Digital technology: guide for union reps

Technology is changing our daily lives at a rapid pace – from the way we keep in touch with our family and friends to the way we shop, travel, find news or entertainment, or manage our finances.

New technology is also changing the way we do our jobs, and the way businesses and organisations manage their workforces.

These changes raise important practical issues for trade unionists. New technologies at work can be positive – for productivity, fairness, safety, or quality of work. But they can also bring risks – of dehumanisation, loss of privacy, built-in bias, and loss of accountability. These are issues trade unionists should be concerned about, and that workers will increasingly look to trade unions to find solutions to.

Prospect’s data and tech guide provides information, help and advice for union reps and volunteers to challenge, negotiate and bargain over digital technology and how our data is used by employers.

This guide helps address the following questions:

• What can and should unions ask of management about its use of data-collecting or automated technologies to manage its workforce?
• What arguments and legal frameworks are available to help check that employers are being open and fulfilling their responsibilities?
• What can and should we demand in collective agreements around new data-collecting or automated technologies at work?
• How can workers use data as an organising issue to build power and influence employers?