Reclaiming workers' rights in the age of AI: from data protection to collective justice

[Celerity]

As AI and data-driven technologies reshape the workplace, they often undermine workers’ rights, privacy and autonomy. However, regulatory frameworks, like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and worker mobilisation, can combat algorithmic exploitation, advocating for collective data rights and systemic reforms to ensure fairer and more transparent digital labour practices.

https://feps-europe.eu/reclaiming-workers-rights-in-the-age-of-ai-from-data-protection-to-collective-justice/



Artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven technologies are redesigning the workplace at an unprecedented pace. From recruitment algorithms to employee monitoring systems, AI tools are increasingly deployed to make decisions that profoundly affect workers’ lives. While these systems promise efficiency and streamlined operations – claims that are not always substantiated – they often come with significant costs to privacy, fairness and dignity. It is urgent to address how these systems are used to redefine power dynamics and undermine workers’ rights.

For many workers, algorithmic management systems are far from neutral tools. Instead, they operate as mechanisms that reinforce existing inequalities, stripping workers of autonomy and agency through opaque metrics and decision-making processes. These systems not only reshape the nature of work but also undermine the capacity of individuals and unions to assert their rights effectively.

The stakes are particularly high for gig economy workers, who are often subject to intensive monitoring and evaluation by AI-driven platforms. These platforms frequently operate under the guise of neutrality – a convenient narrative readily embraced by employers. However, the reality is far more insidious: workers are constantly monitored and reduced to data points, stripped of autonomy and agency by metrics they cannot see or influence. This structural imbalance not only jeopardises workers’ privacy but also perpetuates systemic discrimination, as algorithms replicate biases embedded in their training data. Worse, these systems weaponise data to deepen precarity and penalise any deviation from rigid and often inequitable rules.

Without accountability – and the transparency necessary to achieve it – the gig economy risks entrenching inequality and exploitation within the labour market. Nevertheless, amidst these challenges, there is hope: regulatory frameworks, worker mobilisation and union-led advocacy present tangible opportunities to counter these dynamics and reclaim agency in the digital workplace.

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