Industry 4.0 in terms of industrial relations and its impacts on labour life

Abstract

In the 18th century, when industrial production began, the use of steam and mechanized production caused serious changes in the economy. As a result, production costs have decreased alongside increase in product quantity and product quality. In this period, production has undergone a revolutionary transformation from manual labour to mechanization. In the following decades, the mass production with the help of electricity have resulted with the Industry 2.0 Era, and then, the emergence of digital revolution, the use of electronics and the use of information technologies in the production processes has triggered the Industry 3.0 Era. Today, the internet of objects, the industrial networks, the cyber-physical systems and the incorporation of robotic technologies into the production has brought the Industry 4.0 Age into the stage. Industry 4.0 has created a new production model where robots are effectively used in production, this new production model has begun to change the daily life, production and working relations as deeply as the first industrial revolution. However, the potential impacts of Industry 4.0 over the labour markets still remains as an understudied scholarly area. It is being evaluated that Industry 4.0 will lead to technological unemployment via changing the structure of employment and bring new structural problems in terms of unemployment and labour relations. Likewise, it is expected that automation and robotic production will deeply affect the unskilled labour force, and will cause a critical decrease in the workforce of vulnerable sections of society, i.e., women, migrants, youth and elderly. This study evaluates the probable effects of the 4th Industrial Revolution over the labour markets. Via the literature review and analysis of the emerging trends with Industry 4.0, the risks, opportunities and challenges of the process is being investigated within a comparative perspective. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.