Managing Technology that Manages People: Regulatory Strategies for the UK

The paper offers an ambitious analysis of the regulation of algorithmic management, across regional, domestic and organisational levels. Although innovative uses of technology to manage people at work present opportunities, clear risks to rights, difficulties regarding transparency and accountability, and a concern regarding the decline in human connection and judgment also arise. There is no doubt that there is a need to regulate technology that is used to manage people at work. The more pressing questions are how should we devise a system of boundaries, rights and responsibilities that are fit for purpose in the era of algorithmic management and what should the details of that system be?

In this piece, I examine what the UK can learn from the recent EU Platform Work Directive in answering these important questions. I observe that the Directive contains individual and collective rights that significantly advance our understanding of how algorithmic management should be regulated in the specific context of work. The UK can, and I argue should, move beyond the Platform Work Directive by expanding the application of its future regulatory strategy to any situation where an algorithmic management system determines or influences the conditions of a person at work. Further, the UK’s regulatory approach should not be confined to general legislation. Here, I explore the advantages of social partnership or co-governance between businesses and workplace representatives in this fast-moving context. There have already been successes, in the UK and elsewhere, in tripartite regulation of algorithmic management. A shift in Government presents an opportunity to generate productive dialogue between the local, national and international standard-setters.