Overview and commentary of the California Workplace Technology Accountability Act

Hilliard, Airlie; Kazim, Emre; Kemp, Tom and Bageire, Kelvin. 2023. Overview and commentary of the California Workplace Technology Accountability Act. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 37(1), pp. 91-109. ISSN 1360-0869 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Technological innovation and the resulting automation are increasingly being applied in the workplace, which is a high-risk context where decisions can majorly impact a worker’s life. Consequently, a number of ethical concerns with automated employment decision systems have been raised, with California proposing the Workplace Technology Accountability Act to limit the use of electronic monitoring systems and automated decision systems to specific times of day, activities and locations that must be proven as essential job functions. Workers would also be given the right to know, review and correct data held about them by their employer. In this article, we summarise and discuss the key points of the legislation before providing a commentary, where we identify four key themes: (i) how boundaries can contribute to a healthy work-life balance and protect the privacy of workers; (ii) how the requirement for impact assessments reflects the wider movement towards algorithmic assurance; (iii) the necessary and potentially problematic requirement to share notices and impact assessment reports with the Labor Agency; and (iv) how the Act might conflict with existing laws. Our intended readership is those interested in the regulation of automated employment decision tools, algorithmic assurance, and the potential impact of the proposed legislation.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2022.2115749

Keywords:

Impact assessments; workplace monitoring; algorithmic assurance

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Institute of Management Studies

Dates:

DateEvent
12 July 2022Submitted
18 August 2022Accepted
25 August 2022Published Online
2023Published

Item ID:

32119

Date Deposited:

26 Aug 2022 10:59

Last Modified:

14 Mar 2023 11:46

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/32119

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