Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:55 pm on 14 September 2021.
Diolch. Thank you, Minister. As another proud trade unionist, I very much welcome your statement and that Welsh Government is prioritising a Bill with fair work at its heart, and a commitment to promoting trade unions and collective bargaining, so that industry development and growth can benefit employers and employees.
However, alarmingly, when myself and Professor Lina Dencik of the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University interviewed trade union members last year, they described an array of new data, driven monitoring and surveillance practices that can hinder worker autonomy and collective bargaining. For example, facial recognition technology can be used to scan work spaces and identify when union reps are talking with workers. And we know from publicly available reports that multinational conglomerate Amazon has its analysts closely monitor the labour and union organising activity of their workers throughout Europe, and has allegedly been caught smearing employees who attempted to organise their colleagues. So, Minister, what consideration has been given to how new technologies and workplace surveillance could impact collective bargaining and trade unions' ability to organise, to ensure that this Bill is fit for the world of work now and achieves that level playing field for all to thrive?