BRIDGES 5.0, a Horizon Europe research project, brought together researchers, companies, social partners, innovation actors and policymakers to explore how Industry 5.0 can combine technological progress with better jobs and wider social benefits. IndustriAll Europe participated in the project’s Stakeholder Board.

The project focused particularly on workforce skills and the move from the technology-driven Industry 4.0 approach towards Industry 5.0, with its emphasis on human-centricity, sustainability and resilience.

Speaking at the final conference, industriAll Europe General Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling welcomed this shift, while stressing that putting people at the centre must mean giving workers genuine influence over change.

“Industry 5.0 challenges us to move beyond a narrow understanding of productivity. We need to ask not only whether a technology can be deployed, but whether it contributes to societal objectives and improves workers’ lives. Technology should serve people. People should not serve technology,” said Judith Kirton-Darling.

Investment in skills, lifelong learning, reskilling and upskilling will be essential as digitalisation, artificial intelligence and decarbonisation transform industrial jobs. But training workers to adapt is not enough.

“A worker who receives training but has no influence over how technology is deployed is not empowered. Skills are necessary, but rights, voice, participation and collective bargaining matter too. The future of work cannot be built solely on adaptation. It must be built on co-creation,” said Judith Kirton-Darling.

This is particularly important as artificial intelligence becomes more widespread in European workplaces. IndustriAll Europe supports technological innovation that can improve safety, sustainability and productivity, but insists on the human-in-command principle.

“Workers must remain in control of technology, not the other way around. Algorithms should advise; humans should decide. Workers and their representatives must be involved before technologies are introduced and must be able to assess risks and influence the outcomes,” said Judith Kirton-Darling.

The same principle applies to the green transition. Decarbonisation and more circular production are essential, but lasting change depends on workers and communities having ownership of the process.

“There will be no successful green transition without social justice. Transitions succeed when workers, communities and social partners are involved. Social dialogue builds the trust needed to make change sustainable and enables workers to become drivers of transformation rather than victims of it,” said Kirton-Darling.

For industriAll Europe, one of the central lessons from BRIDGES 5.0 is that human-centricity must go beyond rhetoric. It means quality jobs, dignity at work, fair sharing of productivity gains and genuine worker involvement in decisions.

Judith Kirton-Darling called for the development of Industry 5.0 to go hand in hand with stronger workplace democracy – what she described as “Democracy 5.0”.

“The future of European industry cannot be built by technology, governments or companies alone. Workers must be informed, consulted and able to participate and bargain. They must have a real voice in shaping technological change,” said Judith Kirton-Darling.

As BRIDGES 5.0 formally comes to an end, the challenge is to turn its research, experience and partnerships into lasting change in European workplaces.

“The real test of Industry 5.0 is not whether technology becomes smarter. The real test is whether work becomes better, whether workers have more voice, rights, opportunities and autonomy, and whether they share fairly in the value they create. We need a transformation built with workers. Nothing about us, without us,” concluded Judith Kirton-Darling.