Despite the introduction of new technologies, your existing workplace rights remain in place and in many ways become even more important.
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to be informed about what data is being collected about you and why. This includes being told when AI systems are being used to make decisions that affect you. You also have the right to access your personal data through a Subject Access Request, which employers must respond to within one month in most cases.
You can object to certain types of processing, which is particularly relevant to workplace monitoring and profiling. Additionally, there are extra protections for “special category data” such as health information, trade union membership, and biometric data like fingerprints or facial recognition.
While technology has made it easier for employers to monitor staff, your right to privacy still applies at work. Any monitoring must be proportionate and necessary, with employers having a clear and legitimate reason for surveillance. You should always be informed about monitoring taking place.
Covert monitoring should only happen in exceptional circumstances, such as when there’s suspicion of serious wrongdoing. Even then, it should be targeted and time-limited, with a Data Protection Impact Assessment conducted first.
If you’re working from home, your privacy rights extend to your home environment. Employers should not use intrusive monitoring in your home, and there should be clear boundaries between work and personal life.
The Equality Act 2010 protects you from discrimination based on protected characteristics, even when AI systems are involved. Employers remain responsible for discriminatory outcomes, even if they’re caused by an AI system. This could include AI recruitment tools that favour certain demographic groups or performance management systems that disadvantage disabled workers.
Under UK GDPR, you have the right not to be subject to purely automated decisions that have significant effects on you. You can request human intervention, express your point of view, and contest such decisions. Employers should maintain meaningful human oversight of AI systems, with managers able to override AI decisions where appropriate.
Gaps in current protection
There are significant gaps in the current legal framework. It can be difficult to know when AI is being used to make decisions, and the inner workings of AI systems are often opaque. Workers often lack access to the data and algorithms used to make decisions about them, creating an information asymmetry that makes it hard to challenge those decisions.
Create a legal duty on employers to consult trade unions before using “high risk” AI in the workplace
Give workers the right to a personalised explanation of high-risk decisions made using AI
Establish a right to human review of decisions made by AI systems
Prohibit the use of emotion recognition technology that could be detrimental to workers
Strengthen protections against discriminatory algorithms and shift the burden of proof to employers
Create a statutory right to disconnect from work, allowing workers to switch off outside working hours
Protect workers from unfair dismissal based on AI decisions
Give trade unions greater access to data collected about their members
This comprehensive Bill would help ensure that AI is used responsibly and fairly in the workplace, protecting workers’ rights while still allowing for beneficial innovation.
Find out more about the AI Bill on the TUC website.
UNISON supports calls for stronger legal protections for workers facing AI. We are actively campaigning for the adoption of the TUC’s AI Bill and promoting the right to disconnect from work, creating ‘communication-free’ time outside working hours and helping prevent AI from intensifying work and extending working hours.
UNISON believes employers should be required to document and disclose all AI systems used in the workplace, with workers having the right to understand how these systems make decisions about them.
