Received from: Aegis
Congress notes that artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming workplaces across every sector, including financial services, where it is increasingly used in customer service, recruitment, lending, compliance, performance management and workforce planning.
While AI can improve productivity and services, it also risks job displacement, increased surveillance and widening inequality if introduced without worker involvement. Entry level and administrative roles – often the starting point for young people beginning their careers – are particularly vulnerable to automation.
Congress further notes that women workers remain disproportionately represented in many of these occupations and continue to undertake the majority of unpaid caring responsibilities. Poorly managed AI implementation therefore risks reinforcing existing inequalities unless equality is considered from the outset.
Congress believes AI should enhance workers, not replace them, and that workers and their recognised trade unions must have a legal voice before AI is introduced.
Congress calls on the General Council to campaign for legislation requiring employers to engage, consult and negotiate with recognised trade unions before implementing AI that affects jobs, terms and conditions or ways of working; lobby for mandatory workforce and equality impact assessments; promote protections for apprenticeships and entry level opportunities; and develop model collective bargaining agreements to ensure AI delivers a just transition that benefits workers, employers and society alike.
Aegis
AMENDMENT
In the second paragraph, after “services,” insert “and potentially eliminate drudgery for some workers,”
In the second paragraph, after “surveillance” insert “, work intensification”
At the end of the second paragraph, insert “These workers may be less technologically confident and not properly considered when change is being implemented.”
In the fourth paragraph, after “introduced” insert “to ensure any change is mutually beneficial for both employers and employees.”
In the fifth paragraph after “opportunities;” insert “embed employee training and upskilling into their strategy;”
Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers