Metro – Workers are being subjected to intrusive surveillance
September 23, 2024
High-tech surveillance practices are spreading to workplaces up and down the country. These practices vary widely across industries - they include:
- Spyware recording every click and keystroke of desk workers, often on work from home devices in sectors including insurance and recruitment.
- Construction workers, forced to use biometric sign-ins and GPS tracking apps while on site
- National Express coach drivers subject to AI-powered “fatigue monitoring” while they’re at the wheel
- Office workers’ attendance monitored using Wi-Fi connection records
- Supermarket workers’ ‘pick rates’ and performance assessed by handheld computers
Documenting the rise of ‘Bossware’
Big Brother Watch is pushing back. Our new report 'Bossware: The dangers of high-tech worker surveillance and how to stop them' draws on workers’ experiences, trade union views and analysis of the surveillance products on the market in the UK. It documents the rise of employer surveillance in our digital age and tells our politicians what they need to do to turn the tide on excessive workplace snooping.
What can the Starmer Government do to stop workplace snooping?
The Labour Government has pledged to introduce a new Employment Rights Bill. This is a real opportunity to stop the spread of overbearing employer surveillance practises.
Working alongside some of the UK’s largest trade unions, we’ve published a set of recommendations which we believe would stop some of the worst workplace surveillance in the UK if the Government implemented them.
- Legally require employers to be more transparent about high risk workplace surveillance and to consult staff and unions before introducing it
- Update data protection law to protect workers from automated decisions being made about them
- Make AI bias testing mandatory and make employers proactively responsible for using discriminatory algorithms
- Prevent employee tracking from being used to ratchet performance targets or for disciplinaries without good reason
- Ban so-called “emotion-recognition” surveillance from workplaces
- More guidance should be published by the UK’s privacy regulator, the ICO, to protect workers from surveillance
In 2021, 1 in 4 workers reported device monitoring.
We headed to Central London to ask about this worrying trend.
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If you've been affected by intrusive workplace surveillance, we can help you. Contact us here.
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