The Biden administration is planning to investigate companies' usage of automated tools to monitor, evaluate, surveil, and manage workers. This effort aims to advance the government's understanding of the design and impacts of the used technologies.
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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 01: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and President Joe Biden (R) leave after a Rose Garden event at the White House to mark National Small Business Week on May 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. President Biden is hosting small business award winners at the White House to celebrate their contributions.
Releasing Request for Information
As the country celebrates International Workers' Day today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy officially announced on its website that it will be releasing a public request for information to investigate employers on how they use automated tools to monitor, evaluate, surveil, and manage their workers.
Employees were asked by the administration about their experience with surveillance technology, while companies and software developers were asked about the development and usage of these tools. OSTP stated that these can create serious risks to workers despite being beneficial to both parties.
This request aims for employers, developers, researchers, and advocacy groups regarding the effects and usage of surveillance technology, including the economic, safety, physical, mental, and emotional impacts in the workplace. Independent contractors and traditional employees will be classified in this probe.
Through this effort, the administration stated that they will be able to create an economy that supports good-paying jobs where employees will be treated with respect and dignity, and have the opportunity to form and join unions.
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The Biden-Harris administration has made labor issues its centerpiece for the implemented economic policies, after years of failed wages to keep up with the inflation.
President's Deputy Assistant for Racial Justice and Equity Jenny Yang and Deputy US Chief Technology Officer Deirdre Mulligan said in a statement "Monitoring conversations can deter workers from exercising their rights to organize and collectively bargain with their employers. Automated surveillance can lead to workers being treated differently or discriminated against."
According to Bloomberg's report, lawmakers and advocates have been aiming this effort to know how companies use different technologies to control their workforces. Several states across the country already passed legislation regulating companies with copies of data collected during work, including California, New York, and Minnesota.
Increasing Workplace Surveillance
The White House based this whole effort on a report from The New York Times last August 2022, stating that eight out of ten largest private employers in the United States tracked individual workers to assess their productivity in the workplace. In their investigation, NYT found that tracking software is unexpectedly common in several industries to base the employees' pay.
These include nurses who have been required to wear RFID badges to track their location and movements with their patients and other hospital workers, rideshare and delivery riders that are being tracked for their speed, location, and acceleration, and even office workers that are being tracked through their mouse and keyboard activity.
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