Worker Voice and Algorithmic Management in post-Brexit Britain

In this paper, we consider the legal frameworks that enable workers to influence and exercise voice over the deployment of new workplace technologies in the UK and the future of worker voice and algorithmic management in a post-Brexit Britain. The paper demonstrates how the primary legal mechanism which facilitates voice at work, namely the law governing collective bargaining via trade unions, can be leveraged to influence employers’ choices regarding algorithmic management. However, it also identifies significant challenges to workers seeking to use these mechanisms to ‘negotiate the algorithm’, including the familiar issue of limited coverage of collective bargaining in the UK and more novel difficulties arising from attempts to bargain over management processes undertaken by complex algorithms. In light of these problems, the paper assesses the impact of regulatory proposals emerging from the EU in establishing a greater degree of co-determination in this context and considers the further regulatory measures that are necessary to enhance worker voice over the use of workplace technologies. This includes more extensive consultation duties for employers and the creation of specific workplace representative roles relating to algorithmic management, as well as new mechanisms facilitating worker voice throughout the lifecycle of these technologies which aim to ensure they function in a manner consistent with workers’ rights and interests at the development stage before they even enter the workplace.