Unions to demand employers be forbidden from using AI for ‘mass redundancies'
The council's assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell will use a speech on Tuesday to send a message that the union movement expects Labor to push through legislation to bar the use of AI at businesses that cannot reach agreements with their employees.
'It is necessary to have a comprehensive AI act to ensure that such bad-faith uses of this technology are protected against,' Mitchell will say in a speech to the Melbourne University Productivity Flash Forum, according to draft speech notes seen by this masthead. 'Workers will be all in if they know doing so will not cost them their jobs.'
Business groups have argued that artificial intelligence presents a multibillion-dollar opportunity for Australia to improve its productivity, arguing it will allow workers to be redeployed to higher-skilled jobs and calling for any safeguards not to impede the uptake of the technology.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will host the roundtable from August 19 to 21 to address Australia's flatlining productivity, hoping it will generate ideas for economic reform.
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A similar summit hosted by the Albanese government at the start of its first term contributed to the legislation of key union priorities such as letting labour organisations bargain across multiple employers, upsetting business groups.
Mitchell will argue that the biggest productivity gains come from businesses that use AI in a consultative way and respect workers' skills.
'Employers should be required to reach AI-implementation agreements with their staff before new technologies are introduced into workplaces,' Mitchell will say, saying agreements should include requirements on job security, privacy and retraining.
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