Workers need meaningful say over digital surveillance at work, says report

A new report is calling for workers to have a meaningful say over how their employers use digital surveillance technologies to monitor them.

The report , published by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), says new technology allows the intense and extensive surveillance of workers, posing serious risks to their rights and wellbeing.

To address this, the report’s authors from the University of Southampton and the IPPR have set out how the government could introduce new worker rights that strike a balance with the legitimate needs of employers.

“Employers have always wanted to oversee their workforce, but technology is fundamentally changing the nature of these practices,” says Dr Joe Atkinson , a lecturer in employment law at the University of Southampton and lead author of the report.

“Digital technology vastly expands both the range of data that can be collected and the volume and frequency of surveillance.”

Since the shift to remote work caused by the pandemic, and the rise of ‘platform work’ in the so-called ‘gig economy’, workers have reported an increase in the use of surveillance technologies.

The report says biometric sensors, facial recognition cameras, and the monitoring of communications and computer activity, allow employers to collect and process data that would not have been accessible to human managers in the past.

As a result, says Dr Atkinson, “this vast and detailed surveillance threatens workers’ right to privacy and can also have a ‘chilling effect' on the right to freedom of association, expression and belief. It can increase stress and anxiety, lead to lower levels of autonomy and satisfaction at work and deepen existing power imbalances.

“For companies, excessive surveillance decreases staff wellbeing and satisfaction, leading to higher staff turnover, and potentially hampering productivity.”

Currently, unions have no right to negotiate with employers over surveillance, only the liberty to seek to do so. The government’s Plan to Make Work Pay commits to ‘ensuring proposals to introduce surveillance technologies would be subject to consultation and negotiation’ with unions.

The report details how this can be best achieved. It says:

• A broad definition of surveillance technologies should be adopted which goes beyond data protection laws
• Surveillance should be expressly included in the list of potential topics for collective bargaining under voluntary recognition and added to the list of mandatory bargaining topics under the statutory recognition framework
• New consultation rights should be introduced, modelled on those that already exist for redundancy
• New information rights are needed so workers can challenge unjustifiable monitoring practices, such as microchipping workers

Importantly, the report also says moves to regulate worker surveillance must be extended to ‘management by algorithm’ where algorithms rather than line managers recruit, direct, and discipline staff.

Dr Atkinson added: “The combination of surveillance and algorithmic management creates new risks to the quality of jobs and workplace relationships, can give rise to discrimination, and makes it difficult for workers to understand and challenge decisions affecting their lives at work.

“Technology is already outpacing regulation in this area so we desperately need the government to catch up.”

The report Negotiating the Future of Work: Legislating to Protect Works from Surveillance is available online .