Impact of 4IR on Labour
A Case Study from Sri Lanka’s Apparel Industry. Paper published in ‘Sustainable Development in a Digital Society’. By Chandima Arambepola, Karin Fernando and Navam Niles (2020).
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) could result in technological diffusion that causes severe disruption in the existing labour market and threaten its sustainability. However, neither diffusion nor disruption should be taken for granted. Instead, access to innovative technology, incentive to adopt that technology, and the eventual impact on labour – ranging from increased productivity to technological unemployment will depend on the configuration of political and economic institutions of society. This paper illustrates the experience of Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, which has emerged because of specific political and economic institutions in the country. These institutions enabled the industry to integrate itself with the Global Value Chain (GVC) for apparels, which in tern allowed it to access 4IR technology and incentivised rapid technological innovation. However, ensuring the sustainability of labour requires additional institutions or modifications that help improve competitiveness in the industry, enhance social mobility of workers by expanding political right and economic public goods, and reduce the negative environmental impact through global efforts to internalise the cost of pollution. The changes necessary to ensure sustainable labour in the age of the 4IR require institutional changes that go beyond any individual state. Global institutions must be created to effectively manage GVCs and enhance the sustainability of labour.
