The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its associated public bodies.
It has produced a report, Connected tech: smart or sinister?, which calls for greater observation and monitoring of AI system deployments, empowered labour inspectorates and a greater role for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the UK regulator for workplace health and safety, in regulating workplace AI systems and upholding standards of deployment.
Connected tech is increasingly deployed the workplace just as in the home and city. The development and use of connected tech for the purposes of work such as manufacturing is often conceptualised as part of a “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.
The wide range of applications of connected devices in the workplace, from manufacturing, retail and fulfilment and distribution to office work, can bring a wide range of benefits.
Connected tech can also be used to empower people traditionally excluded from forms of work: Dr Efpraxia Zamani notes that technologies that facilitate working from home have allowed people with disabilities or living in rural areas secure otherwise-unavailable jobs, albeit with the challenges of developing social relationships at work.
The ICO had noted that respondents to a recent call for evidence on employment practices “raised concerns around the use of connected tech in workplace scenarios including the increased use of monitoring technologies, as well as the ways in which AI and machine learning are impacting how decisions are made about workers” and said it “will provide more clarity on data protection in the employment context as part of this work”.
The monitoring of employees in smart workplaces should be done only in consultation with, and with the consent of, those being monitored. The Government should commission research to improve the evidence base regarding the deployment of automated and data collection systems at work. It should also clarify whether proposals for the regulation of AI will extend to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and detail in its response to this report how HSE can be supported in fulfilling this remit.
The Information Commissioner’s Office should develop its existing draft guidance on “Employment practices: monitoring at work” into a principles-based code for designers and operators of workplace connected tech.
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