The Biden Administration should investigate and regulate how companies use technology to surveil and punish workers, a Democratic senator urged in a letter to the US labor secretary.
"The implementation of novel technologies to track, monitor, manage and discipline workers is growing due to an imbalance of power in the workplace and a lack of legal protections or regulatory restrictions on these behaviors," US senator Bob Casey wrote Friday to Secretary Marty Walsh. The letter urged the Labor Department to take on "the largely unchecked spread of invasive and exploitative workplace surveillance and technologies across the United States."
Casey's missive cited a 2021 Bloomberg News
The Pennsylvania Democrat's letter also cited a recent New York Times
Casey, a former state auditor general and treasurer who sits on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, urged the Labor Department to study "novel and high-risk technologies" such as "facial and emotional recognition, biometric monitoring, wearables, productivity management systems and algorithm-driven employee performance systems," which he said could harm employees' physical or mental health.
He suggested the agency follow the example of the Federal Trade Commission, which earlier this month
Amazon and the Labor Department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
--With assistance from Spencer Soper.