Algorithmic Management: Opportunities for Collective Action

In a growing number of economic sectors, employers are using algorithmic management systems (AMS) to ratchet up productivity at the expense of workers’ health, privacy and wages. These systems often include extreme monitoring and constant surveillance with real-time performance feedback. Employers use them to enforce unsustainable productivity goals, and the resulting pressure puts workers’ physical and mental health at risk.

However, unions are pushing back against algorithmic management’s abuses and are demanding safer jobs that share the benefits of this new technology. This report provides guidance on how unions are shaping the uses of AMS and gives guidelines for future collective bargaining on this topic.

We encourage UNI affiliates to contribute to this ongoing project by informing us about new collective bargaining agreements and proposals as well as new algorithmic management initiatives. Please, write to us at https://uniglobalunion.org/contact.