europa.eu (21.06.2018) The revision of the regulations on coordination of social security systems aims at modernising the rules by bringing them in line with the development of national social security systems, as well as making them clearer, fairer and simpler to enforce. This will make it easier for people to move freely within the EU. The draft amending regulation focuses on five areas: unemployment benefits, long-term care benefits, access to benefits for economically inactive persons, family benefits and applicable legislation for posted workers and persons working in two or more member states. It also includes a number of other smaller amendments.

Le Monde (29.06.2018) La CNAM souligne les risques de surmortalité pour les patientes opérées d’un cancer du sein dans les hôpitaux réalisant peu d’actes.

​Deloitte Insights (March 2018)  As AI and other advanced technologies permeate the workplace, skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving gain in importance. Leading companies are recognizing that these technologies are most effective when they complement humans, not replace them.

AI, robotics, and automation have gained a rapidly expanding foothold in the workplace, faster than many organizations ever expected. While organizations are increasingly using these technologies to automate existing processes, true pioneers are radically rethinking work architecture to maximize the value of both humans and machines—creating new opportunities to organize work more effectively and to redefine the human workforce’s skills and careers.

Many industries have been disrupted by the influx of new technologies in the Information Age. Healthcare is no different.Particularly in the case of automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI), doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and industries with ties to healthcare have all been impacted – in many cases in more positive, substantial ways than other industries.

According to a 2016 report from CB Insights, about 86% of healthcare provider organizations, life science companies, and technology vendors to healthcare are using artificial intelligence technology.

By 2020, these organizations will spend an average of $54 million on artificial intelligence projects. So what solutions are they most commonly implementing?

Here are 10 common ways AI is changing healthcare now and will in the future.

Managing Digital Security and Privacy Risk, a background report for the June 2016 OECD Ministerial on the Digital Economy, discusses how increased connectivity and data-driven innovation have brought about significant economic and social opportunities while changing the scale and scope of digital security and privacy challenges.

These developments highlight the need for an evolution in policies and practices to build and maintain trust in the digital economy. Building on key messages of the OECD Digital Security Risk Recommendation and the OECD Privacy Guidelines, the report articulates why an approach grounded in risk management is essential to ensure that measures are appropriate to and commensurate with the risk. It also examines what further work is needed to understand how public policy can work jointly with private sector to overcome barriers and address the special challenges faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

OECD (2015) Recently, large-scale digital security incidents with potential economic consequences have increased in frequency and sophistication, in a context where the digital environment has become essential to the functioning of the economy and a key enabler for growth, well-being and inclusiveness.

To reap the benefits associated with the digital environment, stakeholders need to depart from approaching digital security risk solely from a technical perspective in isolation from broader economic and social considerations. It is urgent that they integrate digital security risk management in their economic and social decision making process. Public policy makers also need to ponder the complexity of digital security risk through its multiple dimensions from economic and social prosperity to law enforcement (“cybercrime”) to warfare to national security and international security.

This OECD Recommendation and its companion document provide guidance for all stakeholders on these aspects.

ITU(2017) This report is composed of a number of best practice reports on different aspects of cybersecurity. An analysis of an ITU’s cybersecurity awareness survey demonstrates that while a number of countries have to improve cybersecurity awareness, some do not, and those that do often do not target key segments of society. Strong attention is often paid to child online protection as a priority. Information related to the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) conducted is also provided.

ITU (2017) The report is a practical tool aiming at assisting administrations in implementing ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities in their respective countries. It also provides resources and addresses a series of questions, including: What changes must be made to existing legislation to promote ICT accessibility? How to promote accessibility in public ICT spaces, such as telecentres and public pay phones? Which requirements for public procurement, including commercial best practices relating to telecommunications/ICT, should apply to persons with disabilities? What are the requirements for mobile phone accessibility? What are the requirements for TV and video programming accessibility? What are the requirements for web accessibility? How can accessibility tools be used by people with difficulties mastering reading and writing? What are the best strategies, policies, and projects on accessibility that are already implemented? What commercial solutions exist in the global ICT marketplace? What potential practical applications can be identified to promote accessible e-Education?

McKinsey & Company (May 2018) Demand for technological, social and emotional, and higher cognitive skills will rise by 2030. How will workers and organizations adapt?

Skill shifts have accompanied the introduction of new technologies in the workplace since at least the Industrial Revolution, but adoption of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will mark an acceleration over the shifts of even the recent past. The need for some skills, such as technological as well as social and emotional skills, will rise, even as the demand for others, including physical and manual skills, will fall. These changes will require workers everywhere to deepen their existing skill sets or acquire new ones. Companies, too, will need to rethink how work is organized within their organizations.

As machines increasingly complement human labor in the workplace, we will all need to adjust to reap the benefits.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming businesses and will contribute to economic growth via contributions to productivity. They will also help address “moonshot” societal challenges in areas from health to climate change.

At the same time, these technologies will transform the nature of work and the workplace itself. Machines will be able to carry out more of the tasks done by humans, complement the work that humans do, and even perform some tasks that go beyond what humans can do. As a result, some occupations will decline, others will grow, and many more will change.

While we believe there will be enough work to go around (barring extreme scenarios), society will need to grapple with significant workforce transitions and dislocation. Workers will need to acquire new skills and adapt to the increasingly capable machines alongside them in the workplace. They may have to move from declining occupations to growing and, in some cases, new occupations.

This executive briefing, which draws on the latest research from the McKinsey Global Institute, examines both the promise and the challenge of automation and AI in the workplace and outlines some of the critical issues that policy makers, companies, and individuals will need to solve for.

1. Accelerating progress in AI and automation is creating opportunities for businesses, the economy, and society
2. How AI and automation will affect work
3. Key workforce transitions and challenges
4. Ten things to solve for

Le Temps (28.06.2018) Plutôt que de se focaliser sur une médecine de pointe, le débat sur le coût de la santé devrait davantage prendre en compte les dépenses de prévention, estime le médecin Julien Dupraz

TDG (28.06.2018) La nouvelle réforme de l'AVS fera grimper la TVA d'au plus 1,5%, mais elle n'épargnera pas les femmes. Dans le projet dévoilé jeudi, le Conseil fédéral confirme sa volonté de les faire travailler jusqu'à 65 ans, et ce sans compensation généreuse.

EL PAÍS (27.06.2018) La sanidad pública atenderá a todos los residentes en España por su condición de ciudadanos, no de asegurados que se han ganado la atención médica por cotizar a la Seguridad Social. Este es uno de los cambios fundamentales que prevé introducir el Ministerio de Sanidad en el real decreto por el que devolverá la atención sanitaria a los inmigrantes irregulares, según la documentación enviada por el departamento de la ministra Carmen Montón a las comunidades autónomas y a la que ha tenido acceso

Lrs Echos (22.06.2018) Les entreprises se mobilisent pour développer la culture de l'entraide et accompagner les collaborateurs les plus fragiles.

Development Pathways (May 2018) In their scope, and by the fact that they are legally required, the social audits in India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are an unparalleled collective social accountability mechanism. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, social audits have been institutionalised and implemented across the state. This report, downloadable below, identifies the lessons for elsewhere. These include how social accountability mechanisms most likely need to be institutionalised and led by the state if civic mobilisation is to succeed in the face of strong local elites.

Articles on Platform Economy

ceps.eu (31.10.2017) The partnership between delivery platform Deliveroo and workers’ cooperative SMart has been terminated, sparking new debate over workers’ rights in the platform economy.

The collaborative economy (or “platform economy”), encompassing work-on-demand via apps like Uber and crowdwork like Amazon Mechanical Turk, has grown exponentially in recent years, thanks to the development of high-speed networks, the exploitation of big data and the availability of mobile devices, which have cut down transaction costs and allow for real-time effective matching of supply and demand. While creating many new opportunities for digital and physical services, which have, thanks to lower costs as compared to established operators, rather expanded the market for services instead of crowding out the incumbents, this new digitally based economy has also raised questions on the situation of workers. As this literature review shows, their legal status (either as employees or self-employed) is often unclear, and negative effects on the labour market can be witnessed (such as missing social protection, low remuneration of work, questionable work-life balance and more). Many of these effects are due to the functioning of the digital economy, which relies on micro-tasks, trust-inducing mechanisms as ratings and - at times opaque - algorithms. The literature review also presents policy solutions as discussed in recent literature.

Economic and technical changes are redrawing the map of the world of work: new jobs are appearing while others are becoming obsolete, and atypical work patterns are replacing full-time work and open-ended contracts. In addition, work is increasingly being carried out on online platforms connecting buyers and sellers, or by large project teams across borders and time zones. Robotics and digitalisation raise new questions, as machines are progressively replacing the human workforce for routine tasks, and as new types of professional and personal skills are required to respond to technological progress. Active labour-market policies are needed to cater for the changing reality in the world of work. This concerns social security systems, which must adapt to new, constantly changing, requirements, unresolved ethical and practical problems relating to robotics, and the need for new digital skills, which are essential to survive in the new working environment.

European Parliament (Dec 2017)  This study investigates the social protection of workers in the platform economy at the request of the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee. The report reviews literature and previous research on the platform economy with the aims of defining it and developing a typology for understanding its nature. It discusses the growth and drivers of the platform economy, as well as benefits and challenges for workers, reporting findings from 50 interviews conducted with expert stakeholders in eight European countries and from an original survey of 1,200 platform workers. It dissects the different normative layers that need to be considered when looking at the challenges of social protection of platform workers from a legal perspective. Finally, the report draws conclusions and makes recommendations concerning arrangements for the provision of social protection for workers in this growing sector of the economy.

The New York Times (28.05.2018) After eight years of budget cutting, Britain is looking less like the rest of Europe and more like the United States, with a shrinking welfare state and spreading poverty.

The Guardian Nigeria Newspaper (26.06.2018) The Lagos State government will today launch the Vision Zero Conference, which is aimed at helping employees to develop attitudinal change and safeguard them at work. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode will be signing the Occupational Health and Safety Policy Statement for the state to serve as a platform to protect people from unsafe acts and conditions.

EurActiv (25.06.2018) Derzeit tagen die EU-Sozialminister zu sozialen Rechten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt. Dabei fällt bitter auf, dass gerade im Sozialstaat Deutschland die Karriere noch immer stark von der Herkunft abhängt. Woran liegt das, was kann man tun?

Bloomberg (25.06.2018) More than four years since Vladimir Putin’s popularity shot to record highs after his annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, support for the Russian president has fallen right back on an unpopular plan to raise the pension age. Confidence among Russians in Putin declined to 42 percent in mid-June from 45 percent a week earlier, the lowest level since December 2013, according to state-run polling company VTsIOM. It said Putin’s approval rating fell from 77 percent to 72 percent, the worst result since March 2014, the month he signed an order absorbing Crimea into Russia. A separate poll by the Public Opinion Foundation showed a similar drop.

Informations sociales (juin 2018) Le dernier numéro de la revue de la caisse nationale des Allocations familiales (Cnaf), Informations sociales, coordonné par Frédéric Gonthier, enseignant-chercheur en science politique à l’IEP de Grenoble, est consacré aux valeurs de la protection sociale, avec trois parties consacrées à leur historique, leur place dans le débat citoyen, leur appropriation par le personnel des caisses de Sécurité sociale et enfin, les attentes des Français et Européens.