AI and new technologies must improve health and safety at work

Today, the EESC adopted a key opinion on Health and Safety at Work related to new technologies and AI. As part of a broad overview of AI and new technologies and their effects on the world of work, the EESC considers keeping a human-centric approach as the fundamental piece of any technological deployment in these fields.

AI poses many challenges and opportunities to our societies, and the world of work is a sector particularly affected. Without proper guidance and training, AI and other emerging technologies may perpetuate biases, gender and racial stereotypes, as well as discrimination based on age or disability. The European Commission and Council, and social partners, must adapt labour regulations to keep them up to date with already present business models with advanced digitalisation, where abusive practices such as short-term hiring and bogus self-employment might be prevalent.

Protecting Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) requires increased capacity to monitor, collect, compare and analyse data in the relevant sectors, as well as involving workers in the introduction of new technologies and the protection of privacy.

Presenting the opinion in the EESC Plenary, rapporteur Carlos Trindade argued ' We call for legislative initiatives to address gaps in the protection of workers’ rights in the workplace resulting from the new nature of work and the advent of new technologies, and for the adaptation of OSH provisions to the new challenges posed by AI, with the involvement of social partners'