510 research outputs found
Algorithmic management and a new generation of rights at work
No full textTechnology has revolutionised the world of work over the past 30 years. Now its radically changing the way that people are managed at work, from how they are hired and fired to how their work is allocated, monitored and evaluated. The increasing use of complex algorithmic management tools to automate or augment functions traditionally carried out by human managers poses a significant threat to workers’ rights, working conditions, and ability to exercise their agency in the workplace.In this report Dr Joe Atkinson and Dr Philippa Collins argue that existing employment law frameworks are inadequate to meet the challenges posed be these applications of ‘artificial intellegence’ in the workplace. They reject a laissez faire approach to regulating new technologies in the workplace and instead make the case for proactive legal reforms that are urgently needed for the governance of AI at work. The proposed framework gives workers a genuine say in how algorithmic management systems are used and implemented. It also provides workers with the rights needed to protect against, and ensure appropriate accountability for, the potential harms of these technologies.<br/
Stories of (im)mobility: people with dementia on an acute medical unit
No full textThrough a lens of mobility, this thesis explores the narratives that people with dementia shared when they were inpatients on an acute medical unit. It is well documented that care for people with dementia when they become patients in an acute hospital is not good enough, with people losing mobility and independence skills. Despite this, there is a virtual absence of the voices of people with dementia in acute hospital research. When people have been included they have been positioned within the research as recipients of care, rather than people in their own right. This narrative enquiry is underpinned by the model of social citizenship that recognises people with dementia as citizens with voices. The study did not rely on researcher led questioning to elicit narratives, instead focusing on spontaneously produced conversations that were either video or audio recorded. Several narratives were also recorded in field notes. This enabled each participant to share what was important to them in that moment of time. The study findings were both empirical and methodological and showed that people with dementia have narratives to share, but these narratives do not fit the bio-medically constructed model that is generally expected from patients. Utilising a mobilities lens enabled the narratives to be understood as containing layers of communication. The first layer is the words; the second layer is gestures and movements that support the words; and the third layer is micro movements. These movements do not only support the words but in some cases tell a different story altogether. Attention to the layers of communication reveal personhood as a mobile process that requires work from both the teller and the listener to maintain. The micro movements are shown to be the physical manifestations of embodied language. I argue that viewing personhood through a mobilities lens is important to the advancement of dementia and citizenship practices
Worker voice and algorithmic management in post-Brexit Britain
No full textIn this article, we consider the legal frameworks that enable workers to influence the deployment of new workplace technologies in the United Kingdom and the future of worker voice and algorithmic management in a post-Brexit Britain. The article demonstrates how the legal mechanisms that facilitate voice at work, primarily collective bargaining via trade unions, can be leveraged to influence employers’ choices regarding algorithmic management. However, it also identifies both familiar and novel challenges regarding using these routes to ‘negotiate the algorithm’. The article then outlines major regulatory proposals emerging from the EU that would establish greater co-determination in this context and assesses their relevance to the UK labour market. It concludes by considering whether specific regulatory measures are necessary in the UK context to enhance the exercise of worker voice regarding the deployment of algorithmic management and close the widening gap between the position of UK and EU workers
Artificial intelligence and human rights at work
No full textWhile debates surrounding the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the ‘future of work’ have largely focused on automation of production processes and job destruction, it is increasingly clear that it is the use of AI to manage and govern the workplace that presents the more immediate challenge. This chapter argues that employers’ use of AI in algorithmic management and workplace surveillance technologies poses a significant and pervasive threat to human rights at work, one that is not confined to the rights of privacy and equality concerns that have so far dominated scholarly attention. The chapter sets out the ways in which technology is being used to undertake or augment managerial functions at all stages of the employment relationship and illustrates how these algorithmic management practices present a risk to a wide range of workers’ human rights. In addition to privacy and non-discrimination rights, this includes freedom of association and expression, due process rights, and the right to decent working conditions. The chapter then argues that ex ante forms of regulation are necessary to address the risk that AI poses to human rights at work and identifies and assesses two such frameworks that can be used to help secure human rights in this context, namely human rights impact assessments and collective bargaining over the use of technology in the workplace
The Right to Switch Off: Taking the Next Steps to Tackle the ‘Always On’ Culture
No full textPhilippa Collins and Dr Gabrielle Goldin
Putting human rights to work: the protection of the human rights of workers through the law of dismissal
No full textThe disciplinary powers of employers pose a significant threat to the human rights of their workers. To guard against this risk, workers should receive protection against infringements on their human rights by their employer. It
will be suggested that safeguarding the fundamental rights of workers has
always been one aspect of labour lawâs purpose. Consequently, employers
are already under an imperfect duty to respect the human rights of their
workers, generated by a patchwork of existing legal obligations. Nevertheless, the protections afforded by UK employment law suffer from deficiencies when assessed against human rights standards. This thesis focuses upon the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights, as incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998. It discusses the weaknesses and lacunae in the law of unfair dismissal and the common law of wrongful dismissal. The narrow personal scope of employment rights excludes a variety of individuals who benefit from the universality and inclusivity of human rights protection. The statutory law of unfair dismissal has several deficiencies as a mechanism of human rights protection. The three areas that will be examined particularly the manner in which the justification process is applied and the remedies available to successful claimants. There are a number of ways that the common law of wrongful dismissal could provide an alternative route to protection: sympathetic interpretation of the contractual terms, a favourable evolution of the implied obligation of mutual trust and confidence, or a new implied term requiring that employers respect the human rights of their workforce. However, contractual protection could be ousted by the insertion of inconsistent or exclusionary terms. The adequacy of this alternative course is therefore questionable. In response to the many deficiencies exposed in the human rights protection currently granted by UK employment law, a legislative
solution will be suggested and outlined. It would provide effective protection to the human rights of workers, safeguarding the workers against the risks that their employersâ powers pose to their most fundamental rights.</p
Comment on: “Influence of inter-granular void ratio on monotonic and cyclic undrained shear response of sandy soils” by M. Belkhatir, A. Arab, H. Missoum, T. Schanz [C. R. Mecanique 338 (2010) 290–303]
No full textPhilippa Collins and Gabrielle Goldin
10 Questions with Attorney, & Writer Philippa Davies
No full textInterview with attorney, writer, and St. Andrew High School for Girls graduate Philippa Davies, author of Travel Light: Memories of a Covenant Journey which was published on February 11th, 2011
Competitions: A Chapter in Your Story
No full text'Fresh from the publication of her debut novel, author Philippa Holloway shares her thoughts on how writing competitions helped her get there.
Lexical verbs in a medical case-report wordlist
No full textClinical case reports or clinical cases (CRs) are, perhaps, the most widely
read text type in medicine, since they contain a detailed description of the patient’s
medical history and symptoms and thus furnish ample teaching material for
physicians-in-training. For non-native speakers of English in medicine, autonomous
learning is often restricted because of a lack of medical lexicon, poor academic
vocabulary, and weak lexical verb use. Here, we present the results of an investigation
of lexical verbs: their distribution, classification, and contextual use in the
different sections of the genre CRs. We suggest that lexical verbs with contextual
use should be included in medical dictionaries to aid vocabulary development for all
levels of English language competence. We found that relational and reporting
verbs predominate in CRs and are used to describe and contextualize author
observations. Stative verbs are generally found to describe patient data, while
change of state verbs generally refers to patient response to therapy. Contextual
analysis suggests that lexical verbs categories might be related to the moves of this
genre, useful for teaching the structure of medical publications. We give some
applications of this investigation to dictionary building and in integrating corpora in
teaching and eventually in testing activities
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