Government needs to act against 'Big Brother'-style monitoring of employees
More than half of the workers surveyed did not know if their office or home computer was monitored.
‘Big Brother’-style monitoring of staff in the workplace requires the Government to urgently step in with new legislation, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
The Financial Services Union (FSU) outlined its concerns to the Oireachtas enterprise committee that legislative change was essential to keep pace with the rapid technological advances taking place, particularly in the context of artificial intelligence.
“What we’d be afraid of is that it would be like social media,” the union’s general secretary John O’Connell told TDs and senators.
“It’s gone so far, so fast that by the time we’re regulating, it’s gone away from us. And entities might be too powerful, like social media today.”
Two TDs compared the discussion at committee on Wednesday to the work of novelist George Orwell, with Waterford TD Matt Shanahan declaring “2024 is now 1984 potentially”.
The findings of research conducted by the FSU and Dr Michelle O’Sullivan, from the University of Limerick’s Kemmy Business School, were presented at the meeting on Wednesday.
More than half of the workers surveyed did not know if their office or home computer was monitored, while a quarter said their employer had stepped up data collection on their work since they began working from home.
In the view of these workers, such surveillance of them at work could be demoralising, stressful and suggested their employer did not trust them.
Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly said the means of surveillance of employees represented a fundamental change from monitoring, for example, when someone clocks in and out.
Dr O’Sullivan said more information was needed on what was happening in Ireland regarding surveillance but said it “depends on the organisation and type of job you’re doing”.
Surveillance can take the form of monitoring calls, emails, direct messages, or even keystrokes on a computer, the committee heard.
“Some companies have invested enormous amounts of money in technology, and can collect constant and granular data in a way it hasn’t before," she said.
“In retail baking, there’s an enormous amount of data collection, focused on sales targets. And employees’ work on every aspect of what they do, collected on scorecards, and their conversations are recorded.”
Dr O’Sullivan said one bank manager who responded to their research cited an example where a worker might go “off-script” to help a customer who might have struggled to access online banking or similar services.
Looking abroad, Dr O’Sullivan cited one extreme example in Japan where employees cannot enter the building unless they are smiling. She said companies were developing technology to record everything from a person’s interactions to their emotions at work.
Mr O’Connell said they were presenting this research as part of a request for the committee to prepare a wider report on surveillance of employees in the workplace, and stressed the need for legislation.
Fine Gael TD Richard Bruton suggested the ever-expanding technology was so “far-reaching potentially” that lawmakers need to know where they can stick their oar in to guide the boat.
The union head replied: “That’s why we’re asking committee to commission a report to understand the extent of it that’s currently at play, and the potential for it to go.”
He said it was essential to address the power imbalance in favour of the employer in this situation, and that legislation addresses the necessity and proportionality of technological surveillance in all its forms. And that it is done in negotiation and agreement with unions.
“That’s why we would argue in relation to collective bargaining,” he said.
“Legislation around collective bargaining to underpin people’s right to be represented and have things be thrashed out. It shouldn’t be a threat to employers. It’ll lead to better workplace policies.”
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