ACTU representing the Australian has been following developments at Walmart; the biggest in the world. Walmart has a booming online business that has more than five million products online. It expects online sales to exceed $10 billion globally this fiscal year. It has been rumoured that Walmart has agreed to provide all its workers social media breaks to share some of the profits with its workers.
The powerful International Labour Organisation, (ILO) a United Nations agency, has denied that unions in developed countries are demanding time for social media activity.
“It’s pretty clear that everyone in a modern society has a new need”, said a spokesperson who refused to be identified, “however, we cannot comment on whether the ILO is planning to recommend that this should also be an industrial right for workers”, she said.
The Garlic contacted the ILO after a series of articles on reporting both by employers’ successful attempts to discipline workers for excessive social media activity, and the increasing evidence of smartphone use. Recently, the Australian Tax Office, a government agency with some 24,000 employees, disciplined an employee for posting on Facebook during working hours, and surfing a real estate (property listing) site in working hours.
A senior official for an highly militant Australian union said that it may be time for “social media” to become part of the normal working week. A Australian unionist noted that workers are spending too much time in their workplaces where they can be penalized for meeting this fundamental need.” The Union leader further noted “we are looking at reduced working hours to allow for social media use without loss of family time”. The official said that in fact, workers were already spending work time in social media activities, so, all they are seeking, is its formalization’. The unions believe that 2 hours of social time be allowed per day.
The unionists note that productivity has increased substantially with the new technologies including robotics and therefore the employers must deliver some of the benefits of automation to the workers.
