Algorithms at work: rules about data rights of workers might need an update

The future of work is happening now. Platform companies like Uber or Deliveroo collect massive amounts of data about workers to automate their decision-making systems (Rosenblat and Stark, 2016). Algorithmic management is also used to control the workers. During our research about Deliveroo and Foodora, we found that the digital control of couriers operates by automatically sorting workers into three categories based on their personal statistics. Only the workers with the best statistics get the promised flexibility when it comes to choosing shifts, while the worst performers can be fired based on algorithmic recommendations (Ivanova et al., 2018).

Digital control is not unique to the food delivery sector or even the platform economy. Workers at Amazon warehouses or call centres are faced with a similar challenge (Rozwadowska, 2018; Woodcock, 2017; Moore, 2018): how is the data produced at work collected, processed and used to evaluate our work? Technologies are transforming management in many sectors, so perhaps we all should be asking ourselves: are my data rights protected at work?

The answer to this question might be the key to securing the healthy balance of power of future work relations. In principle, the workers in Europe have their data rights protected by national labour laws and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Are these regulations sufficient to protect workers at a time when digitisation of the workplace is accelerating?

The GDPR did provide a useful common legal standard, which harmonises the rules for all companies in Europe. The regulation prohibits using automated processing, which produces “legal effects” or similarly significant results for the worker without human involvement (Article 22). Moreover, if specific rules are introduced by European member states or collective agreements, they should protect the human dignity of the data subjects, as well as “their legitimate interests and fundamental rights, with particular regard to the transparency of processing, [..] and monitoring systems of the workplace.” (Article 88)

However, it appears that there are significant gaps in the current framework, which leave some workers vulnerable and voiceless. For example, the platform workers who work as self-employed do not enjoy the same rights as employees who can form works councils or trade unions (Degner and Kocher, 2018). In other words, they cannot bargain around the use of technology as part of the collective agreements with employers. As a result, in platform companies - where traditional unions are often unwilling or unable to organise, the workers have little or no say on how the technology used to control them is designed.

Indeed, the basic principle of digital platform employers is that of an information asymmetry between the companies and people who work for them (Rosenblat and Stark, 2016). As our research among Berlin food-delivery companies reveals, workers have very little information about the technology used to monitor them (Ivanova et al., 2018). For a healthy balance of power to be reestablished, workers need more than just access to their own data – they also need information about the parameters used to evaluate them and the design of the automated control.

As we mark the one-year anniversary of the GDPR, it is time to say loud and clear: the current regulatory framework might not be sufficient to protect our rights in a digitised workplace. We should consider codifying the principles for workers’ privacy and data protection developed by trade unions and technical organisations in a regulation that is specific to the workplace. Also, it would make a difference to introduce standards for designing accountable systems before they are rolled out, so that workers’ interests are represented already in the technology development phase (Wagner and Bronowicka, 2019). We should also think about strengthening the institutions responsible for the implementation of laws or for creating new ones, like the European Labor Inspection.

As we contemplate how to improve the existing rules, we desperately need research into the detailed reality of the implementation of the GDPR in a wide variety of workplaces. This kind of research is difficult because it needs to account for algorithm rules, which are dynamic and opaque. It requires trans-disciplinary work of legal, social and technical researchers who combine methods to analyse impact on workers data rights and well-being. Providing workers and researchers with access to data and inviting workers to co-design the technology can spur innovation – the kind that puts the interest of workers at the centre. The future of work is happening now, let’s make sure it is a fair one.

References

Degner, A.  and Kocher, E. (2018). Arbeitskämpfe in der „Gig-Economy“? Die Protestbewegungen der Foodora- und Deliveroo-„Riders“ und Rechtsfragen ihrer kollektiven Selbstorganisation. Kritische Justiz, 51(3), 247–265

Ivanova, M., Bronowicka, J., Kocher, E. und Degner, A. (2018).The App as a Boss?.Control and Autonomy in Application-Based Management, Arbeit | Grenze | Fluss – Work in Progress interdisziplinärer Arbeitsforschung 2, Frankfurt (Oder): Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt, 27 Seiten. doi:10.11584/Arbeit-Grenze-Fluss.2

Moore, P. V. (2018). Tracking Affective Labour for Agility in the Quantified Workplace. Body & Society, 24(3), 39–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X18775203

Rosenblat, Alex and Stark, Luke, Algorithmic Labor and Information Asymmetries: A Case Study of Uber’s Drivers (July 30, 2016). International Journal Of Communication, 10, 27. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2686227orhttp://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2686227

Rozwadowska, A. (2018). Znamy opinię biegłego o pracy w Amazonie: "Może powodować urazy psychologiczne i fizyczne", Gazeta Wyborcza, 30 January 2018 http://wyborcza.pl/7,155287,22939723,krzeslo-laski-mamy-pierwszy-raport-bieglego-o-pracy-w-amazonie.html

Wagner B. and Bronowicka, J. (2019), Designing for Labour? Accountability and self-management in an app-based management, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Glasgow 2019

Woodcock, J. (2017) Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres, London: Pluto.