Watching the Watchers: Surveillance at Work and Notes for Trade Unionists

Workers have always faced the tension of capital versus labour, where an overarching business profit motive dominates the terms of the employment relationship, and workers want a decent and enjoyable life, paid for by their work and commitment to their employer and wage provider. Today, however, the employment relationship is changing, and there is a new type of actor in the workplace. While machines, both analogue and digital, have been used over time to help workplace designers calculate outputs of work and increasingly to replace work through automation, now, with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and applications, some machines are being given new responsibilities and a level of autonomy as well as being expected to display various forms of intelligence. [Opening paragraph]