Data and Algorithms at Work: The Case for Worker Technology Rights
A new report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center explores how electronic monitoring is being used to track what workers are doing on the job, how algorithms are used to hire, discipline and fire workers, and what policies are needed to protect workers.
For example, according to authors Annette Bernhardt, Lisa Kresge, and Reem Suleiman, “productivity algorithms in warehouses can accelerate the pace of work to dangerous levels and cause repetitive stress injuries for workers. Algorithms may cause discrimination by selecting applicants according to discriminatory patterns in the dataset the algorithms were trained on.
Employers may use technology that mines data from workers’ social media accounts to predict whether they might become a whistleblower or try to organize a union. The report includes profiles of data-driven technologies in a range of industries, such as home care, retail, hotels, grocery, hospitals, and transportation.”