Future of Work

The FES Regional Comptence Center on the Future of Work in Asia-Pacific (Future of Work project) is a platform for unionists, workers, labor leaders, and labor institutions in the Asia-Pacific region to come together and strategize collectively on issues that affect workers and their rights.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is rapidly sweeping the region, leaving workers with fewer alternatives to keep their jobs and also in being treated fairly. The gig economy along with the intricacies of supply chains, offers precarious employment, obscures traditional work patterns which makes it harder for unions to organize. Climate change is also making work challenging, with extreme weather conditions like heat waves creating more stressful working conditions that are not taken into account in workplace policies. Along with all these issues, gender justice is an overarching concern as workers face numerous obstacles in ensuring that women in productive work have same rights and economic value as their male counterparts.

These present challenges require more workers-led interventions such as meaningful workers’ dialogue with employers, gender sensitization among trade unions, an appreciation of just transition principles and how they can be incorporated into collective bargaining agreements, and pushing for national and regional policy frameworks that give equal consideration to workers' rights to decent work, organize, and collectively bargain. The FES Regional Comptence Center on the Future of Work in Asia-Pacific hopes to provide appropriate tools and strategies for workers to create these interventions brought together by workers themselves.