ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit)

Image credit: Hanna Barakat & Cambridge Diversity Fund / betterimagesofai.org / creativecommons.org/licenses/by/...

Thanks to the Better Images of AI library!

A collage featuring a vintage illustration of a woman’s head mapped with labeled sections resembling a phrenology chart. The mapped sections are overlaid by a neutral network diagram– depicting crisscrossing black lines. Two anonymous hands extend from the left side, pulling on two wires from the diagram. In the background is a panel of the Turing Machine with numerous knobs and switches, highlighting a connection between the history of computing, psychology, biology, and artificial intelligence. Overlayed is a logo for the ESRC Digital Futures at Work Research Centre. Below is the text: CoLab Insights: Emerging challenges in the digitalisation of work.

What does the digital transformation of work look like from your perspective?

In our first Digit CoLab Insights briefing, we report on the key insights from our first CoLab, bringing together voices from business, policy, trade unions and civil society.

digit-research.org/insights/eme...

Last day today of our Early Bird Registration for the International Labour Process Conference here in Leeds (22-24 April). Standard tickets will continue to be available until 15 March.

store.leeds.ac.uk/conferences-...

@ukri.org @sussexunibusiness.bsky.social @ceric-lubs.bsky.social

Image: Jamillah Knowles & Digit / betterimagesofai.org / creativecommons.org/licenses/by/...

Our Marie Jahoda Innovation Fund is open to applications!

We are looking for
🔎innovative research projects, up to a year in length
👩‍💻aligned with our research programme on the digitalisation of work
🤝keen to see applications including stakeholder engagement

Apply: digit-research.org/marie-jahoda...

Image from the @betterimagesofai.bsky.social library: Leo Lau & Digit / betterimagesofai.org / creativecommons.org/licenses/by/...

A row of knowledge workers operate sewing machines producing piles of spreadsheets and reports. Underneath text reads: Will the employment rights act make work pay? 12.30-2pm GMT. Wednesday 25 February. Speakers: Prof Simon Deakin, Christine Carter, Kamelia Pourkermani, Tim Sharp (TUC).

Don't miss our next Digit Debates event.

🧐Will the Employment Rights Act make work pay?
📆25 Feb
⏰12.30-2pm GMT
🎙️Prof Simon Deakin, @christinecarter900.bsky.social, Kamelia Pourkermani, @timsharp.bsky.social

➡️Register: digit-research.org/events/will-...

@jbs.cam.ac.uk | Leeds University Business School | ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council | @sussexunibusiness.bsky.social

Read the full report, co-authored by @christinecarter900.bsky.social, Professor Simon Deakin, Conor McCormack, and Kamelia Pourkermani: www.gov.uk/government/p...

In those areas where the Act breaks new ground for UK law, including zero hours contract laws, analysis indicates that the adoption of similar laws in other OECD countries in the recent past has led to productivity and employment improvements.

They also conduct econometric analysis of the relationship between labour law and the economy over the past 50 years in the UK. This indicates that the new Employment Rights Act is likely to have a small positive effect on employment, representing an increase of around 0.1% in the employment level.

📈 However, the UK will match or exceed average OECD protection in relation to zero hours contracts, leave rights, and the specific trade union rights addressed in the Act.

Their analysis finds:

🌐 UK labour law protections, as whole, would move closer to the OECD average but remain less protective than the OECD average overall.

The report uses the Cambridge Centre for Business Research Labour Regulation Index, led by Professor Simon Deakin, which tracks the strength of worker protection in law in 117 countries around the world since the 1970s.

A new report, commissioned by the Department for Business and Trade, and co-authored by a team of Digit researchers, benchmarks the protection afforded by new UK rights against those across the OECD.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

📖 🎉 Congratulations to Digit Research Fellow Steve Rolf who has co-authored a new book with Seth Schindler, ‘State Platform Capitalism: The United States, China, and the Global Battle for Digital Supremacy’.

It is available open access and is free to read: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Read the paper in the British Journal of Industrial Relations: doi.org/10.1111/bjir...

Read the blog: digit-research.org/blog/can-ai-...

They found:

💳 AI adoption and use are positively associated with pay

⚙️ Lower-skilled workers benefit disproportionally – but only when AI is deeply integrated into their work

⚖️ In workplaces where employees are consulted, or negotiate, distribution of AI pay gains is more equitable

Professor Valizade highlighted new research with Felix Schulz, Mark Stuart, Magdalena Soffia, and Jolene Skordis looking at how AI use at work influences pay.

They discussed how to build regional innovation ecosystems that support local economic development and sustain good work, to deliver for people across the UK.

The panel was chaired by Lord Jim Knight and included Georgina Maratheftis, Josie Crescent-Moo, Eve Navias, Prof. Chris Warhurst, and Prof. Valizade.

❓ How might using AI-enabled technologies at work affect workers' pay?

Earlier today, Prof. @vdanat.bsky.social joined the latest session of the APPG on the Future of Work, ‘Good jobs and regional growth: Building inclusive innovation systems’.

The conversation covered crucial issues, from at-risk occupations and the role of unions in managing technological change, to the continued shortfall of girls studying STEM subjects and the under representation of women in tech roles.

Speakers included Liisa Antola (The ABI), Penny East (Fawcett Society), and Prof. Sanchari Roy (University of Exeter Business School).

📣 How can AI reshape work – and what does this mean for gender equality?

Digit Research Fellow Rachel Verdin joined the Women and Work APPG session on AI and the gender gap, convened by Lauren Sullivan MP on 25 Nov.

🧵

🏫 Supervisors at Sussex: Prof. Richard Dickens and Dr Wenchao Jin

📆 Deadline: 9 January 2025

Please share with your networks and anyone you think the opportunities would be of interest to!

We are offering another PhD studentship, this one being part of the Economics PhD programme at the University of Sussex Business School:

💻 The Impact of Digital Transformation on Skills, Wages, and Career Trajectories in the United Kingdom

🔗 www.sussex.ac.uk/study/fees-f...

Thanks to Florence G’Sell for an excellent presentation and to Simon Deakin for bringing an important perspective as discussant.

Image credit (from the @betterimagesofai.bsky.social library): Yutong Liu & Digit / betterimagesofai.org / creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

If you missed our final Digit Debates event of the Autumn 2025 series, ‘Beyond the AI Act. Implementation challenges in EU AI regulation’ with @flogsell.bsky.social you can now watch a recording on our website: digit-research.org/events/beyon...

✍️ NEW BLOG!

‘Five key demands for a worker-friendly rollout of AI in retail’

@steverolf.bsky.social, Rachel Verdin, and Wil Hunt on how trade unions can negotiate for better outcomes for retail workers.

Read the blog: digit-research.org/blog/five-ke...