Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment, HR Must Be Reined in, Trade Unions Report

The laws around artificial intelligence urgently need to catch up to protect workers, now that AI is frequently being used in the workplace to hire, fire and monitor employees, a new report says.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, issued the report, which recommends a number of legal reforms that would curb the power of artificial intelligence to make decisions for employers in the workplace, according to the Financial Times.

The report argues that employment law has failed to keep up with the pace at which artificial intelligence is being used by companies, and it wants governments and employers to take action to prevent harm to workers.

In one instance, the TUC wants workers to have a legal right to have a human review a decision made by artificial intelligence that appears discriminatory. One of the authors of the report, Robin Allen, told the Financial Times that more and more companies are now using algorithms to make decisions in the workplace. 

“Increasingly employers are not doing things — it’s the machines doing it. Where you substitute a boss with an algo, you’re undermining the personal relationship [between employer and employee],” Allen said. He added that employers should always be able to justify the decisions artificial intelligence makes on their behalf.

However, AI can also discriminate in ways that are insidious, and may not be picked up. 

For example, a secret recruitment tool built by Amazon had to be scrapped in 2015 after its developers realised the tool was biasing male candidates over women. As it turned out, the machine had learned from data that reflects a sexist society, where men are typically chosen over equally qualified women for software roles.

Similarly, artificial intelligence can also reflect the racial bias in the data sets it learns from. The report pointed to recent claims by Uber Eats couriers, who say ‘racist’ artificial technology got them fired, as it couldn’t distinguish darker-skinned faces.

The report also wants to see a legal duty imposed on employers to involve trade unions in the use of intrusive tech in the workplace. 

The pandemic has changed worklife for many industries, with traditional forms of employer-employee interactions being digitised, from meetings, to interviews and tracking productivity. 

Employers now have AI tools at their fingertips that can help them recruit remotely, determine redundancies or performance ratings, assign tasks and monitor activity of those working at home via their web-browsing and keystrokes.

The TCU said in its report that it wants to see employees with legal right to “switch off” from work, as those working from home navigate drawing boundaries between work and family time.

TCU General Secretary Frances O’Grady told the Financial Times AI could be used to improve working lives, but it needs to be regulated.

“Without fair rules, the use of AI at work could lead to widespread discrimination and unfair treatment.”

Do you think there should be more regulations around the way AI is used at work? Let us know in the comments!

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