Give staff more say over AI to ensure they share benefits, UK thinktank urges

A report calls for measures that increase employees’ influence over how AI is adopted at work. Survey data shows mixed experiences: 20% of workers say AI improves working life, 21% say it worsens it, and 4% report losing a job because of the technology. The report distinguishes augmentation, where AI complements human labour; degradation, where AI undermines work through monitoring and management; and displacement, where AI replaces workers. The central issue is who has power to shape AI-driven disruption and whose interests are served. Recommendations include a statutory duty for employers to consult workers on AI adoption and a worker support levy to fund portable benefits such as union membership, insurance, and training. Consultation could occur through collective bargaining or new structures like worker board representation or a consultative body.

"Workers urgently need more bargaining power over the way AI is adopted in the workplace to ensure the benefits are fairly shared, according to a TUC-backed report from a leading thinktank."

"The IPPR distinguishes between three potential impacts of the technology: augmentation, where it complements human labour; degradation, where it undermines the experience of work, for example, by being used to monitor and manage workers; and displacement, where it replaces workers altogether."

"The question is not whether AI will disrupt working life, but who will have the power to shape that disruption and whose interests it will ultimately serve, the report's authors argue."

"Their recommendations include a statutory duty on employers to consult their workers over the adoption of AI and a worker support levy, which could be funded by companies or workers. The idea of this levy would be to create a portable wallet of benefits that workers could take with them from one job to another such as union membership, insurance or training with the broad aim of increasing their bargaining power."

Read at www.theguardian.com