The Final Conference of the TransFormWork project was carried out on 20 February 2023 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event was hosted and organized by CITUB in collaboration with the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA); Cyprus Workers’ Confederation (SEK); Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB); Estonian Employers’ Confederation (ETKL); Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry; Malta Business Bureau (MBB); General Workers’ Union (GWU), Malta; Services, Industrial and Technical Union (SIPTU), Ireland; and Concordia Employers’ Confederation, Romania. More than 80 people attended the Conference.
The Agenda of the Conference was built on the 4 Pillars of the FA on Digitalisation having four Panels, namely: Digital Skills and Securing Employment, Modalities of connecting and disconnecting, Artificial Intelligence and Guaranteeing the human in control principle, Respect of Human Dignity and Surveillance.
The morning session was opened by Plamen Dimitrov, president of CITUB and Mariya Mincheva, vice-president of BIA. Ivailo Kalfin – Director of Eurofound addresses the participants and spoke about the Research of Eurofound on Digitalisation and Employment – implications for the social partners. Ruairi Fitzgerald – ETUC and Isaline Ossieur – BusinessEurope made a joint presentation on the Framework Agreement on Digitalisation: the state-of-play of the implementation of the Agreement and INDUSTRY 5.0 – human centric sustainable and resilient was presented by Liviu Stirbat – EC, DG Research and Innovation. Ina Atanasova – manager of the project presented the major outcomes from the TransFormWork Project and Lyuboslav Kostov -Director of ISTURET presented the results of the research implemented in the five partner countries – Bulgaria, Ireland, Malta, Estonia and Cyprus.
A total number of fifteen presentations were made during the Conference. The panelists were representatives from the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Bulgarian Ministry of e-government, European Parliament, Bulgarian parliament, Bulgartian Academy of Science, Skillnet, Ireland; University of Malta, Idiro Analytics, Ireland, BAPM and PARA, Bulgaria.
20 February 2023, 10:30 – 17.45, Globe Congress Centre, Europe Hall,
1 Macedonia Sq., 1040 Sofia, Bulgaria
10.00 – 10.30 Registration
10.30 – 11.00 Official opening and welcome:
Plamen Dimitrov, President of CITUB
Mariya Mincheva, Vice-President of BIA
11.00 – 12.30 Chair: Kevin P O’Kelly, Project Researcher, SIPTU
The Framework Agreement on Digitalisation: the state-of-play of the implementation of the Agreement
Ruairi Fitzgerald, Advisor, European Trade Union Confederation
Isaline Ossieur, Advisor, Social Affairs Dept., BusinessEurope Presentation
The Research of Eurofound on Digitalisation and Employment – implications for the social partners
Ivailo Kalfin, Executive Director, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) Presentation
INDUSTRY 5.0 – human centric sustainable and resilient
Liviu Stirbat, European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, Unit Industry 5.0, (online) Presentation
The TransFormWork Project Ina Atanasova, Manager of the project Presentation
The Final Comparative Report of the TransFormWork Project Lyuboslav Kostov, Director of ISTURET Presentation
12.30 -13.30 Lunch
13.30 – 14.30 Panel 1: Digital Skills and Securing Employment Chair: Mariya Mincheva, BIA
Digital Transformation and the labour market in Bulgaria
Iskren Angelov, Director of “Labour market policy and labour mobility” Directorate, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy Presentation
Gergana Rakovska, chairperson, Business Foundation for Education and member of BAPM Presentation
Driving Ireland’s competitiveness through enterprise-led people development Paul Healy, CEO, Skillnet Ireland Presentation
14.30 – 15.30 Panel 2: Modalities of connecting and disconnecting Chair: Velichka Mikova, CITUB
The Right to Disconnect
Alex Agius Saliba, MEP (video)
The Right to Disconnect and Teleworking in Bulgaria Kalina Petkova and Nenko Salchev, “Labour Legislation and Working Conditions Directorate”, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy
15.30 – 16.30 Panel 3: Artificial Intelligence and Guaranteeing the Human in control principle
Chair: Andreas Matsas, General Secretary, SEK
AI and the Future of work Mariana Todorova, Bulgarian Academy of Science
Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the European Workplace Alexiei Dingli, Professor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Head of the Department of AI, University of Malta, Presentation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ‘Human in Control’ Principle and respect for ‘Human Dignity’ Aidan Connolly, CEO, Idiro Analytics, Ireland Presentation
AI Applications – Real Case Studies in Industry and Business Kristiyan Mihaylov, Board Member of PARA Presentation
16.30 -16.45 Coffee-break
16.45 – 17.30 Panel 4: Respect of Human Dignity and Surveillance Chair: Daniel Debono, EU Affairs Manager and Head of Brussels Operations, Malta Business Bureau
The new Bulgarian legislation on e-government and Information Technologies Bojidar Bojanov, vice-chair of the Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on e-government and information technology
GDPR – good practices in Bulgaria Todor Kapitanov, vice-president of CITUB
Cyber security and Digital Transformation
Petar Kirkov, Director „Network and Information Security“, Ministry of e-Governance
17.30 -17.45 Discussion and closing remarks
