果冻传媒

Prof Chris Warhurst speaks at Cedefop event promoting skills, productivity and job quality

The European Commission is keen to deliver a Quality Jobs Roadmap. Director of IER, Chris Warhurst was invited to speak at a Cedefop in Thessaloniki in June.

Attended by European employers, trade unions and policymakers, the event focused on the skills nexus between productivity and job quality, with Chris presenting data on the link between job quality and innovation and productivity as part of building the business case for good job.

How the interaction of AI and algorithmic management shapes job quality outcomes

IER's published a new article titled "" in the journal New Technology, Work and Employment, challenging conventional narratives that technological exposure alone dictates workforce outcomes. The research maps how worker-led AI tool usage and employer-led algorithmic management interact to create deeply stratified workplace realities. The findings reveal that identical intensities of AI tool usage produce fundamentally different job quality outcomes depending on the surrounding organisational control infrastructure.

While "Digitally Empowered" workers who use AI under low algorithmic control enjoy a 21 percentage point earnings premium relative to country medians with their autonomy intact, "Managed Augmenters" with near-identical AI usage see that wage premium halved because intensive employer surveillance allows firms to capture more of the technological surplus. Conversely, workers subjected to intensive algorithmic management without direct AI access experience severe autonomy erosion and work intensification with no compensating wage premiums at all, highlighting a regime of constraint without compensation. Even highly autonomous AI users face a distinct catch, experiencing the lowest overall working time quality due to informal, market-driven pressures to deliver rapid, AI-assisted turnarounds.

The analysis indicates that supply-side policy frameworks focusing solely on worker upskilling or expanding technology access have structural limitations. Dr Lee demonstrates that without directly regulating algorithmic monitoring and control practices, expanding AI access risks simply transitioning more workers into high-intensity, highly managed configurations rather than genuinely empowering them.

Presentation at the Development Studies Association conference

IER's Dr Jamelia Harris presented early findings from the project "Colonial legacies and the labour market in the English-speaking CaribbeanLink opens in a new window" at the Development Studies Association (DSA) Conference 2026. The conference was held in Dublin and brought together development scholars from across the globe.

Dr. Harris' presentation highlighted the economic and labour market transitions in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago from 1800 to today, and how these transitions have been influenced by colonial legacies versus post-independence policies, situating the analysis in debates around dependency versus developmental states theories.

Orthopaedic Research UK conference: Keep Britain Working: MSK Innovation in the Workplace

Orthopaedic Research UK (ORUK) are hosting a conference to showcase breakthrough technologies, practical deployment strategies and collaborative opportunities to help employers prevent work-related musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.

The event will include speakers from organisations including British Airways, BUPA, British Standards Institute, Transport for London, the HSE and IER. It will also feature experts on the use of ergonomics and robotics, plus start-ups developing innovative workplace solutions for MSK health. The conference takes place on 13 October 2026 at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1. Further information and booking can be found .