NEW laws are needed to protect young and black workers having their privacy breached by AI-powered workplace surveillance, a new report said today.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said that workers must have a say in how they are monitored and managed, both in the workplace and while working from home.

Shopfloor staff, warehouse workers, delivery drivers and those working in call centres and from home are at the highest risk of having calls recorded, emails analysed and possibly even being monitored by cameras or laptop webcams, the think tank said.

Young workers aged 16 to 29 came out as being at high risk and black employees were also seen as likely to face surveillance.

IPPR researcher and report co-author Joseph Evans said that the pace of change of the technology meant “we don’t have a mechanism to control them where surveillance does tip over into potential breaches of privacy or freedom of expression and association in the workplace.

“As part of their wider changes to employment rights, through the Employment Rights Bill, there should be substantive new rights to negotiate and consult over surveillance.

“And specifically adapting pieces of legislation like the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act to provide the new mechanism for workers to be able to negotiate over surveillance.

“Implicit in the right to negotiate is that it would give workers the right to challenge if they felt it [surveillance] was excessive or unfair.”

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts national chairowoman Zita Holbourne said: “Monitoring systems are multiple and are put in place to micromanage and, essentially, to bully black workers and, worse still, to criminalise them.

“In the Civil Service … they would seek to criminalise black workers by imposing disciplinary processes for theft of time, for example, monitoring every move and how long you take to use the bathroom.

“If you are black and young or intersectional, then you face a multiple impact.”

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “UK employment law is simply not keeping pace with developments in AI. This is leaving workers at risk of discrimination.

“We need new legislation to ensure that AI is used ethically in the workplace.”

The Department for Business and Trade said that its plan to Make Work Pay includes safeguards against invasion of privacy and discrimination by algorithms.