Automation snuffing out traditional jobs
MagRush writer | August 17, 2019
Robots are funny toys to have around for pastime. But when embedded with uber-smart algorithms and start contesting for jobs with humans, it is no longer funny anymore. Contracted robots are sheer nemesis upon replacing labour. Even emerging economies, of which SA is part, are not spared the lightning rod of digitisation thunder. Industrial action is often associated with blue-collar labourers. Once the folks in formal apparel go on the picket lines, it raises eyebrows.
Years ago, our forebears would migrate to cities for jobs. No queues or filing profiles to be screened for suitability. All they needed to do was turn up at the gate, at the right location. Voila! Get enlisted right there and then. Roll up sleeves on day one. Get paid. Stock up and pack for home. Consume all their earnings before journeying back to economic zones to toil anew.
Labour was in short supply then, and work opportunities abundant. Jobs called for workers; nowadays, it is the other way round – people are searching for work. It is quite a steep slog. As much as it has pros, modernity has its cons. The heydays of spontaneous job-hopping are over too. How times have changed!
Banking strike
A whopping “73 000” employees are expected to take to the streets next month for two days, Roxanne Henderson reported on Bloomberg. No one can say for sure that banks did not anticipate this. If it goes ahead, Henderson underscores that it will become the biggest industrial action since 1920. The South African Society of Bank Officials (Sasbo) plans to withdraw employees from the financial sector, mainly banks, across the country and go to the streets to display its fury over jobs cuts.
Banks are downsizing. Their input costs are escalating under unyielding economic slowdown. Wages are the biggest expense for organisations. Nedbank projects 1 300 jobs are on the line. With Standard Bank projecting around 1 200 potential job losses. In 2016, First National Bank (FNB) launched a restructuring plan and the closure of branches which was going to affect approximately 600 workers.
Still on retrenchments, on Business Report (7 March 2019) Henderson wrote that negotiations “between Sasbo, Absa and employees are still in their early stages, with 827 jobs potentially at risk…”
All these banks’ rationale for staff layoffs points to “economic stagnation” and digitisation. Whenever a new technology to minimize costs presents itself, businesses lurch on it. It is common course employees bear the brunt in the shake-up. As far as the banks go, and sure it is in any profit-oriented organisation, it is a numbers game.
The internet of things (IoT) has had a major effect on organisations alike. After a half-hearted take off, banks have now lapped up to online services like scavengers on fresh carcasses. There is a proliferation of apps (applications) designed to perform functions previously carried out by tellers and service workers at branch level. Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) have been upgraded with capabilities far greater than they originally were, almost eliminating the need for conventional tellers.
Banks’ clients are opting for convenient ways of acquiring services. E-commerce – the buying and selling of goods and services on the internet – is gaining traction across the market spectrum. Digitised financial services are available everywhere and anytime at a fraction of the cost with few hassles. Although all these changes are a mark of progress in an evolving global society, they gobble up jobs.
Recently, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa somersaulted from his upbeat electioneering promise of “2 million jobs” in the next 10 years and warned citizens to brace themselves for massive job losses, owing to, among other factors, artificial intelligence and other technological developments.
Workers are using their collective bargaining power to starve off this onslaught on employment. The revolts labour unions are launching will definitely make it difficult for organisations to retrench. Escalation is ineluctable. Eskom, for instance, has opted for the “law of attrition” – not replacing retiring or resigning staff with new recruits – to lower the redundant employees.
Rival technologies
Traditional banks are feeling the client-squeeze from rampant competition brought by online banking platforms such as TymeBank and Discovery Insurance. Also on offer are related services such as Capfin (micro lender), targeting the lower LSM (Living Standards Measure) customer segment; “Money Market” in retail stores, and virtual or crypto currency start-ups populating and redefining the financial sector. Banking in transit is a game-changer.
Due to these reasons and more, conventional banks are forced to embrace these emergent technologies which result in staff-trimming. Shareholders also want super returns annually. That means slashing costs.
McDonald’s is rolling out self-service technologies bar on collection points and behind the kitchen. It keeps one or two individuals to assist with walk-ins for direct purchases in some outlets. Pick n Pay swung into the fray with self-service checkout counters in selected regions for a six-month trial run. Courier firms and agents are mushrooming to take advantage of office, personal and home deliveries.
Not to be left out in the e-business pop-jive, MultiChoice (pay TV channel) also announced about 2 000 workers are at risk of losing their jobs due to restructuring. Basically, all firms are hoping onto this robotic competitive terrain. This has become the new normal. Regrettably, jobs are being sacrificed.
Arguably, society is starting to come to grips with the ramifications of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) that have been predicted and vaguely analysed. Organisations too, are largely caught napping. What with reaching for the trigger to the effect of jobs bloodbath! Come to think of the magnitude of disruption that the 4IR will unleash all round. Clearly, nobody is safe. Time is ripe for retooling and gaining a new skill-set.