The impact of artificial intelligence systems on the labor market

Direction: Profesores Jesús R. Mercader Uguina y Francisco Javier Gómez Abelleira.

Location: Aula 2.A.06. Campus Madrid – Puerta de Toledo.

Target Audience

Professionals and undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of law, labor relations, business management (especially human resources), economics, sociology, political science, and engineering. Given the international interest in the course topic, it is clearly intended for both a national and an international audience.

Speakers

Director: Professors Jesús R. Mercader Uguina and Francisco Javier Gómez Abelleira. Link to CV.
Speakers:

Jesús García Herrero, Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at UC3M.
Jesús R. Mercader Uguina, Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.
Santiago García, autor y cofundador de Future for Work Institute (Barcelona).
Ana Belén Muñoz Ruiz, Associate Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.
Ana Isabel García Salas, Associate Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.
Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Professor of Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid.
Francisco Javier Gómez Abelleira, Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.
Cristina Aragón Gómez, Associate Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UNED.

Program

Monday, June 22
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. AI as a technology: present and future. Speaker: Jesús García Herrero, Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at UC3M.
12:00 PM to 12:30 PM. Break.
12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. The regulation of AI in labor relations. Speaker: Jesús R. Mercader Uguina, Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.

Martes 23 de junio
10:00 a 12:00 h. Impacto de la IA en la economía y el empleo. Ponente: Santiago García, autor y cofundador de Future for Work Institute (Barcelona).
12:00 PM to 12:30 PM. Break.
12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. Uses and applications of AI in human resources management. Speaker: Santiago García.

Wednesday, June 24
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Privacy and data protection in AI applications. Speaker: Ana Belén Muñoz Ruiz, Associate Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.
12:00 PM to 12:30 PM. Break.
12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. AI and occupational risk prevention. Speaker: Ana Isabel García Salas, Associate Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.

Thursday, June 25
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. AI and social protection. Speaker: Cristina Aragón Gómez, Associate Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UNED.
12:00 PM to 12:30 PM. Break.
12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. Corporate liability for the use of AI systems. Speaker: Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Professor of Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid.

Friday, June 26
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Biases and anti-discrimination protection in the use of AI. Speaker: Francisco Javier Gómez Abelleira, Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.
12:00 PM to 12:30 PM. Break.
12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. Managing AI within the framework of collective bargaining and employee information and consultation. Speaker: Francisco Javier Gómez Abelleira, Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at UC3M.

Course Objectives and Motivations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are transforming numerous aspects of the working world, starting with the jobs available in the labor market and continuing with human resources management (selection, training, promotion, compensation, incentives, dismissal, etc.). This “revolution” we are witnessing will require profound changes in how work and social protection are addressed in our contemporary welfare states. The subject matter has an undeniable international character, given that the phenomenon in question is global.
The use of AI systems within the framework of labor relations raises issues of particular significance in key areas, such as the prevention of occupational risks and the protection of fundamental rights at work, including non-discrimination. The course aims to bring this issue, with an overall or panoramic vision, to a variety of interested parties: jurists, economists, sociologists, political scientists, engineers, and business management professionals.
To this end, after presenting the technological aspects of AI systems and the regulatory approach, the impact of AI on the economy and employment is analyzed, as well as on human resources management. Other specific aspects of particular importance analyzed include the impact of AI on privacy and data protection, on the prevention of occupational risks, on social protection, and on anti-discrimination legal protection. Furthermore, corporate responsibilities in this matter are examined, and particular attention is paid to the governance of this transformation process through collective bargaining and the participation of workers’ representatives.

Upon completing the course, students will realize that the most emblematic value of the classical world is not the elitist character of its education or a particular monumental aesthetic (to cite two typical categories of the interpretation given throughout the 19th century), but rather the capacity to thematize every human problem, transforming it into a source of personal and collective teaching, fruitful and always enriching. From this experience, capable of converting the intimate drama of existence into a rational theme (thus allowing the birth of philosophy and Attic tragedy), or the difficulties of community life into political reflection, or the imitation of nature into art and technique, emerges that freedom of spirit that permeates all humanisms throughout history and that remains one of the priority ideals of the contemporary world.

Furthermore, the classical tradition is much closer to the paradigms of digital culture than one might imagine: if the “digital humanities” constitute in a certain way a form of re-imagining the traditional humanities, rethinking the development of the human being in relation to their history and culture through new possibilities for creating and disseminating knowledge, it is well known that the legacy of Greco-Roman civilization has been performing this same task for centuries, updating itself in each era, according to the urgencies of the societies that return to study Antiquity, to find in it answers about their own time.

CURRICULUM

Direction: Jesús R. Mercader Uguina y Francisco Javier Gómez Abelleira

Jesús R. Mercader Uguina is a Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M). He served as a Clerk at the Constitutional Court (2000-2003) and was the General Secretary of UC3M (2007-2015).
He is currently the Director of the Institute for Research in Law and Economics (IUDEC) at UC3M, as well as the Director of the Master’s in Civil Liability and the Master’s in Occupational Risk Prevention at the same university. He also heads the journal Labos, Revista de Derecho del Trabajo y Protección Social.
Since 2019, he has been a Counsel at Uría Menéndez. Since 2005, he has led the research group “Labor Law, Economic Changes, and New Society” (DTCENS), serving as Principal Investigator for numerous national and international projects. He is the author of hundreds of academic works with a significant doctrinal impact, widely cited both nationally and internationally. He is a renowned specialist in the impact of new technologies on the workplace.

Francisco Javier Gómez Abelleira is a Professor of Labor and Social Security Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M). He serves as the Director of the Law Graduate School and the Master’s in Labor Law Advisory and Consulting at the same university.
He holds four recognized six-year research periods (sexenios) and has participated in numerous national and international research projects, having authored more than a hundred academic works.

Teaching Team

The teaching team for the course “The Classical World in the Digital Era: New Challenges” consists of six people, including the Directors, with equal representation between men and women (3+3). Coming from different but complementary disciplines such as Philology, Law, Archaeology and History, they have all been cooperating for many years, working together on the research lines of the “Lucio Anneo Séneca” Institute of Classical Studies at UC3M. This institute is at the forefront in the Spanish and international sphere in the field of “digital humanities,” developing a series of projects for the online publication of databases and digitization of documents related to the classical world and its survival throughout history. Regarding teaching activity related to the promotion, updating and scientific presentation of various aspects of the classical world, the six course instructors demonstrate a long teaching trajectory, of which the following activities are worth highlighting:

Francisco L. Lisi Bereterbide was for many years coordinator of the Classical Studies area in the Department of Humanities at UC3M and instructor of the undergraduate courses “Classical Culture” and “Transmission of the Classical Legacy” and the graduate course “The Transmission of the Classical Legacy.” Founder and first director of the “Lucio Anneo Séneca” Institute of Classical Studies.

Rosa M. Carreño Sánchez has been teaching, in both Spanish and English, the Humanities Course “Daily Life and Norms in Rome/Daily life and norms in Rome” for more than five years. This course is taught at the Getafe and Colmenarejo Campuses and is offered to students of different nationalities and from the most diverse degree programs (Law, Economics, Business Administration, Computer Engineering, etc.). She has experience in creating digital libraries, having participated in the digitization and publication of the “Antecessores” ancient legal collection of the Library of the Universitat de Girona.

Ana M. Rodríguez González was coordinator of the Conference on Greco-Roman Criminal Law: Crimes and Punishments in Antiquity, organized by the “Lucio Anneo Séneca” Institute of Classical Studies as early as 2008. Since then and to this day, one of the lines of her teaching activity has been dedicated to disseminating how criminal justice was perceived and organized in ancient history. On this topic and others also related to Roman culture, society, and law, she has taught numerous Humanities Courses and has published several didactic works designed to explain these subjects through a careful selection of texts. She has also participated in various research projects aimed at analyzing the relationship between Law and religion in the past of Greece and Rome.