Greetings, Chair and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to appear here today.
I want to begin by commending the committee for initiating this very important study. The impact of AI on work and employment is increasingly the focus of the attention of unions in Canada.
In 2022, the CLC formed a task force on AI and automation, comprised of unions from the public and private sector and a range of industries and occupations.
When asked, many workers report being optimistic about the potential of AI applications to improve and enrich work. It could do this by automating simple, repetitive tasks, allowing more time and attention to be devoted to non-routine, creative and skill-intensive tasks. This aligns with the OECD research finding that workers report improved performance and even improved job satisfaction following the introduction of AI applications in their work.
It also fits with the view that, as with many new technologies, AI has no intrinsic implications for the quality of work and employment. Technology is shaped by the social structures and power relations within which it is designed, developed and adopted. What matters are the choices we make about the direction of AI research and how AI is developed and deployed.
In the words of one economist, “AI can be a powerful tool for deploying the creativity, judgment, and flexibility of humans rather than simply automating their jobs”, but AI also has the capacity to reinforce existing inequities of income, wealth and power, aggravating the discrimination, exclusion and insecurity that many vulnerable workers face, undermining the privacy rights of workers as producers and consumers, and creating risks of individual and societal harms.
Many workers raise concerns about displacement and job loss. As AI automates not only routine but also non-routine cognitive tasks, the potential for job displacement will rise. Automation has historically had the greatest impact on low-skilled and semi-skilled jobs, but workers in high-skilled occupations now find themselves vulnerable to AI-driven displacement.
In addition to job loss, a significant concern is the potential for discrimination; monitoring surveillance at work; a weakening of privacy rights around the extraction, use and sharing of personal information; and the potential for individual labour and human rights violations. AI deployed in the human resource management functions of hiring, performance evaluation, promotion, discipline and termination is a particular source of worry.
Already, gig workers working for digital platforms struggle with unaccountable algorithmic management and arbitrary deactivations.
Facial and voice recognition technology deployed in workplaces like airports and technologies that monitor and collect information on workers' physical health are troubling.
Workers in marine ports already struggle with unfair and arbitrary decisions around security clearances. Automated decision-making that deploys pattern recognition algorithms could make these decisions even more unjust and arbitrary.
Finally, creative sector workers and those in the performing arts are worried about retaining control over their names, images and likenesses and ensuring fair compensation for their work.
Canada’s unions have one overriding message for policy-makers on AI: As employers deploy AI systems, workers want greater transparency, information sharing, consultation and participation. They want the right to be informed, to be consulted and to participate in the process, and they want access to training and labour adjustment.
Our recommendations to the government include the following. The government should outline a vision and road map for appropriate regulation of AI development and adoption in workplaces. This should include a strategy for ensuring a voice for workers and unions in the regulation and oversight of AI.
It starts with a representative advisory council on AI. This would be able not only to make recommendations about emerging areas of concern for policy-makers but also to identify research gaps, data and research needs and strategies for disseminating this research. Right now, workers have relatively limited rights to be informed, to have access to training and to be involved in the introduction of new technologies.
Access to vocational education and training is highly uneven in Canada, and labour adjustment is comparatively weak.
Chair, I see that my time has come to an end. I will leave my recommendations there and hopefully follow up in the Q and A period.
Thank you.