With the advent of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning capabilities, workplace surveillance has accelerated. It’s being used by management to exert greater control over workers, driving work intensification without any corresponding improvement in pay and conditions. The result is a shift of business risk to workers - with workers' every movement being closely monitored and quantified, paid work time can be minimised. Unsurprisingly, the use of workplace surveillance is creating worker burnout and toxic organisational cultures. This creeping stranglehold of workplace surveillance is intrusive and dehumanising and demeans the autonomy and the rights of workers.

Workplace surveillance is prevalent across our society, and it doesn’t discriminate by industry or jurisdiction. It’s examples range from the arbitrary punishment of gig workers kicked off platforms due to metrics beyond their control, to biometric scanning, eye-tracking, digital wearables that track location, speech patterns and the content of conversations, sentiment and mood analysis, workplace competition and leaderboards displaying workers outputs, and the omnipotent surveillance tracking of browsing history, email contents and phone call contents.

These practices are experienced by workers as demeaning. They create anxiety and stress, and pose a risk to workers’ mental as well as physical health.

Workers are not robots. They are not resources or inventory or machines. Workers are people with agency and autonomy.

We need a thorough reform and updating of our workplace laws, including surveillance and monitoring, to ensure they are fit for purpose for the 21st century and to reassert workers’ rights against the coercive power and imperatives of big business.

Our workplace surveillance laws are out of date and in desperate need of reform. This will be a priority for us when Parliament resumes next year.

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