I speak today about the future of work in New South Wales. In his recent bookTechnofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Greek Australian economist, Yanis Varoufakis, posits that the rapid emergence of new cloud technology with particularly sophisticated algorithms, combined with the ongoing impacts of the global financial crisis in 2008, have fundamentally changed capitalism. In a traditional market economy, rational actors are said to buy and sell commodities, including their labour, in service of their own needs, interests and goals. Feudalism, in its most basic form, is a system where peasants or serfs serve their lords through labour such as farm work, and in return are permitted to live within the fiefdom.
Far from the freedom of choice, which is ostensibly available under capitalism, the living and working conditions of serfs were entirely dependent on the generosity of their masters. Varoufakis argues that, under "technofeudalism", individuals are both the consumers of goods and are the products themselves because massive tech companies generate earnings from harvesting data and content from users. Varoufakis also talks about "cloud proles", who are exploited workers in factories and warehouses that serve billionaires. The most well-known and notorious of these companies is Amazon The horrific conditions workers face in Amazon fulfillment centres are well-documented.
Workers are denied toilet breaks, forced to work in unsafe conditions in extreme temperatures and have their every move closely monitored across their shifts. One employee in a United Kingdom fulfillment centre described the conditions as "slave like". Amazon has also engaged in significant union-busting activities, including paying consultants huge sums to devise anti-union campaigns and engaging in intimidation and character assassination tactics against union leaders and employees who wish to unionise. I am concerned that this brutal, United States style treatment of workers is increasingly infecting other workplaces in Australia.
Five Woolworths distribution warehouses are currently on strike, including one in Erskine Park in Western Sydney. Workers are demanding fair pay and a national agreement for warehouse workers across the country. One of their most pressing demands, however, is that Woolworths abandons its plans for a punitive system of productivity quotas for workers and reduce the extreme degree of surveillance that workers are currently subject to. Woolworths warehouse workers report that they are constantly surveilled by cameras and management and are routinely questioned about the length of toilet breaks or the speed of their work This constant surveillance has devastating psychological effects. It leaves workers feeling stressed, anxious and isolated from their colleagues.
Woolworths intends to implement a system of productivity targets that requires workers to be 100 per cent productive 100 per cent of the time while performing this laborious and physically demanding work. This is an unrealistic requirement in any job. The productivity targets will be set at an arbitrary level and will not account for personal characteristics such as age, ability, injury or pregnancy. Workers who fall below the target will face disciplinary measures, including termination. One mistake will put workers on probation for 12 weeks, meaning that most people will constantly be at risk of losing their jobs. It raises the question: How has it got to this point? Are these the kinds of conditions we want to be imposed on workers in New South Wales? Frankly, it is inhumane.
No person should be forced to work under these conditions. I visited a procurement centre in Moorebank. While it was incredibly efficient, it is no place to put a human in the middle of. Workers are effectively there as machines, not human beings. Are workplaces where you can have a chat and a smoko now a privilege for the wealthy? The technological ability to survey and strictly police the conduct of workers, or to replace their jobs entirely, is already available and becoming increasing sophisticated. Developments in AI will only exacerbate this. This is not just a problem for Woollies workers; it is something that should be of concern to every working person in this country and State.
Now is the time to decide what kind of society we want to have and how we will manage changes in technology and the functioning of capitalism. Australia has historically had strong workers protections and a good balance between work, rest and play for workers. This is largely thanks to Labor governments and the labour movement. There is no reason Australia cannot be a workers' paradise again, where ordinary workers have a good quality of life and access to meaningful unionised work, education and health care. We tamed the worst excesses of capitalism during the twentieth century, and we can do so again in the twenty-first century.
