Press Release No. 72/2015 IG Metall Explores Opportunities for Collaboration Between Humans and Robots

Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall intends to capitalize on the opportunities arising from the increasing use of lightweight robots and new forms of human-machine collaboration in industry. This could reduce monotonous, health-hazardous work while simultaneously creating new, skilled jobs. A prerequisite for this is that the potential of the new generation of robots is actually fully realized and that human-robot collaboration is shaped in partnership with works councils and unions. “In order to develop a new form of collaboration between humans and machines, we must promote new forms of work with expanded job profiles and greater scope for action for employees. This will certainly require different qualifications than those needed today,” said Jörg Hofmann, President of IG Metall, on Wednesday at the symposium “The Future of Work – The New Robots Are Coming” in Berlin, attended by works council members as well as representatives from academia and politics.

At the same time, however, it is important to prevent people from being marginalized. “After all, we don’t want to see a ballet of lightweight robots in the future, in which humans play, at best, a supporting role,” said Hofmann. Employees should not be left with only the remaining tasks that lightweight robots cannot yet take over. The ease of use of the new robots—which can be guided by humans and thus learn work processes from them—makes it possible to assign employees a new role. “It’s entirely conceivable that, in certain areas, employees will independently produce small batches in the future, supported by lightweight robots,” said Hofmann.

At the same time, there is concern that the use of robots could lead to significant rationalization effects. “This has not led to factories without people in the past—and it will not lead to that in the future either. Because the use of these new robots also presents opportunities to improve competitiveness and secure jobs,” said the IG Metall chairman. “The key is to intelligently combine the use of people and machines. This means that labor costs are lower overall, while employee skills and ergonomics are at a higher level. In this way, value creation and employment can be secured in Germany. We have considerable leeway to shape this,” said Hofmann.

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