Taking action on AI and new technology
As AI and new technologies become more common in workplaces, UNISON representatives need to be prepared to negotiate with employers to ensure fair and responsible implementation.
UNISON’s Bargaining Support Group has produced an in-depth guide on New Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Workplace.
Why negotiate on new technology?
Impact on privacy and management decisions: New technologies and digitisation often result in the collection of personal data. More employers can now carry out routine checks on workers through monitoring emails, phone calls, and computer use, or using CCTV and other technologies to keep a covert eye on staff activities.
Risk of discrimination and inequality: Workplace technology can lead to discrimination and increase inequality. Technology can work less well for some groups, with facial recognition software being worse at identifying people with darker skin, and other systems demonstrating worse performance with certain languages, dialects and accents.
Impact on job quality: New technologies could negatively impact job quality and worker experience through real-time performance analysis, increased stress, and surveillance, resulting in job intensification.
Threat to job security: Technological tools will inevitably have a lasting impact on the future of work, making certain jobs obsolete, or deciding how jobs should be carried out without valuing workers’ skills and experience.
Mapping technology in your workplace
UNISON recommends undertaking a mapping exercise of how digital management systems are used in your workplace. Reps should:
- Note what technologies are being used and for what purposes
- Identify where they’re used – which department or location, and where in the employment cycle (recruitment, training, line management, etc.)
- Summarise what data is used, whether machine learning is involved, and the intended purpose
- Include information about managers and departments responsible for procuring, deploying, and using the technology
- Check which requirements and standards they’re meeting, such as data protection requirements and impact assessments
- Collect experiences from the workforce about any concerns with AI or automation in the workplace
Making the case to employers
Legal compliance: The employer remains responsible for decisions made using AI. Because a machine or an algorithm or some other form of new technology collects information and makes a decision on behalf of the employer, it does not mean that the employer is not ultimately responsible for that decision.
Cost implications: New technological systems can be very costly to set up, operate and maintain. Employers should be mindful of an individual’s right to subject access requests under GDPR – potentially facing numerous requests from concerned employees could produce a time-consuming and costly exercise.
Impact on morale and productivity: Research on technology in the workplace shows that “the greater the perception of invasion of privacy, the lower the job satisfaction was” and that electronic monitoring was “significantly associated with lower job satisfaction, lower job autonomy, greater perceived discrimination at work and more negative attitudes to authority.”
Allowing staff to focus on work: Excessive monitoring and surveillance may inhibit staff in their day-to-day work and use up too much of their time unnecessarily, time that would be better spent on actual work responsibilities.
Model policies and agreements
UNISON’s bargaining guide provides several model policies that branches can adapt:
New technology in the workplace policy: A comprehensive agreement covering consultation procedures, data protection, equality impact, restructuring of job roles, training, and health and safety considerations. The guide emphasises that “by agreeing plans for the introduction of new technology with the trade union, [the employer] aims to protect jobs, create new jobs and avoid any compulsory redundancies.”
Letter raising concern about biometric systems: For addressing specific concerns about technologies that collect biometric data such as fingerprints or facial recognition.
Monitoring and surveillance policy: Covering CCTV, body-worn cameras, and other tracking devices, ensuring they’re only used for legitimate purposes with appropriate safeguards.
Acceptable use policy for telephone, email and internet: Setting clear boundaries around monitoring of digital communications.
Policy on recording by members of the public: Addressing the increasingly common issue of staff being recorded by service users or members of the public.
Impact assessments
Equality impact assessments: These address two key questions:
- How effective will this initiative be in promoting equality?
- Could it affect different equality groups in different ways?
These must consider all nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act.
Health and safety risk assessments: These identify what hazards exist or may appear in the workplace and which are likely to cause harm to employees and visitors. By law, every employer must conduct risk assessments on the work their employees do.
Data protection impact assessments: Required by law when processing involves special category data (such as biometric data), these must:
- Describe the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing
- Assess necessity, proportionality and compliance measures
- Identify and assess risks to individuals
- Identify measures to mitigate those risks
You can find out more about these impact assessments in UNISON’s guide.
Checklist for branches and reps
UNISON’s guide has comprehensive checklists for representatives approaching negotiations on new technology, covering:
Equality and fairness considerations
- Has the employer carried out an equality impact assessment?
- How does the employer control for worker harms such as discrimination and bias?
- Are staff members able to challenge decisions made by AI?
Health and safety issues
- Has a health and safety risk assessment been conducted?
- Are there risks of work-related stress or an ‘always on’ culture?
Data protection concerns
- Has the employer carried out a data protection impact assessment?
- Is the employer clear about what personal information is collected, why it’s needed, and how it will be used?
- How is the data stored and secured, and for how long is it kept?
Specific technology concerns
- For biometric systems, what is the lawful basis for processing this data?
- For monitoring systems, is the surveillance clearly not excessive and fully justified?
- For automated decision-making, are there safeguards in place with human review?
Organising around technology issues
Organising staff around the need for a workplace agreement on new technology will increase bargaining strength over any proposals from the employer.
UNISON recommends:
- Surveying all staff to understand the strength of feeling on issues like data collection and privacy
- Organising meetings to report findings back to members and the employer
- Using the UNISON 5 Phase Plan to Win to structure organising campaigns
- Using technology issues as a recruitment tool, advertising the benefits of joining UNISON
