Guidelines for Protecting Workers' Digital Privacy Rights
In the rapidly evolving world of work, where data plays an increasingly significant role in management decisions, the UNI Global Union has put forth the Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights. These principles are aimed at safeguarding workers' rights in the digital age, particularly in relation to data collection and usage.
The UNI Global Union's proposals address the storage, source, and intended use of workers' data, ensuring that workers have a say in how their data is handled. These principles can be integrated into collective bargaining agreements, providing a framework for fair and transparent data practices.
The absence of these operational principles could result in workers being subject to unilateral data-informed managerial decisions, potentially infringing on their rights. To prevent such scenarios, the principles demand transparency regarding the data used for managerial decisions and the right of explanation regarding the data's source, storage, and intended use.
Workers' data rights principles also align with the Ten Principles for Ethical AI, emphasizing the importance of AI and automated technologies respecting human dignity, rights, and fairness. The connection lies in how both sets of principles aim to ensure that AI and automated technologies used in workplaces adhere to standards that protect workers’ privacy, data rights, and labor protections.
The principles advocate for the right of workers to access and control data about their work performance, prevention of forced consent in data processing due to power imbalances, and involvement of workers' representatives in decisions involving their data. They also emphasise the importance of transparency, accountability, and human oversight in AI decision-making processes.
These principles can be part of multinational alliances, Global Framework Agreements, and even integrated into the broader labor and human rights frameworks that safeguard employee privacy, ensure equitable treatment under digital and AI systems, and promote fairness in employment relations supported by digital technologies.
As unions, governments, and organizations collaborate to establish frameworks and competence centers that enforce human rights due diligence in global supply chains and corporate operations, with a strong emphasis on AI ethics and worker protections, the UNI Global Union’s principles for workers’ data rights become increasingly important. They operationalize ethical AI principles specifically for the employment context, aiming to safeguard workers against potential harms from AI-driven monitoring, evaluation, and decision-making systems.
[1] UNI Global Union (2021). Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights. Retrieved from https://www.uniglobalunion.org/resources/10-principles-workers-data-rights [2] European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2021). Ten Principles for Ethical AI. Retrieved from https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2021/ten-principles-ethical-ai [3] International Labour Organization (2021). AI and Work: A Guide for Social and Trade Union Action. Retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---sector/---industry/documents/publication/wcms_762333.pdf [4] Human Rights Watch (2021). The Future of Work: Protecting Human Rights in the Digital Age. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/02/24/future-work/protecting-human-rights-digital-age/workers-rights-and-digital-technologies
- The UNI Global Union's Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights, such as the right to access and control data about work performance and transparency in AI decision-making processes, align with the Ten Principles for Ethical AI in ensuring that AI and automated technologies in business and finance respect workers' rights and human dignity.
- In the context of the collaboration among unions, governments, and organizations to enforce human rights due diligence in corporate operations, the UNI Global Union's principles for workers' data rights, including those related to finance, technology, and business, become crucial, as they operationalize ethical AI principles specifically for the employment context, safeguarding workers against potential harms from AI-driven systems.
