Occupational health and safety in the industry 4.0 era: A cause for major concern?

Real-time communication, Big Data, human–machine cooperation, remote sensing, monitoring and process control, autonomous equipment and interconnectivity are becoming major assets in modern industry. As the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 becomes the predominant reality, it will bring new paradigm shifts, which will have an impact on the management of occupational health and safety (OHS). In the midst of this new and accelerating industrial trend, are we giving due consideration to changes in OHS imperatives? Are the OHS consequences of Industry 4.0 being evaluated properly? Do we stand to lose any of the gains made through proactive approaches? Are there rational grounds for major concerns? In this article, we examine these questions in order to raise consciousness with regard to the integration of OHS into Industry4.0. It is clear that if the technologies driving Industry 4.0 develop in silos and manufacturers’ initiatives are isolated and fragmented, the dangers will multiply and the net impact on OHS will be negative. As major changes are implemented, previous gains in preventive management of workplace health and safety will be at risk. If we are to avoid putting technological progress and OHS on a collision course, researchers, field experts and industrialists will have to collaborate on a smooth transition towards Industry 4.0

Industria 4.0 y transformación digital: nuevas formas de organización del trabajo

The Fourth Industrial Revolution requires profound changes in business models and organizations in order to ensure their stay on the market. However, due to the confluence of the numerous technologies in the Industry 4.0, the transformation process is complex and concerns the change in the work organization. This entails the emergence of new job profiles and the elimination of others resulting from the new forms of work organization. Probably manual works will be reduced, although new highly qualified profiles will appear, increasing collaborative work, flexibility in working time, participation and transparency in the results of individual work, although a greater proletarization of the work is also possible in certain jobs, as is happening especially in the case of the gig-economy. From the perspective of the occupational risks prevention, these new forms of work organization involve the search for the best way to face the challenge that poses the anticipating the possible risk situations and taking the appropriate preventive actions.La denominada Cuarta Revolución Industrial exige profundos cambios en las organizaciones empresariales para su permanencia en el mercado. Dada la confluencia de las numerosas tecnologías que supone la Industria 4.0, el proceso es complejo y afecta de lleno a la organización del trabajo. Ello supone la aparición de nuevos perfiles profesionales y la eliminación de otros, como consecuencia de las nuevas formas de organización del trabajo. Probablemente se reducirán los trabajos de tipo manual, aunque aparecerán nuevos perfiles de alta cualificación, incrementándose el trabajo colaborativo, la flexibilidad en el tiempo de trabajo, la participación y la transparencia de los resultados del trabajo individual, aunque también es posible una mayor precarización de ciertos puestos de trabajo, como está sucediendo especialmente en el caso de la gig-economy. Estas nuevas formas de organización del trabajo suponen afrontar el reto de anticiparse a las posibles situaciones de riesgos que permitan tomar las medidas preventivas oportunas