Automated Dismissal Decisions, Data Protection and The Law of Unfair Dismissal – by Philippa Collins – UK Labour Law
‘In Summer 2021, Bloomberg published a striking series of stories from working people who had been ‘fired by a machine’. Stephen Normandin had worked for several years for Amazon Flex as a member of a fleet of ‘contract drivers’ who provide same-day delivery services for groceries and packages. Like other members of Amazon’s significant workforce, Stephen’s work was monitored through a system of real-time data collection and algorithmic analysis. Stephen’s performance rating plummeted after a series of unfortunate incidents made his job more difficult: inaccessible gated communities and lockers, unresponsive recipients and unhelpful responses from the company. Shortly after, he received an email stating that his contract had been terminated. Stephen took up the opportunity to appeal the decision but received a series of emails, each with a different name attached, that took him no further. The final email that Stephen received stated that the difficulties he had cited had already been taken into account. His termination stood, even though he was never able to interact ‘live’ with another human being.’
UK Labour Law, 19th October 2021
Source: uklabourlawblog.com
