Ss28-04 Future Developments of Work and Their Ethical Dimensions: Focus on Technological Change

Introduction While there are many factors that influence the future of work, technological change is anticipated to be major. There is a need to anticipate what the future of work could be and identify the ethical and occupational safety and health (OSH) challenges that could arise due to emerging technologies. Materials and Methods This analysis builds off a previously published systematic review of scientific and grey literature using 11 bibliographic databases to identify scenarios of the future of work and the safety, health, and wellbeing hazards that might arise. Particular attention is paid to the role of technology in the future of work. Influential in the future of work is the convergence of emerging technologies. This convergence raises new ethical questions that need to be addressed by the use of anticipatory ethics and attention to social context. Results Three categories of future work scenarios were identified and the role of technology was found to be a common feature. Ethical issues were identified that included work intensification, lack of autonomy, deleterious effects on workers’ privacy, workers’ discrimination, control of data, and impacts on dignity. Conclusions The literature on the future of work has limited information on classic OSH hazards and is more focused on socioeconomic hazards, such as job loss from technological disruption. Psychosocial hazards have been identified as the likely most prominent. There is value in incorporating ethics in a proactive manner to anticipate issues that could arise as technologies emerge and before they adversely affect workers.