This text is part of the special booklet Defining priorities on the large table of commitments
“The dematerialization of companies that we are witnessing with artificial intelligence – and more broadly digital technology – is upsetting all labor relations,” says Jean Bernier, associate professor emeritus in industrial relations at Laval University. It’s time to look into this file, to rebalance the balance of power.
Artificial intelligence (AI), it is believed, will replace humans for routine and manufacturing tasks. In a context of labor shortage, the threat of a “job-stealing” AI appears less frightening; but the effects of AI on the market and labor relations are much broader, and humans must learn to coexist with machines. “Algorithms are also involved in office tasks, such as human resources management,” says Guillaume Pelletier, ethics counselor at the Commission for Ethics in Science and Technology, a Quebec government agency.
Thus, AI can support a manager to inform decisions, cross-check data and make predictions or monitor workers. The individual and collective effects of these new technologies and the problems posed therefore vary according to the context and the sector.
Management by algorithms
Platforms like Uber have shaken up the world of work. In these companies, the worker is managed by an algorithm, which assigns him tasks, remunerates him, organizes his work (route, pace, etc.), evaluates him and even sanctions him. “Management by an AI algorithm introduces ambiguity,” observes Mr. Pelletier. The workers of these platforms are defined and define themselves as autonomous workers, despite the situation of subordination… to a machine. “They don’t have a relationship with their bosses, but with a computer program,” summarizes Mr. Bernier. “It creates new types of working relationships that didn’t exist before,” adds Mr. Pelletier.
One of the major problems of this type of employment is the impossibility of collective representation and the ambiguity of worker status, which unbalances the power relationship between employers and employees. “When the choice is to accept a condition (like surveillance) or lose your job, it’s not a choice! notes Mr. Pelletier. The platforms can even disconnect the worker following a bad evaluation, which is the equivalent of a dismissal without recourse.
Asymmetrical relationship
In other contexts, AI is used in tools that aim to clarify decision-making, or to monitor employees (working remotely or on site). A certain delivery giant, for example, has patented a wristband to measure the movements of employees and monitor their activities.
“It creates an asymmetry of power and information,” explains Pelletier. The employer has more and more data, while the employee does not know how the tools are used. “The algorithm deforms all the working conditions, and it’s not very transparent,” underlines Mr. Bernier.
Necessary supervision
However, labor laws, which mostly date from the post-war period, are not at all adapted to take these kinds of situations into account. Regulations will therefore be necessary. First, to clarify the status of platform workers, so that they have access to minimum conditions (salary, holidays, vacations) and social benefits (employer’s contribution to the Régie des rentes du Québec, employment insurance, and the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan). But also to have their collective rights recognized (the right to organize is a fundamental right in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms).
To do this, Quebec could take inspiration from two existing models: the Act respecting the status of performing artists, which recognizes the possibility of organizing themselves into a union for artists, who nevertheless remain self-employed; and the collective agreement decree, which grants minimum working conditions to all persons in a given sector, whether they are unionized or not (used in particular in the cleaning sectors of public buildings, safety and in the automotive service industry).
These amendments would rebalance labor relations, given that collective labor relations law is not applicable in its current form. Even if other solutions can be explored (use of the courts to decide on the status of workers, ethical principles in the design of algorithms), “there is a need for the State to regulate. Sometimes, the employer himself does not understand how the algorithm he uses works,” recalls Mr. Pelletier.