Algorithmic management, utilizing AI and algorithms, has gained traction in various UK sectors, primarily focusing on three key domains: recruitment, involving job ad creation, candidate sourcing, and CV screening; task allocation and performance assessment, encompassing shift scheduling and worker performance evaluations; and workforce surveillance and monitoring, which entails tracking employees to oversee productivity and workplace safety. The use of these technologies, while offering much potential, has also proved controversial and raised some important legal questions. This briefing explores the employment law implications and proposals for regulatory reform.
The UK Government's March 2023 white paper ‘A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation’ laid out the framework for current plans to regulate of AI. This would take a non-statutory approach, relying on existing regulators to oversee the use of AI in their areas while following five broad principles: safety, transparency, fairness, accountability, and contestability. The white paper has been criticised as a “laissez-faire” approach by the Labour Party, which has called for a more interventionist approach.
Other organisations have put forward alternative policy proposals. For example, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Future of Work advocates for an Accountability for Algorithms Act in their November 2021 report ‘The New Frontier: Artificial Intelligence at Work’. The AI Law Consultancy’s report ‘Technology Managing People – the legal implications’ (PDF), commissioned by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), proposes a range of alternative reforms to existing legislation along with new statutory guidance.