Policies required to provide for those who lose their jobs because of AI, says Ictu

A “just transition” approach is required to support people who lose their jobs as a result of the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI), the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) will tell an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday.

Ictu’s head of social policy and employment affairs, Laura Bambrick, will tell members of the Joint Committee of Enterprise, Trade and Employment that “we need to prepare for technological unemployment”.

In her opening statement to the committee, which is also to hear from representatives of the Bar Council of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin on Wednesday, Ms Bambrick says that AI systems “offer immense opportunities for improving work and workplaces” by improving worker safety, productivity and freeing them to do “more rewarding work”.

“At the same time, however, without appropriate regulation the increased usage of these largely invisible technologies poses potential risks to workers,” she says.

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“Ictu supports the call of the European Trade Union Confederation for a specific EU directive on AI in the workplace, and calls for both protections and supports for those impacted by its increasingly widespread use,” she will tell TDs and Senators.

“In the same way that EU legislation sets minimum standards for occupational health and safety,” she argues, “new rules are needed to set European minimum standards for the design and use of AI in our workplaces, and to guarantee that no worker is subject to the will of a machine.

“We also need to equip the workforce with the skills required to keep pace with AI technologies. An we need to prepare for technological unemployment. We will need a just transition approach whereby policies are put in place to ensure that where parts of jobs or whole jobs or whole industries become redundant, workers’ living standards are protected through pay-related and proactive income supports – including through a genuine short-time work scheme for vulnerable but viable employment, retraining opportunities and that other quality jobs are created for workers to move into.”

In her address Ms Bambrick suggests many workers are already experiencing an adverse impact of AI in the form of monitoring systems used by companies to ensure those working remotely maintain required levels of productivity.

Beyond that, she says, “the launch of the content-generating AI platform ChatGPT has opened up public interest in the potential for AI to transform jobs and displace large swathes of the workforce along the way”.

She says that while the use of such software predated the pandemic the scale of the change involved was accelerating and “robust regulation” was urgently required. “Trade unions are not looking to hold back the tide of progress. We acknowledge the potential of AI for improving work and workplaces when used in the right way. What we are demanding is robust regulation. Workers’ rights and protections must be fit for purpose to keep pace with these powerful technological developments. AI in the workplace must deliver for workers as much as for business.”