ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE WORKPLACE: Legal Challenges, Regulatory Gaps, and the Path to Reform

Artificial Intelligence is neither inherently threatening to employment rights nor inherently conducive to their realisation. It is a powerful set of tools whose effects depend on the conditions under which they are deployed and legal conditions are among the most consequential. The analysis presented here demonstrates that current frameworks, in every jurisdiction examined, leave meaningful gaps: in accountability, in transparency, in bias prevention, and in the protection of workers displaced by automation. Those gaps are not inevitable. They reflect legislative lag rather than principled choice, and they are remediable. The goal is not to restrain AI but to discipline its deployment so that efficiency gains do not come at the cost of fairness, dignity, and equality. A regulatory framework built on pre-deployment assessment, mandatory transparency, clear liability, genuine worker participation, and adequate social protection can achieve that balance. The technology will continue to develop rapidly; the legal systems that govern it must develop with equal urgency.[1] [1] Hugh Collins, K.D. Ewing & Aileen McColgan, Labour Law 38–52 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2019).

[1] Hugh Collins, K.D. Ewing & Aileen McColgan, Labour Law 38–52 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2019). [2] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Principles on AI (2019), https://oecd.ai/en/ai-principles; Int'l Labour Org., supra note 11, at 32–37. [3] See generally De Stefano & Wouters, supra note 4, at 115–30 (proposing a similar package of regulatory interventions at the EU level); Binns, supra note 24, at 180–200.