WorkerTech: new approaches to improve the prospects of workers

Employment is at a record high, yet the UK has a very large and growing low-wage economy, with six million workers earning less than the Living Wage. Self-employment, agency based work and jobs in the ‘gig economy’ are on the rise, leaving large parts of the workforce with insecure hours and little prospect for progression.

The tech sector itself has come under the spotlight for the quality of jobs created in the 'sharing' or 'platform' economy. But at this event we're focusing on how tech can be used to boost worker rights.

New approaches that use tech to increase support for workers are possible – whether in increasing bargaining power, boosting pay or reducing hours-insecurity. Some examples of this are starting to be seen in other countries, notably the USA. But tech-enabled pro-worker innovation in the UK is still in short supply.

This Tech for Good meetup is brought to you in partnership with Resolution Trust, a charity which backs innovative work to promote shared economic growth and a wider distribution of power across society.

We’ll hear from a number of speakers using tech to change the world of work so that it improves the prospects of those at the sharp-end of the jobs market.

Speakers include:

Gavin Kelly, Chief Executive at the Resolution Trust and media commentator on economics and public policy, providing an overview of the issues and highlighting areas where tech can improve the way we work.

Antonia Bance, Head of Campaigns and Communications, Trade Union Congress (https://www.tuc.org.uk/), talking about the changing landscape for trade unions and the role of tech in the institutions that support workers.

Jess Kutch and Michelle Miller, Co-founders of Coworker.org (https://www.coworker.org/) a petition website for worker-led campaigns, join via Skype from the US. In the past year the site has been an important part of a number of small victories for US workers, including changes to dress code policy (https://www.coworker.org/petitions/we-want-visible-tattoos-too) in US fast food chain Jimmy John’s and the provision of paid parental leave (https://www.coworker.org/petitions/netfix-extend-paid-parental-leave-policy-to-all-employees) at Netflix. More than one in ten Starbucks employees worldwide have interacted with the website.

Six Silberman, also joins via Skype from the US. Six was a researcher involved in the development of Turkopticon (https://turkopticon.ucsd.edu/), a browser extension allowing “Turkers” on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website to rate and review “Requesters”, and he's now working for large German trade union, IG Metall to develop a successor to faircrowdwork.org (http://faircrowdwork.org/en/watch)

Finally, we'll hear from Oliver Crofton, Managing Director of Flexy (http://www.home.weareflexy.com/), a London based startup disrupting the agency work sector - charging lower commission, and offering guaranteed minimum payment at the Living Wage rate.

If you'd like to talk about your tech for good project in this area then do get in touch (jessica@bethnalgreenventures.com).

We'll finish the talks with the usual roundup of community announcements - providing you with a forum to promote projects, events and job opportunities to the tech for good community at large.

We have started charging a £3 fee to help manage attendance numbers and cover the costs of running the meetup. We don't want this to be a barrier to entry, so if you have any problems with the fee please do let us know (jessica@bethnalgreenventures.com).