Artificial intelligence is widening the use of workplace surveillance in Australia, prompting calls for new legal protections covering employees in factories, offices, retail, delivery work and other settings.
The Human Technology Institute at the University of Technology Sydney said monitoring increasingly includes CCTV, card-swipe records, keystroke logging, screen capture, workplace messages, location tracking and systems that analyse calls, facial expressions or written communications. Workers are often unaware of the extent of the monitoring, the institute said.
Examples cited in the institute’s reporting include a large fast-food chain where young employees feared cameras were being used to check whether they used their phones in change rooms. Researchers said some employees stopped using the rooms. The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association also told a parliamentary inquiry that a supermarket cashier received a final written warning after an AI system flagged too many errors, equivalent to about one mistake in every 533 items scanned.
The institute is urging the federal government to amend the Fair Work Act so workplace monitoring must be fair and reasonable. Its proposals include stronger consultation and consent requirements, protections that can be expanded through awards and enterprise agreements, practical guidance for regulators and employers, and a dedicated Fair Work Commission process for privacy complaints.
The proposed framework would also allow a minister to prohibit surveillance products judged to pose an unacceptable risk to workers’ rights. The institute specifically identified smart glasses as a potential concern because they could be used to record people covertly.
The recommendations are being presented during the third week of hearings by the parliamentary committee examining artificial intelligence in the workplace. Unions, the eSafety commissioner, CSIRO, ASIC, the Australian Medical Association and Atlassian are scheduled to appear. Labor senator Tony Sheldon said the spread of workplace surveillance raised concerns about employees’ privacy, health and dignity, particularly when they did not know they were being monitored.