Skills shift will grip NZ labour market
PROFESSIONALS IN careers threatened by new technology could be given grants for retraining.
The idea has come out of a ‘‘future of work’’ investigation, currently being carried out by the Labour Party, aiming to generate policies to prepare Kiwis for a rapidly changing workplace.
Policies coming out of the scheme could be key to reviving the party’s fortunes ahead of the 2017 election.
‘‘We cannot afford people to work in a job for 10 years, lose it, and walk away without transferable skills,’’ said Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson.
He is chairing the party’s future-of-work commission, and revealed subsidised training and education were already the big themes.
He added: ‘‘If we are looking at a situation where people are having six to 10 jobs in their lifetime, we need people to be constantly training and increasing their knowledge.’’
A team of independent expert advisers is helping 10 MPs to investigate themes including the impact of new technology and demands for greater workplace flexibility.
First reports from MPs are likely to be put out for public consultation in June or July.
An Oxford University study two years ago estimated that 47 per cent of United States workers were in occupations which could be badly affected by automation within 10 to 20 years.
The report’s authors said jobs most at risk included many whitecollar professions such as accountancy and legal work.
Henri Eliot, chairman of a voluntary panel advising Inland Revenue on its billion-dollar Business Transformation project, forecast in March that the role of the traditional accountant ‘‘would slowly decline and possibly almost disappear’’ as a result of the move to a more ‘‘real-time’’ tax system.
In an example of new labour practices, the New Zealand arm of Australian contracting company Transfield Services is consulting telecommunications technicians who maintain Chorus’ copper phone network, proposing it pay them a $32,000 annual retainer, plus a piece rate for the tasks they perform, rather than a regular salary.
Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union spokesman Joe Gallagher said the changes could be compared to zero-hours contracts and would reduce the employees’ income security.
Robertson acknowledged there was a political dimension to the project.
He said: ‘‘People who were traditional Labour supporters on the factory floor are now the guys in the Chorus vans who sometimes work for themselves. There is a perception we are no longer those people’s political party and the reality is we still want to be.’’
Xero New Zealand managing director, Victoria Crone, one of the external advisers, said the Industrial Revolution took about 150 years but the ‘‘internet revolution’’ was sweeping through in 40 or 50.
‘‘There will be seven or eight career changes, at least, for kids coming out of school these days.’’