As required by the EU Treaties, on Tuesday 10 March the European Commission responded to the draft legislative initiative report on algorithmic management (AM) at work and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act).
Spearheaded by Poland’s MEP Andrzej Buła (EPP), the project called for EU action in this area, although it refrained from specifying a possible legislative form (see EUROPE 13775/15, 13776/41).
Although the Commission was given a specific deadline to respond, it was careful not to specify its intentions, and at no point did it come forward with any legislative initiative on ‘AI’ in the workplace, maintaining a state of vagueness or “real doublespeak”, according to a parliamentary source.
“The Commission welcomes this resolution, which was discussed in the College at its meeting on 10 March 2026, and its aim to improve working conditions and to promote the transparent, fair, accountable and safe deployment and use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems in the workplace. EU action should further aim to support and enable the take-up of AI at work”, it writes in its preamble.
In this letter, the Commission takes note of the European Parliament’s request for an impact assessment, followed by a proposal on algorithmic management in the workplace. “In this context, the Commission wants to reiterate its commitment to respond with a legislative act to the resolutions taken under Article 225 TFEU, in full compliance with the principles of proportionality, subsidiarity and better legislation, pending the conclusions of the consultation of the social partners”.
It has also launched a Roadmap on quality jobs (see EUROPE 13766/19) and a consultation of the European social partners on the advisability of legislation on AI. “The Roadmap suggests that the way forward must be guided by two mutually reinforcing goals: supporting and enabling the take-up of AI tools at work, while protecting workers from potential risks arising from the use of algorithmic management”.
The Commission is currently analysing the various elements presented in the draft resolution, in particular to assess the extent to which some of them are already regulated by EU law, it says.
Simplification. And in preparing any EU action in this area, the Commission will take into consideration “the need to focus on effective implementation and enforcement of existing EU protections across all Member States, on providing further clarity on those protections, and, where necessary, consider targeted complementary measures not covered by the current rules”. Any EU action will have to “guarantee clear added value, consistency with the legal framework, avoid duplications with existing legislation, in particular the AI Act and the GDPR, and promote a level playing field”, the Commission adds.
It also points out that the use of algorithmic management systems by employers is partially covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), where they process personal data, and by the AI Act, insofar as these systems fall within the definition of AI.
Both the GDPR and the AI Act establish “comprehensive horizontal frameworks, while not precluding the EU or Member States from maintaining or introducing rules which are more favourable to workers in terms of protecting their personal data and their rights in respect of the use of AI systems by employers”.
Link to the response: https://aeur.eu/f/l79 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)