Governance of workplace technology applications

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Whereas Section 2 focuses on foundational rights for technology adoption and Section 3 addresses the general impacts of technological change in the workplace, this section examines how unions have negotiated over the use and governance of specific workplace technology applications. These include technologies used for electronic monitoring and surveillance, human resource and workforce management, and the execution of core work tasks. Across these domains, unions have secured contractual language that regulates how technologies are introduced, configured, and used—aiming to safeguard privacy, preserve fairness, ensure transparency, and uphold worker and union roles in system oversight.

As digital systems have become more embedded in daily work routines, they increasingly shape how tasks are performed, tracked, and evaluated. Rather than treating these tools as neutral infrastructure, union agreements assert worker rights to transparency, fairness, and recourse. They often require advance notice, system disclosures, opportunities for consultation or negotiation, and procedural safeguards to prevent misuse and ensure equitable treatment.

In many cases, technologies introduced for legitimate work purposes also include embedded monitoring capabilities or generate data that can later be repurposed for oversight, evaluation, or automation. This underscores the need for governance frameworks that address both how systems operate and how the data they collect is used, accessed, and controlled. These data-related concerns, including questions of ownership, access, correction, and consent, are explored further in Section 6, which focuses on how unions have negotiated rights over workplace data.

The provisions in this section demonstrate how unions are shaping the integration of digital technologies through contractual strategies that establish clear guidelines, limitations, and safeguards for their use. While these agreements focus on setting enforceable terms within the contract itself, the next section (Section 5) turns to collaborative models that support ongoing co-governance of workplace technologies during the life of the agreement.

This section is organized to reflect the following core areas of contractual governance over workplace technologies:

• 4.1 Electronic monitoring and surveillance technologies
  Covers negotiated provisions that regulate the deployment and use of electronic monitoring systems. This includes foundational union rights, employee disclosure requirements, restrictions on data use for discipline or evaluation, prohibitions on certain technologies, and operational standards to ensure lawful, fair, and transparent monitoring practices.
• 4.2 Human resources and workforce management technologies
  Addresses contract clauses governing digital systems used for hiring, performance evaluation, payroll, timekeeping, and scheduling. These provisions focus on procedural protections, transparency, fair implementation, and mechanisms for union involvement and employee recourse in system-driven decision-making.
• 4.3 Work task technologies and applications
  Highlights agreements that govern how digital tools are integrated into job functions and day-to-day work. These provisions protect professional autonomy, ensure equitable access to tools and training, preserve job classifications, and establish standards for oversight, authorship, accountability, and performance metrics.
• 4.4 Examples of specific technologies covered in contracts
  Provides a reference list of digital systems and tools explicitly addressed in collective bargaining agreements across sectors, including surveillance and access control systems, GPS and vehicle monitoring, wearable devices, communication tracking tools, HR and scheduling platforms, AI and generative tools, distance learning systems, mobile devices, logistics software, and digital communication platforms. 

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