The change that is currently under way is the change in work
that occurs following the introduction of new technology and new ways of organizing activities.
Service jobs are in many respects radically different from the old type of industrial work – and as we
have seen, the former category is rapidly expanding. These differences can be viewed from various
dimensions. Within the producing companies the key fact is that work is now less geographically
restricted. ICT means that work can be done from several different workstations and people who work
together do not necessarily have to be in the same place. Against this background new possibilities are
created for new decentralized solutions for work organization within companies. At the same time,
however, the foundations are laid for different corporate solutions. In cases where this is considered
suitable, a larger proportion of tasks or jobs can be allocated outside the company: the phenomenon
known as outsourcing. Possibilities for increased time flexibility are also created. A large share of
service work is not dependent on coordination at a specific point in time. The result is more individual
solutions in the form of flexitime, free time, etc.
Service work is also in other respects – and always has been – different from the more strictly
controlled industrial work. Important here are the different demands made on skills. It is an
oversimplification to claim that a shift from industrial to service work is always accompanied by
demands for a higher skilled workforce: in actual fact, different skills are being sought. Of this
development it is often said that the human capital is becoming an increasingly important factor. This
holds particularly true for companies where a small number of people hold an increasingly large share
of the capital, both in real terms and with regard to so-called immaterial value. Against this
background more general traits such as responsibility and judgement become fundamental. Another
aspect of this is that individualized service work is very difficult to monitor. This, too, implies a high
degree of responsibility and judgement. In addition, this service work depends on many broad and
general skills. The individual is not primarily required to be a highly skilled specialist but is instead
Working without limits ?
Re-organising work and reconsidering workers’ health
PLENARY SESSIONS
TUTB-SALTSA Conference, Brussels, 25-27 September 2000 7
expected to have a good general education and the capacity to accommodate solutions to changing
circumstances. In more basic service jobs the formal level of skill is often low, whereas a high degree
of social skills is demanded.
Thirdly, we can to some extent relate changes in the form of employment to the larger process of
change that we are discussing here. Nobody can claim that full-time employment and steady work was
the norm in previous years. Where this has been the case, it has only been for a short period of time in
the history of industrial work and industrialism. As late as the between-the-wars era, different forms of
temporary employment contracts, including seasonal work, were still very common. In the post-war
period, too, whe