Dehumanization, Discrimination and Deskilling: The Impact of Digital Tech on Low-Wage Workers

This report developed by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and Open MIC focuses on the increasingly pervasive role played by digital technologies in the workplace and how those technologies can harm the world's most vulnerable workers. The brief covers an array of workers' rights concerns including:

• AI and job displacement;

• Algorithmic management systems used to track worker productivity;

• How the gig economy suppresses workers’ wages;

• The exploitation of data workers screening for harmful content, and;

• A case study on how these technologies impact the direct care workforce.

The brief relies on interviews with 19 organizations in the fields of labor and technology as well as a substantial literature review. It outlines how core worker rights such as the right to privacy, to a safe workplace, and the right to organize are under threat from an array of workplace digital technologies. The brief also offers several recommended steps investors can take to engage their portfolio companies to prevent potential harm.