Commission set to look at robot threat to jobs

A new commission has been set up to examine the impact of automation on employment.

Senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper will chair the commission,whichwillexamine how to create and protect good quality jobs and support workers through the process of rapid technological change.

The panel, set up by the Community union and the Fabian Society, will report in 2020.

The scale of the challenge was underlined by a poll which indicated that more than a fifth of workers feared their job would be rendered obsolete in the next decade.

The poll suggested that workers were generally positive about their own ability to cope with change – 73 per cent are confident they will be able to adapt and update their skills if new technology affects their job. And 53 per cent suggested they were were optimistic about their future working lives and job prospects when thinking about the changes in workplace technology by 2028.

But 22 per cent agreed they were worried that their current job may not be needed by 2028 and 36 per cent thought their role would change for the worse.

Only nine per cent of workers think that the UK government is taking steps to prepare them for new workplace technologies and only 16 per cent employees with a trade union in their workplace think that their unions are taking steps to help ensure that new technologies improve their working life.