Most workers don't know they're being watched at work
Employers are using AI and cameras to monitor workers, often without telling them.
Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney found workplace monitoring tools spreading across factories, offices, delivery routes and retail shops. The monitoring tools include CCTV, keystroke tracking and AI watching instant messages.
Often workers don't know it's happening. A fast-food chain put cameras in change rooms to stop staff using phones.
One supermarket's AI system gave a cashier a final written warning for making mistakes at a rate of roughly one per 533 scans (0.18%). Microsoft Teams now automatically updates a worker's status to "in the office" when they join workplace wifi.
A Minderoo poll found 43 per cent of Australians aware some employers use AI monitoring. But only 9 per cent knew it happened at their own workplace.
The Human Technology Institute is calling for the Fair Work Act to be overhauled to make monitoring fair and transparent.
- 43 per cent
- Aware of employer AI monitoring
- 9 per cent
- Aware monitoring at own workplace
- 0.18 per cent
- Cashier error rate flagged
- University of Technology Sydney
- Researcher institution
Why it mattersMost workers don't know they're being watched. Monitoring can penalise people for standards that are too strict.
AustraliaAustralian workplaces are adopting invasive monitoring tools with minimal oversight, but a government inquiry is now examining whether new laws are needed to protect workers' privacy and rights.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 3 h ago
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