Organised labour, under the IndustriALL Global Union, has said, for the era of digital industrialisation, known as fourth industrial revolution, to be successful in Nigeria, workers should be retrained and not ridiculed by employers.
It said employers of labour know that workers can be defective but retooling, education and capacity were needed for workers to be effective to competently face challenges.
This was part of the communiqué released after six different meetings with government and employers of labour at the end of a workshop on lndustrialisation 4.0.
IndustriALL vice president, Issa Aremu, stated this at the weekend in Abuja during the celebration of Africa Industrialisation Day (AID).
Aremu said though workers would be affected by the fourth industrialisation era as robots and machines would replace workers, the retraining of the workforce is in the best interest of all.
He said they: “Demanded that for there to be just transition to 4th Industrial revolution , there should be education and re-training for the workers. Employers and governments should not criminalize skill gaps as a result of digitalizations of production. The Fourth Industrial Revolution calls for the need to develop skills and know-how by workers to work with digital technologies, because they will be increasingly presented in our life and work.”
Parts of the communiqué read that the paticipants: “Insist that whatever forms of Industrialization, first or fourth industrial revolution, there must be decent sustainable jobs for the workers with job security, living wages and living pensions. Businesses and owners of capital are employing robots, machines and computers to replace workers in order to maximize profits and lower wages or even deny pay all together. Yes technology makes work easier, but they also could lead to job losses.
“Resolve to develop a Sustainable Industrial Policy on digitalisation and Industry 4.0 and to campaign against any transformation that does not further much needed social justice and include a just transition for age ted workers.
“Also demanded that sustainable industrial policy must be based on an assessment of how to steer towards a destination we desire as a society, rather than a destination that is favourable to only a few.
“ Asked for a future of work that embraces the positive impacts that Industry 4.0 may bring for all of society while making sure that workers aren’t left to pay the social debt of companies, with governments unwilling to make this transition socially responsible.”
Aremu asserted that labour also demanded that the benefits of industrialization should not be privatized while the costs is socialized.