LABOUR IN THE AEON OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: THE LEGALIZED THEFT OF JOBS

Abstract

The world had long entered into the digital aeon, that has transformed the operational working methods. The economy is set to conceive an unparalleled metamorphosis, with the inception of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). However, several radical and ethical questions revolving around the labour and employment market, remain up in the air. Labor and employment law ought to be used as a legal tool to steer the obvious changes brought by AI in the workplace. The herculean task is thus to identify the avenues for imbibing the existing labour and employment legislations, in order to effectuate, anticipate and smooth out the transition to the new global realm. This paper thus aims at filling certain gaps in the mainstream parley on automation, the introduction of novel technologies at the workplace and the future of work. It seeks to examine the quantum of the A.I. introduced in the labour market, that potentially affects the quality as well as the quantity of jobs.  Further, It addresses the detrimental effects on workers of awarding legal capacity and rights and the obligation to robots. Additionally, it scrutinizes the ramifications of the practices employing People Analytics and the use of big data and artificial intelligence to manage the workforce. It stresses on an often-neglected feature of the contract of employment, namely the fact that it vests the employer with the authority and managerial prerogatives over workers. It points out that a vital function of labour law is to limit these authority and prerogatives to protect the human dignity of workers. In light of this, it highlights the benefits of human-rights based approaches to labour regulation to protect workers’ privacy against invasive electronic monitoring. Penultimately, it highlights the crucial role of collective regulation and social partners in governing automation and the impact of technology at the workplace.