Australia's Human Technology Institute has called for stronger privacy protections in workplace law, warning that AI is accelerating employers' surveillance of staff, Guardian Australia reports.
A report from the University of Technology Sydney institute, released on Tuesday, says tools such as CCTV, card-swipe and keystroke tracking and monitoring of workplace messaging are spreading across factories, offices, delivery work and retail, often without workers knowing. Examples include a supermarket cashier given a final written warning after an AI system flagged an error rate of about one per 533 items scanned.
Co-director Edward Santow said transparency alone was not enough and that the Fair Work Act should include a test of whether monitoring is fair and reasonable. The report also suggests giving the minister power to ban surveillance products judged an unacceptable risk to workers' rights.
Source: Guardian Australia