Manila – The Institute for Labor Studies Executive Director Ahmma Charisma Lobrin-Satumba was the resource person during the sixth session of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) SOCCSKSARGEN-wide webinar titled “LMC: Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe) in the Time of COVID-19 (FIRe vis-à-vis C-19)” held last 21 October 2021, 8 AM - 12 NN via Zoom.

The webinar was attended by representatives from the National Conciliation and Mediation Board – Region XII Office.

Exec. Dir. Lobrin-Satumba addressed the key question “Will automation kill all the jobs?” Her presentation on “Future of Work: Scenarios and Implications” focused on the three major drivers of change: Technology, Climate Change, and Demographics. She also gave the attendees a primer on the 4th Industrial Revolution and its foreseen impact on the future of work.

In her report, Exec. Director Satumba highlighted that automation will have a big impact on jobs that are clerical and routinary, and other low skilled jobs that are repetitive in nature.

However, she noted that the greatest challenge is still how to nurture all human skills that cannot be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation while creating future jobs with a higher level of competence, and with a greater stability while ensuring social protection mechanisms.

Executive Director Satumba’s presentation also gave the participants an insight into Labor Relations in the context of FIRe and the ongoing pandemic. With the current pandemic affecting the nature of traditional work, she also presented the possible changes in a post-COVID workplace scenario such as keen observance of Occupation Safety and Health (OSH) protocols, placing a high premium on mental health and work-life balance initiatives, strengthening social protection measures and application of a comprehensive social protection systems that would initiate key response in case of a national or health emergency.

The presentation also clarified the impact on regional job offerings of the 4th Industrial Revolution to help guide NCMB Region XII officials in addressing other labor-related issues within their jurisdiction.