Labor groups worry about the lack of guardrails for AI in employment

Bloomberg Law reports that the lack of federal oversight over the use of artificial intelligence in the workforce is spurring unions to negotiate safeguards in bargaining contracts, especially when it involves job protections and private information such as name, image, and likeness. 

A proposal for an artificial intelligence framework from the Trump administration concerns union leaders who fear that provisions asking Congress to overturn state AI regulations along with moves to speed up permitting for data centers could hurt workers, reports Bloomberg Law.

Unions might be able to bolster their negotiations for representing workers by calling for protections for workers’ name, image and likeness. Labor and legal experts including Anne Lofaso, a professor in the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law at the University of Cincinnati, offered their thoughts to Bloomberg Law.

Lofaso, a former attorney for the National Labor Relations Board teaches courses in labor law, employment law and constitutional law. Unions are pushing for contract language to stop mass layoffs and overly broad use of the technology, reports Bloomberg Law.

Lofaso told Bloomberg Law that as the AI technology evolves, labor groups are likely to seek work preservation clauses in agreements to prevent management from instituting mass layoffs. Those clauses typically require management to train existing workers to use new technologies or mandate that companies maintain skilled labor, she adds.

Read the full story citing Lofaso and other experts in Bloomberg Law’s online reporting.

Featured top image from istock.