Algorithms will soon be responsible for hiring and firing.
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Algorithms will soon be responsible for hiring and firing.

Posted On: Sep 3, 2021

Better rules must be drafted urgently to maintain the control of the AI systems that are already making decisions about our jobs, says the TUC.

With the digitize of landscape, algorithms are making high-stake decisions related to our workplace, whereas current laws are failing to protect workers against the risk of unfair treatment and discrimination. For this, the UK's Trades Union Congress (TUC) warned that, "there is a huge gap in the law regarding the deployment of artificial intelligence at the workplace, and called for urgent legal reforms to prevent algorithms from causing widespread harm to employees."


Among other recommendations, this includes establishing mechanisms to ensure that workers know specifically which technologies are being used that may affect them and implementing the right to challenge any decisions made by artificial intelligence systems that seemed unfair or discriminatory.


The TUC's manifesto, which was published along with a report with employment rights lawyers, concluded that employment law is failing to keep pace with the rapid expansion of AI at the workplace.


"Some uses of AI are harmless and even enhance productivity: for example, it is difficult to object to an Algorithms can save lives, make things simpler. Take a few minutes & consider you would have your job if an AI had been in charge of hiring & firing you?app that predicts faster routes between two stops for a delivery driver. But in many cases, algorithms are used to drive important, sometimes life-changing decisions about employees – and yet even in these scenarios, regulation, and oversight are lacking." says the TUC.


Moreover, Tim Sharp, the TUC's employment rights lead, told ZDNet, "There are all sorts of situations with potential for unfairness. The spread of technology needs to come with the right set of rules in place to make sure that it is beneficial to work and to minimize the risk of unfair treatment."

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