible. supermarket checkouts transitions to an automated service. But employment is still likely to grow, in a different direction. The World Economic Foundation says 133 million new jobs will appear in leading economies in just two years. The CIPD’S Gerwyn Davies said: “There will be downsides but new roles will be created.”