CWU response to government consultation on workplace monitoring technologies
The CWU has made the attached submission to the government’s Make Work Pay consultation on workplace monitoring technologies (WMT).[1]
The CWU’s response highlights examples of WMT used in the postal, telecoms, tech and financial services sectors. It argues that our members are at the sharp end of monitoring technologies that undermine trust, damage physical and mental wellbeing, increase stress and sickness absence, and contribute to lower job satisfaction and staff retention. These outcomes carry significant costs for employers. Workers who feel trusted and empowered are generally more motivated and productive than those subjected to continuous electronic surveillance.
The consultation seeks views on proposals to support the fair, transparent and responsible use of WMT. It asks whether there should be:
- A statutory code of practice on employers’ use of WMT (Option A);
- Primary legislation to impose a duty to consult with trade unions or elected representatives where monitoring is introduced or significantly changed (Option B); or
- A non-statutory code of practice on employers’ use of WMT (Option C).
The CWU’s response strongly supports Option B which would place a legal duty on employers to consult trade unions before introducing or significantly changing workplace monitoring technologies. We argue that consultation should take place before procurement or deployment decisions are finalised and employers should be required to provide relevant information including Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIAs), equality impact assessments and details of any automated decision making.
The response argues that a statutory code as set out in Option A would help, but only as a supplement to the legal rights established through primary legislation. Option C, based on non-statutory guidance alone, would not provide sufficient safeguards to support responsible adoption.
Beyond making the case for primary legislation under Option B, the CWU’s response calls for:
- Workers to have a clear legal right to information about what data is collected from WMT, why it is collected, whether automated decisions are involved and how decisions are made, among other requirements.
- Workers to have meaningful rights and ownership interests in the data collected about them at work. This would allow workers and their representatives to understand how systems affect them and would support informed collective bargaining on pay, working time, privacy, workload and reasonable productivity expectations. Greater worker access to data would help identify emerging risks, prevent stress and burnout and create more balanced employment relationships.
- Workers to benefit from productivity gains arising from new technology, for example through better pay and conditions of employment and shorter working hours.
- Safeguards to apply where WMT is used, including mandatory impact assessments, equality and discrimination testing, human oversight of significant decisions and clear routes for challenge and redress.
The CWU recognises that WMT can deliver genuine benefits in areas such as health and safety, security, training, quality assurance and fraud prevention. However, positive examples such as location-based alerts warning of workplace hazards are the exception, not the norm. Our experience of workplace surveillance has been overwhelmingly negative. WMT is frequently deployed primarily to intensify work, scrutinise performance and increase managerial control. The claimed productivity benefits often fail to materialise, while the harmful impacts on workforce wellbeing, trust and morale are substantial.
Workplace monitoring and surveillance is an issue the CWU raised at the Labour National Policy Forum ahead of the 2024 general election, and Labour committed to consulting on this in its Next Steps to Make Work Pay policy paper in November 2024.[2]
The government’s proposals offer an important opportunity to secure a new legal right for workers and trade unions to be consulted and negotiated with over the introduction of workplace monitoring technologies. However, the government has yet to indicate its preferred approach, and there is no guarantee it will proceed with Option B in the face of likely business opposition. Continued pressure from the trade union movement will therefore be essential to secure a legal right to consultation and negotiation, along with stronger regulation of WMT more broadly.
If you have any questions or comments on the above, please email btaylor@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely,
Bill Taylor
Head of Research
[1] Make Work Pay: workplace monitoring technologies – GOV.UK
[2] Next Steps to Make Work Pay (web accessible version) – GOV.UK
LTB 297-26 CWU response to government on workplace monitoring technologies
LTB 297-26 Attachment A – CWU Workplace Monitoring Technologies Consultation Response 30.09.26
Leave a Reply