Impacts of Digitalisation on Employment Relationships and the Need for more Democracy at Work

The world of labour is in transformation due to automation, digitalisation and platform work. Digitalisation is changing the classic relationship between employer and employee; this also affects workers’ participation rights within the company. New forms of work demand very high self-organisation and active commitment on the part of employees to solving process problems and optimising processes. If at the same time management and organisational structures remain largely top-down and employees hardly have any say, this is contradictory. Co-determination is a central component of qualified work. Without the expansion of democratic processes within the company, the opportunities offered by digitalisation will not be fully exploited. Digital processes require cooperation across technical, departmental, and hierarchical boundaries, which must inevitably lead to the democratisation of company decisions. Digitalisation may also act as a catalyst for the dormant debate about “democracy in the workplace”.