The Datafied Workplace and Trade Unions in the UK

From concerns about job losses to increased surveillance and work intensification to the creation of novel forms of gig work and platform labour, the advancement in data-driven technologies is now a key part of the future of work, working conditions and workers' rights. Trade unions are central to this discussion, but it is not always clear how they understand and engage with these developments. This working paper sets out a brief overview of how trade unions in the UK understand the challenges of the datafied workplace and how they are responding to them. It is based on interviews with officials from 15 different trade unions in the UK carried out during 2021, and forms part of a larger project on the social justice implications of datafication1 . For simplicity, we have structured our findings according to three themes for each section that highlight the dominant responses we received in our interviews