It is not my intention for this note to have political overtones. However, the topic to be addressed is intimately linked not only to politics but to the will and judgment of those who hold power.
Today more than ever, it is a reality that the world is evolving at great speed. While Congresses debate whether or not it is necessary to create a new law to regulate a certain issue, two or three new regulatory needs arise.
Business models are evolving and generating new employment dynamics. And yet, the vast majority of regional labor legislation has done little to adapt to new global needs and models.
Recently, a president in the area stated that the best social program is job creation. That same political discourse has been heard in other political campaigns in the region. But what are we doing to make that discourse a reality?
There are many factors that can influence job creation, and certainly, many mechanisms and strategies have been used in the area to achieve it. At one point, there was a focus on tourism and maquila; today, it is the service market that has evolved in the region. But modernizing and adapting labor legislation to global trends is an issue that has been overlooked and, from my perspective, is a priority for the region if we want to become competitive and generate more and better employment opportunities in our countries.
It seems we have forgotten that we are in the fourth (technological) revolution, which implies that the current world is becoming a giant information system. The Internet of things, “big data,” 3D printing, artificial intelligence, “cloud computing,” virtual reality, etc., may seem like terms far removed from our reality. However, they are already modifying business structures and impacting employment conditions; and the question is: are we prepared legally and socially for this change?
As Sardagoy pointed out: “One of the problems that is usually found in deepening the changes in labor legislation is a certain exhaustion of ideas, given that for more than half a century, labor conflicts have been resolved with the same paradigms, making it difficult to innovate at the speed at which real changes occur.”
We should not only think about modifying and adjusting our educational and training system to prepare for these changes. We must allow the basic principles that have regulated our labor legislation since the last century to evolve. We must also substantially modify our laws and their interpretation to strive to be competitive. For example, issues such as flexible working hours, the 4×3 workday, regulations on information ownership, BYOD, non-liquid salaries, “contractors,” the “uberization” of services, and similar topics are relevant for the new decade.
It is no longer just about the fear of losing a job to a robot or a computer. It is about the fact that other countries have modified their legal structure in an attempt to adapt. Today more than ever, Darwin’s famous phrase is applicable: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change.”
Let us all ensure that this new decade is the beginning of a technological and legal transformation in our region, for the good of our countries and their future generations.