In July, the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) will be examining algorithmic management in the workplace and the use of artificial intelligence, by means of a non-legislative draft resolution designed to inform the future directive it is asking the European Commission to adopt.
Although the European Commission has promised to look into the issue, it has not yet decided on the form of its initiative. The text, submitted by EPP member Andrzej Buła (Polish) and published on 12 June, sets out a draft directive that should meet a series of principles, such as empowering workers with skills and knowledge, creating safe and inclusive workplaces and maintaining a sustainable regulatory environment.
It lays down “minimum requirements for the transparent use of algorithmic management in the workplace” and “applies to every worker and employer in the Union as well as solo self-employed persons and the relevant procurers of services”.
The proposed text includes aspects relating to transparency and information, human supervision of decisions (as was the case in the directive on working conditions in platform work) and prohibits such practices as the processing by employers of data relating to the health or mental state of workers.
It proposes a definition of algorithmic management as “the use of automated systems to monitor, supervise, evaluate, or make or support decisions—by electronic means—regarding the work performance and working conditions of workers including systems that process personal data to oversee activities within the work environment, as well as systems that take or support decisions significantly affecting workers or solo self-employed persons, such as the organisation of work assignments, earnings, safety and health, working time, access to training, promotion, and contractual status”.
The deployment of algorithmic management systems in the workplace must be human-centred, respectful of rights and inclusive by design, says the rapporteur.
At the same time, businesses, particularly SMEs, need a stable and harmonised regulatory environment that is simple, transparent and supportive of innovation and fair competition. The rapporteur believes that a specific framework directive is the most effective legal instrument for meeting these challenges.
For further information: https://aeur.eu/f/hds (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)