Algorithmic Management: A liability-free method to manage workers’ performance?

Abstract

At the beginning of the XX century, the industrial sector was revolutionized by the implementation of the Scientific Management, a new managerial approach seeking for production efficiency to the detriment of the workers’ autonomy based on meticulously planned activities and consistent performances monitoring. Through the century, this method has evolved with the implementation of new technologies such as the algorithms, robust codes able to increase productivity significantly by enabling companies from the industrial sector to the logistics to monitor, plan and control their workers’ performances as strictly as possible. The gig economy is the economic sector, which most of it all is applying this new management approach, drastically changing the relations between workers and employers, modifying the very nature of the employment status. Fundamental rights and industrial relations are at stake when there is no more contact between humans and when workers are managed by apps empowered to control their working tasks and to dismiss them, which raises severe questions on the accountability of these decisions. Public institutions and trade unions are facing new challenges to protect those workers considered by companies as “independent contractors” that attracted by secure payments, and stable schedules decide to become gig workers. Especially those that are de facto working as full-time employees without having their fundamental rights nor benefits recognized due to the unregulated nature of their contracts. This article aims to investigate the origin of this pressing social issue, its inherent characteristics, the risks connected with non-bias free algorithms’ use, and their lack of legal accountability. Moreover, starting from the underlying assumption that fundamental workers’ rights and performance management might work together toward a more efficient and liquid society, algorithmic management’s future evolution will be questioned regarding the ethical outcomes of its implementation.

KEYWORDS: Ethical algorithm’s design, independent- contractor clauses, fundamental workers’ rights, trade union, employment status redefinition.

JEL CODE / CLASIFICACIÓN JEL: L24, O14