Humans in Digitalised Logistics: Towards human-centred and socially sustainable digitalised warehousing in Europe

Abstract

As part of expanding European logistics, warehousing is today an increasingly important source of jobs. Warehouses extensively deploy digital technologies to run operations, which are often adopted with the aim to improve efficiency, productivity, operational flexibility, reduce errors, and cut costs to remain competitive in low-margin markets. Ranging from warehouse management systems to digital interface handheld scanners, pick-by-voice systems, automated storage and retrieval systems, robots, and human augmentation technologies, such as exoskeletons and smart glasses, these technologies however also have a deep, lasting impact on the quality of warehousing work. While they might make some tasks physically lighter and more ergonomic, they often themselves introduce new risks by narrowing down jobs to repetitive tasks, intensifying work, and increasing surveillance and control. As a result, across national contexts, jobs in digitalized warehousing are today unattractive, and warehouses struggle with high injury rates, high turnover, unfilled vacancies, and endemic labour shortages. Poor employment conditions are reflected in low wages and limited benefits, structurally precarious employment, limited training and advancement opportunities, and the structural overrepresentation of vulnerable workers, such as migrants, workers with a migrant background and workers with an impairment. A call to action Yet this trajectory is not inevitable. Digital technologies can be deployed to improve job quality, extend working lives, and strengthen social sustainability of European warehouses—if policy makers, employers, trade unions and other key stakeholders put humans front and centre in the design, governance, and implementation of digital technologies. This human-centred approach aligns directly with broader European policy initiatives, such as the Quality Jobs Roadmap and the Pact to Strengthen Social Dialogue, and the overall political ambition to build a resilient, green, and digitally integrated logistics systems throughout Europe. It further supports national and regional aspirations for socially sustainable economic welfare grounded in a strong logistics sector. Our research This report presents the results of a three-year international research project on how digital technologies shape work and employment conditions in warehousing across three major logistic hubs in Belgium, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The project aimed at identifying guiding policy principles for advancing a more human-centred and socially sustainable digital warehousing across Europe. The studied warehouses make use of various combinations of digital technologies to reorganize warehouse operations and work. Workers and their representatives are often not or only marginally involved in decisions on technology. We found extensive evidence of the deskilling of jobs, eroding workers’ autonomy and making it less meaningful. While (semi-)automation technologies, such as robots and conveyor belts, make physically burdening tasks lighter, they also introduce new risks, as jobs become narrower, tasks repetitive, intensifying work, and due to non-ergonomic technology design, with profound implications for workers’ physical and mental well-being. Warehouse management systems continuously allocating tasks through digital interfaces also enable management to closely monitor workers’ performance, increasing workers’ stress levels. At the same time, work coordination through the technology substantially reduces human interactions in the warehouse, eroding the social fabric and leading to feelings of isolation. Digital technologies also play an important role in facilitating the fragmentation of the workforce. By semi-automating the processes of sourcing, coordinating and controlling workers they facilitate complex employment models that structurally rely on temporary contracts, agency work, and work through subcontractors on-site.