Communications Workers of America Applauds Introduction of No Robot Bosses Act

Yesterday, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)  introduced the No Robot Bosses Act, legislation to protect workers from employers using automated decision systems to make employment decisions.

The Communications Workers of America issued the following statement:

The No Robot Bosses Act creates important guardrails to protect workers and job applicants from the harms of automated decision systems, which employers are increasingly relying on when hiring, firing, and disciplining workers.

The algorithms these systems use can entrench patterns of discrimination, and workers, especially those without the safeguard of a union contract, often have very little recourse if they are unjustly fired or disciplined.

Our members have worked with artificial intelligence programs and have experienced the stressful and dehumanizing impacts of poorly-designed AI systems in the workplace. The misuse of artificial intelligence in the workplace undervalues human connection, intuition and creativity. While companies continue to develop and incorporate AI tools into the workplace, critical employment decisions must not be left to unregulated algorithms and workers must have a meaningful say in how that technology is used in the workplace. 

We applaud the proposed creation of a new Technology and Worker Protection Division in the U.S. Department of Labor to enforce and regulate the use of these novel technologies in the workplace. The No Robot Bosses Act is an important step in protecting the rights and dignities of working Americans from untested, novel technologies.

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