Amazon ‘Uses AI in Warehouses to Predict Whether Workers Will Join Unions’

Por Charlotte Reck — Novara Media

Amazon has been accused of using AI to track employees and rank how likely they are to form unions.

The online retail giant uses a tool called Atlas in an apparent bid to predict acts of dissent by workers in the UK, the US and Canada, a document released as part of court proceedings between Amazon and Canadian union Unifor show. 

The document, which appears to be a training manual for company leaders, has led the GMB Union to accuse Amazon of using “Orwellian” AI tools to spy on workers. 

“Workers deserve to be able to work free of the fear of excessive surveillance,” said GMB organiser Rachel Fagan.“If Amazon bosses are using Atlas or similar AI-fuelled systems in the UK, the British public deserve to know”.

The document also contains pointers for managers on listening to workers’ concerns without “over-sympathising”. 

Atlas gives warehouses a risk score of between 100 and 900 for union activity, with a lower score meaning it believes workers are more likely to unionise. A higher score is “better” for leaders at the company, the document says.

This “makes it clear that they think the union is bad”, Michael Newman, a partner at London-based law firm Leigh Day, told openDemocracy. 

Atlas is described in the document as a “labour risk framework to clarify how Amazon evaluates emerging workforce issues, labour union targets and internal or external labour threats.”

It outlines a five-tier scale – where tier one denotes workplace disruption and “imminent” worker action, while tier five merits “no immediate perceived risk”. 

The scale can be used to determine staffing decisions, resource planning and action to “mitigate risks” while avoiding reduced productivity or profits, the document says.

In the UK, two Amazon warehouses have been listed in tier one, while 14 others in the US and Canada were named in this high-risk tier.

At a warehouse near Coventry named BHX4, there has been an “active organising campaign” while previous strike action has been recorded at another at EMA4 Sutton Coldfield. 

Newman said that the findings relay “a very different story” to Amazon’s claim that it has no desire to deter workers from joining a union.  

An Amazon spokesperson denied that Atlas is used to counter union activity and refuted the characterisation of the technology as surveillance of individual employees. 

“This is site/building level activity only,” they told openDemocracy, adding that the company does not “track individual employees’ opinions, affiliations or union membership”.

Atlas is used to “help us understand where associates need more support and to ensure we’re addressing issues that they raise”, they added. 

Fonte: Novara Media