Future of Work - 2026
Date
February 10 2026, February 11 2026
Location
Thon Hotel EU, Brussels
Organiser
Europa Trade Union Institute (ETUI)
Future of Work: Exploring how digitalisation reshapes work organisation and possible regulatory responses
In this 6th edition of the Future of Work Conference, the aim is not only to take stock of, but also to advance the discussion on the implications of digital technology for labour processes, work organisation, and labour market dynamics — and the challenges it poses for labour law frameworks.
As algorithmic management and AI technologies steadily spread across all sectors of the conventional economy, these emerging challenges risk undermining the resilience of existing protective frameworks. What are the paths ahead to ensure that industrial relations and regulatory systems can adapt to — and internalise — digital innovation without losing their protective function?
Agenda:
Day 1: 10 February, 2026
10:15 – 10:45 Registration & coffee
10:45 – 11:15 Opening of the conference
Room:
- Andrew Watt, General Director ETUI
- Esther Lynch, General Secretary ETUC
11:15 – 12:30 Setting the scene: policy debate
- Chiara Rondino, Head of Unit – Future of Work, Youth Employment, European Commission
- Maxime Cerutti, Director of the Social Affairs department, BusinessEurope
- Diana Dovgan, Secretary General CECOP
- Monica Tepfer, ITUC TBC
- Chair: Bart Vanhercke, Director of the Research Department, ETUI
12.30 – 13.30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:45 Plenary 1: AI, labour process and work organisation: the challenges for job quality
Room:
- Agnieszka Piasna (ETUI) and Janine Leschke (Copenhagen Business School)
- Funda Ustek Spilda (King’s College London)
- Paola Tubaro (CNRS, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)
- Chair and discussant: tbc and Agnieszka Piasna (ETUI)
14:45 – 15:00 Coffee break
15:00 – 16:15 Parallel sessions 1 – 4
| SESSION 1 (Room tbc) Theme: Regulating AI and AM through collective bargaining Chair: tbc |
|
| Collective bargaining and algorithmic management and AI at work: innovative paradigms and critical gaps. The case of Spain | Daniel Perez del Prado (UC3M) Sander Junte (UAB) Alejandro Godino (US) |
| Regulate to innovate? Collective bargaining in the age of algorithmic management | Marta Kahancová (CELSI/Comenius University) Daryn Zholdasbay (Comenius University) Gabriele Medas (WageIndicator Foundation) Fiona Dragstra (WageIndicator Foundation) |
| Social partners’ practices for regulating AI and algorithmic management within seven EU member states. | Ina Atanasova (CITUB) Lyuboslav Kostov (UNWE) Rositsa Makelova (ISTURET) Kevin P O’Kelly |
| SESSION 2 (Room tbc) Theme: Creative labour in the age of generative AI: autonomy, control, and purpose Chair: tbc |
|
| Reframing 'art-for-art’s-sake': GenAI and the pursuit of purposeful and creative | Deborah Giustini (HBKU and KU Leuven) Karol Muszyński (University of Warsaw) Valeria Pulignano (CESO and KU Leuven) |
| Creative intelligence: how artificial intelligence is transforming artistic work and labour relations in the cultural sector. | Justyna Berniak-Woźny (SWPS University) |
| Prompt me journalism: when newsroom meets GenAI | Pauline Reitzer (University of Vienna) |
| SESSION 3 (Room tbc) Theme: Global governance of AI and work: political economy, law, and institutional imaginaries Chair: tbc |
|
| The hidden Brussels effect: Exporting Europe's standards, importing precarious labour | Mauricio Figueroa (Durham University) José L. Gallegos (Erasmus University) |
| Promoting worker protection through private international law in the age of AI | Naivi Chikoc Barreda (University of Ottawa) |
| ILO and the making of technological imagination (2006 - 2025): a Foucauldian discourse analysis | Maéva El Bouchikhi (University of Lausanne) |
| SESSION 4 (Room tbc) Theme: Digital technologies at work: OSH, psychosocial risks, and fundamental rights Chair: tbc |
|
| Digitalisation, psychosocial risks, and the future of work: Conceptual insights and implications for policy and practice | Sonia Nawrocka (ETUI) Stavroula Leka (Lancaster University) Aditya Jain (University of Nottingham) |
| Evaluating IMU accuracy for ergonomic lifting metrics | Menekse Salar Barim (ETUI) |
| Managing fundamental rights in the digital economy: the contract is mightier | David Mangan (Maynooth University) |
16:15 – 16:30 Break
16:30 – 17:45 Parallel sessions 5 – 8
| SESSION 5 (Room tbc) Theme: Collective rights and worker participation in the governance of AI at work Chair: tbc |
|
| A collective rights framework for regulating AI at work | Silvia Rainone (ETUI) |
| Embedding AI and algorithmic management in European industrial relations: the AI act, social partners, and workplace dialogue | Peter Kerckhofs (Eurofound) Steven Rolf (University of Sussex) |
| Artificial Intelligence – A challenge for labour regulation and workers‘ participation | Sonja Mangold (Centre Marc Bloch) |
| SESSION 6 (Room tbc) Theme: AI governance models and labour rights: European and comparative perspectives Chair: tbc |
|
| The future of algorithmic regulation: bridging the gaps in the EU socio-digital acquis | Nastazja Potocka-Sionek (University of Luxembourg) |
| AI governance and the reconfiguration of knowledge: lessons from differences between China and Europe | Yang Yang (Huazhong University) Petar Jandrić (Zagreb University) |
| The future of algorithmic regulation: bridging the gaps in the EU socio-digital acquis | Chiara Cristofolini (University of Trento) |
| AI beyond job loss: the role of labor rights in workers’ attitudes and policy preferences on AI regulation | Giedo Jansen (University of Amsterdam) Marie Labussière (University of Amsterdam) |
| SESSION 7 (Room tbc) Theme: Digital technologies at work: bias, discrimination, and marginalisation Chair: tbc |
|
| Algorithmic management and the amplification of perceived discrimination among historically marginalized workers | Tiago Viera (independent) Prakriti Dasgupta (Maynooth University) |
| Digital divides and algorithmic biases: effective equality between women and men in algorithmic work management | Djamil Tony Kahale Carrillo (Polytechnic University of Cartagena) Miriam Judit Gomez Romero (University of Cantabria) |
| Digital work through a gender lens: algorithmic management, telework, and digital female precarity in Portugal and Spain | Ekaterina Reznikova (University of Deusto) |
| SESSION 8 (Room tbc) Theme: AI and digitalisation in practice: workplace transformations across sectors Chair: tbc |
|
| AI reveals changes in local civil service | Karim Lakjaâ (Syndicat Ufict-Cgt Grand Reims) Léa Lakjaâ (Syndicat Ufict-Cgt Grand Reims) |
| Digitalisation in Small and Micro Enterprises (SME). Labour Process Transformations and Continuities in the craft sector in Germany | Lianara Dreyer (WZB – Berlin Social Science Center) |
| Understanding technological transition impacts on real work and workers to strengthen stakeholders’ action: a participatory approach to sustainable work | Cláudia Pereira (University of Porto) Marta Santos (University of Porto) Constança Dias (University of Porto) Daniel Silva (University of Porto) Mariana Magalhaes (University of Porto) Paula Lopes (University of Porto) |
Day 2: 11 February 2026
9:00 – 9:30 Registration & coffee
9:30 – 10:45 Plenary 2: Regulating AI and algorithmic management in the world of work
Room
- Marta Otto (Uniwersytet WArszawski)
- Luca Ratti (University of Luxembourg)
- Michele Molé (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
- Chair and discussant: Silvia Rainone (ETUI)
10:45 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:15 Parallel sessions 9 – 12
| SESSION 9 (Room tbc) Theme: Reclaiming collective bargaining in the age of AI: trade union strategies, rights and tools Chair: tbc |
|
| Towards a Charter of rights for AI and AM workers | Claire Marzo (Paris East University Créteil) |
| Breaking the code: why artificial intelligence is bypassing collective bargaining in Slovenia and how to reclaim the future of work | Valentina Franca (University of Ljubljana) |
| Dial-IA: an example of an operational toolkit to initiate technological social dialogue for the benefit of all stakeholders | Odile Chagny (IRES) Christophe Teissier (ASTREES) |
| SESSION 10 (Room tbc) Theme: Collective bargaining power in platform work: legal and institutional perspectives Chair: tbc |
|
| Labour law at the crossroads of digitalisation: restoring collective bargaining power | Csaba Szabó (University of Miskolc) |
| Protective and permissive layering: institutional change and divergent regulatory paths in platform work in Spain and Croatia | Angel Martin-Caballero (Manchester University) Jelena Starcevic (Cornell University) |
| Digital Domestic Work: an analysis under the EU Platform Work Directive and the Portuguese Legal Framework | José Pedro Oliveira Pinto (Universidade Católica Portuguesa) |
| SESSION 11 (Room tbc) Theme: AI, labour markets, and worker power in logistics, retail, and transport Chair: tbc |
|
| How Amazon shapes local labour markets: impacts on wages, jobs, and the income distribution | Jacopo Tramontano (Sapienza University of Rome) Valeria Cirillo (University of Bari “Aldo Moro”) Dario Guarascio (Sapienza University of Rome) |
| The paradox of truck driver shortage: why digitalisation weakens worker power despite high demand | Pauline Schneider (University of Bamberg) Olaf Struck (University of Bamberg) |
| AI in retail: risks, opportunities and union responses | Rachel Verdin (University of Sussex) Will Hunt (University of Sussex) Steve Rolf (University of Sussex) |
| SESSION 12 (Room tbc) Theme: Hybrid and remote work: labour implications and regulatory responses Chair: tbc |
|
| How telework reshapes home, work and well-being: evidence from Romania | Dana Ioana Țălnar-Naghi (University of Bucharest) |
| Autonomy under tension: organisation, distribution and psychosocial mechanisms in hybrid work | Jens Doms (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Karen Van Aerden (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Christophe Vanroelen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) |
| The right to disconnect: what legal basis would lead to more effective enforcement? | Carla Spinelli (University of Bari “Aldo Moro”) |
12:15 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:45 Parallel sessions 13 – 16
| SESSION 13 (Room tbc) Theme: A reality check on platform work legislation: enforcement and implementation gaps Chair: tbc |
|
| Outdated enforcement? Status determination in the German and Norwegian platform economy | Johanne Stenseth Huseby (Fafo) Kristin Jesnes (Fafo) Fabian Beckmann (University of Duisburg-Essen) Fabian Hoose (Centre of Cooperation Ruhr-Universität Bochum and IG Metall) |
| Conditioned choice: preference for self-employment in the delivery sector in the post-Rider Law Spain | Manuel Echarri Cotler (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) |
| Digital promises, precarious realities: reassessing social dialogue under algorithmic management in tourism and hospitality | Michela Trentin (University of Westminster) Dora Fonseca (CoLABOR) Felicia Rosioru (University of Cluj-Napoca) |
| SESSION 14 (Room tbc) Theme: Digitalisation and organisational transformation in the conventional economy Chair: tbc |
|
| Algorithmic management, outsourcing, and precarity: an ethnographic study of customer support work | Gonzague Isirabahenda (University of Alba Iulia) |
| Digitalisation in banking: union perspectives on employment and surveillance in the UK and Norway | Jonathan Payne (De Montfort University) Caroline Lloyd (Cardiff University) |
| A ‘post-work model’ to solving the crisis of social reproduction? Labour process perspectives on the digitalisation of essential work | Karin Astrid Siegmann (Erasmus University) Claudio Celis Bueno (University of Amsterdam) Crystal A. Ennis (Leiden University) Chih-Chen Trista Lin (Wageningen University) Yujing Tan (Leiden University) |
| SESSION 15 (Room tbc) Theme: Datafication, value, and authority in the age of AI Chair: tbc |
|
| AI, productivity, and the politics of distribution: beyond neoclassical assumptions | Christian Kellermann (University of Labour) Hansjörg Herr (Berlin School of Economics) |
| Data are worthless but have a price: the digitalisation of labour processes as a challenge for value theory in the 21st century | Peter Schadt (DGB Stuttgart & Universities of Stuttgart, Esslingen and Tübingen) |
| Gaining control, loosing authority? The impact of datafication on middle management | Yennef Vereycken (KU Leuven) |
| SESSION 16 (Room tbc) Theme: AI, AM and the transformation of work, tasks, and occupational profiles Chair: tbc |
|
| Who thrives in the Algorithmic Age? Mapping Europe's digital worker profiles | Dragos Adascalitei (Eurofound) Sara Riso (Eurofound) Cesira Urzi-Brancati (Eurofound) |
| Algorithmic HRM and the future of work in multinational companies: worker voice, co-determination, and regulatory pathways in the age of AI | Elisabeth Bethge (Friedrich Schiller University) Daniel Pastuh (Friedrich Schiller University) |
| From core professionals to system attendants: how machine learning displaces knowledge workers and undermines professional autonomy | Bo Hee Min (Copenhagen Business School) |
| Platformisation of work and job quality. The disparate impact of digital monitoring and algorithmic management across EU labour markets. |
Álvaro Mariscal-de-Gante (JRC, European Commission) Ignacio González-Vázquez (JRC, European Commission) Enrique Fernández-Macías (JRC, European Commission) Davide Villani (JRC, European Commission) |
14:45 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 16:15 Plenary 3: Digitalisation and bargaining power
Room:
- Ignacio Gonzalez-Vazquez (JRC)
- Anna Milanez (OECD)
- Michael ‘Six’ Silberman (tbc) (Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford)
- Chair and discussant: Wouter Zwysen (ETUI)
16:15 Closing remarks
16:30 End of day 2 – Drinks
