Request for Information: Extension of Comment Deadline Automated Worker Surveillance and Management, 39870-39873 [2023-12995]
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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 117 / Tuesday, June 20, 2023 / Notices
available in ADAMS) is provided the
first time that it is mentioned in this
document.
OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY POLICY
Request for Information: Extension of
Comment Deadline Automated Worker
Surveillance and Management
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Edward Harvey, Office of Nuclear
Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555–0001; telephone: 301–415–
3704; email: Edward.Harvey@nrc.gov.
Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP).
ACTION: Notice of request for
information (RFI).
AGENCY:
Section
208 of the Energy Reorganization Act of
1974, as amended (Pub. L. 93–438),
defines an ‘‘abnormal occurrence’’ as an
unscheduled incident or event that the
NRC determines to be significant from
the standpoint of public health or safety.
The FY 2022 AO report, NUREG–0090,
Volume 45, ‘‘Report to Congress on
Abnormal Occurrences: Fiscal Year
2022’’ (ADAMS Accession No.
ML23158A228), describes those events
that the NRC identified as AOs during
FY 2022.
This report describes eight events
involving Agreement State licensees and
one event involving an NRC licensee.
Seven of the AOs occurred at medical
facilities and the other two events
involved overexposures.
The NRC identified no events at NRClicensed facilities during FY 2022 that
met the guidelines for inclusion in
Appendix B, ‘‘Other Events of Interest.’’
One event met the guidelines for
inclusion in appendix C, ‘‘Updates of
Previously Reported Abnormal
Occurrences.’’
Agreement States are the 39 U.S.
States that currently have entered into
formal agreements with the NRC
pursuant to section 274 of the Atomic
Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA),
to regulate certain quantities of AEAlicensed material at facilities located
within their borders.
The Federal Reports Elimination and
Sunset Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104–68)
requires that AOs be reported to
Congress annually. The full report,
NUREG–0090, Volume 45, ‘‘Report to
Congress on Abnormal Occurrences:
Fiscal Year 2022,’’ is also available
electronically at the NRC’s public
website at https://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff.
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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Dated: June 14, 2023.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brooke P. Clark,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2023–13083 Filed 6–16–23; 8:45 am]
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Employers are increasingly
using automated systems to monitor,
manage, and evaluate their workers.
These systems may allow employers to
manage supply chains, improve health
and safety, or make other informed
business decisions. At the same time,
applications of surveillance and
monitoring systems can also pose risks
to workers, including to their health and
safety, equal employment opportunities,
privacy, ability to meet critical needs,
access to workplace accommodations,
and exercise of workplace and labor
rights, including their rights to form or
join a labor union. The White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy
(OSTP) seeks comments from the public
to better understand automated
surveillance and management of
workers, including its prevalence,
purposes, deployment, and impacts, as
well as opportunities for Federal
agencies to work with employers,
workers, and other stakeholders to
ensure that these systems do not
undermine workers’ rights,
opportunities, access, health, or safety.
DATES: Interested persons and
organizations are invited to submit
comments on or before 5 p.m. ET, June
29, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Comments must be
submitted via the Federal eRulemaking
Portal at regulations.gov. However, if
you require an accommodation or
cannot otherwise submit your
comments via regulations.gov, please
contact the program contact person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. OSTP will not accept
comments by fax, or comments
submitted after the comment period
closes. To ensure that OSTP does not
receive duplicate copies, please submit
your comments only once. Additionally,
please include the Docket ID at the top
of your comments.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
www.regulations.gov to submit your
comments electronically. Information
on how to use Regulations.gov,
including instructions for accessing
agency documents, submitting
comments, and viewing the docket, is
available on the site under ‘‘FAQ’’
(https://www.regulations.gov/faq).
SUMMARY:
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Privacy Note: OSTP’s policy is to
make all comments received from
members of the public available for
public viewing in their entirety on the
Federal eRulemaking Portal at
www.regulations.gov. Therefore,
commenters should be careful to
include in their comments only
information that they wish to make
publicly available. OSTP requests that
no proprietary information, copyrighted
information, or personally identifiable
information be submitted in response to
this RFI.
Instructions: Response to this RFI is
voluntary. Respondents may answer as
many or as few questions as they wish.
Responses containing references,
studies, research, and other empirical
data that are not widely published
should include copies of or electronic
links to the referenced materials. Any
information obtained from this RFI is
intended to be used by the Government
on a non-attribution basis for planning
and strategy development. OSTP will
not respond to individual submissions.
A response to this RFI will not be
viewed as a binding commitment to
develop or pursue the project or ideas
discussed. This RFI is not accepting
applications for financial assistance or
financial incentives. All comments,
including attachments and other
supporting materials, will become part
of the public record and subject to
public disclosure. Proprietary
information or sensitive personal
information, such as account numbers
or Social Security numbers, or names of
other individuals, should not be
included in the body of your response.
Respondents interested in submitting
anonymous comments should use the
option on www.regulations.gov/.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Alan Mislove, Assistant Director for
Data and Democracy,
workersurveillance@ostp.eop.gov, 202–
456–4444.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: Employers are
increasingly using automated systems to
monitor, manage, and evaluate their
workers—both on and off the job.
According to a 2022 investigation by the
New York Times, eight of the ten largest
private U.S. employers track the
productivity metrics of individual
workers.1 Use of automated surveillance
and management systems has increased
with the spread of remote work during
the pandemic, and now often extends to
workers’ homes.2 Private-sector research
1 https://www.yahoo.com/video/bosses-givingreturn-office-fight-191121126.html.
2 https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-thingswork/pages/monitoring-remote-workers.aspx.
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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 117 / Tuesday, June 20, 2023 / Notices
suggests that the percentage of large
employers using automated tools to
track their workforce may have doubled
since the beginning of the pandemic to
some 60%.3
Automated worker surveillance and
management systems may track
workers’ location, pace or quality of
work, communications (e.g., text, chats,
emails, social media), interactions with
other workers or customers, and
computer activity. Such surveillance
can be accomplished through a variety
of techniques, ranging from software on
workers’ computers to dedicated
electronic devices that workers wear or
carry on their person. The market for
these technologies and systems has
greatly expanded in recent years, and a
number of vendors are now developing
products to help employers
electronically monitor and manage their
workers in a variety of contexts.
Examples of applications of
automated surveillance and
management of workers that have been
reported in the press include:
• Warehouse workers who are tracked
by whether they are actively moving
products
• Grocery store cashiers who are
monitored on the speed of their
transactions with customers
• Office workers whose keystrokes,
chats, emails, and other
communications are collected and
monitored
• Lawyers whose computer cameras
track whether their eyes are actively
focused on the screen
• Call center workers whose calls are
monitored by a computer that judges
the emotional state of customers
• Copywriters whose computers
automatically take screenshots of their
activity to track which applications
they are using
• Home healthcare workers whose
locations are monitored by an app
that verifies patient visits
• Nurses whose time on task and
location are tracked through radio
frequency identification (RFID) tags in
identification badges
• Delivery or rideshare drivers whose
vehicles track their location, speed,
and driving behavior
• Long-haul truckers whose eye
movements are monitored and
locations tracked
• Fast food workers whose pace of work
in preparing meals is tracked and
reported
• Teachers whose lessons delivered
remotely online are recorded and
analyzed electronically
3 https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/the-rightway-to-monitor-your-employee-productivity.
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These systems may allow employers
to more closely monitor worker
performance; protect public health and
safety; make decisions about promotion,
discipline, or termination; or manage
work assignments, schedules, and
supply chains. At the same time,
applications of automated surveillance
and management systems can also pose
risks to workers and even violate labor
and employment laws.4 Emerging
research suggests that certain
applications of these systems may
undermine the quality of work; workers’
rights to a safe and healthy workplace;
compensation for time worked; labor
market competition; and workers’
ability to organize and work collectively
with their coworkers to improve
working conditions, including through
labor unions. Certain applications of
these systems—when paired with
decisions about working conditions,
promotion, discipline, or termination—
may also treat otherwise similar workers
differently on the basis of their race,
ethnicity, gender, religion, age, national
origin, health or disability, or other
protected status. Some systems may also
violate antitrust and privacy laws, for
instance, if employers use technologies
to artificially reduce wages.
Automated worker surveillance and
management can also cause and
exacerbate disabilities and interfere
with legal protections for those with
disabilities. Automated worker
surveillance and management systems
can potentially put workers at risk for
physical injury and mental health
distress that can cause or exacerbate
anxiety, depression, cognitive disability,
and trauma responses; interfere with
legally-protected workplace
accommodations that enable individuals
with disabilities to participate in the
workforce; and reveal workers’
otherwise-undisclosed disabilities to
employers.
In 2022, the White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy released
the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights
(‘‘Blueprint’’), which stated that
individuals ‘‘should be free from
unchecked surveillance.’’ 5 The
Blueprint noted that continuous
surveillance can pose harms to workers,
using the example of electronic
monitoring intended to stymie workers’
4 See for instance, https://laborcenter.
berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Dataand-Algorithms-at-Work.pdf, https://cdt.org/
insights/report-warning-bossware-may-behazardous-to-your-health/, and https://
equitablegrowth.org/research-paper/workplacesurveillance-is-becoming-the-new-normal-for-u-sworkers/.
5 https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-ofrights/data-privacy-2/.
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efforts to organize a labor union.
Consistent with the Blueprint, the Office
of Science and Technology Policy seeks
to further study the use of automated
surveillance and management systems
in the workplace, including their
prevalence, impacts, and deployment,
as well as opportunities for Federal
agencies to work together with
employers and workers to ensure that
these systems do not undermine
workers’ rights or their safety.
This focus on automated surveillance
and management in the workplace is
also consistent with the
Administration’s commitment to
ensuring that all workers have access to
high-quality, well-paying jobs,
including jobs with opportunities to
organize and bargain collectively with
their employers through labor unions, as
articulated in the Executive Order 14025
(Worker Organizing and
Empowerment) 6 and through a
competitive market for their labor, as
articulated in Executive Order 14036
(Promoting Competition in the
American Economy).7 This initiative
advances the Biden-Harris
Administration’s historic commitment
to racial equity and support for
underserved communities, by
investigating whether automated
surveillance and management systems
‘‘contribute to unjustified different
treatment or impacts,’’ as articulated in
Executive Order 14091 (Further
Advancing Racial Equity and Support
for Underserved Communities Through
the Federal Government) as well as the
Administration’s call for robust
protections for Americans’ privacy.
Request for Comment: This request for
information seeks input from the public
on the prevalence, uses and purposes,
and deployment of automated worker
surveillance and management systems,
including impacts of these systems on
workers’ legal rights and lives. It
includes workers’ physical and mental
health; privacy, dignity, and autonomy;
and ability to exercise workplace rights,
including rights to collective action,
pay, reasonable accommodation, health,
and safety, and freedom from
retaliation, discrimination, and
harassment. It also seeks input on how
employers may share data collected
through these surveillance applications
and how worker surveillance may
contribute to unfair competition
between firms.
6 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/
presidential-actions/2021/04/26/executive-orderon-worker-organizing-and-empowerment/.
7 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/
presidential-actions/2021/07/09/executive-orderon-promoting-competition-in-the-americaneconomy/.
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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 117 / Tuesday, June 20, 2023 / Notices
This RFI focuses on automated
surveillance and management by
employers that may track workers’
locations, pace of work, performance or
output, compliance with policy or
regulations, or social media activity;
their emails, texts, chats, phone calls,
and other communications; or other
similar measures. Such surveillance
may take place during or outside of
work hours, and on or off the worksite.
This request for information also covers
workers in traditional employment
relationships (i.e., W–2 employment) as
well as other employment relationships,
such as independent contractors and gig
economy workers.
OSTP is particularly interested in
hearing from:
• Workers who have experienced
automated surveillance and
management (including workers of
color, low-paid workers, immigrant
workers, and workers with disabilities);
• Worker organizations (including
worker advocacy groups, worker
centers, labor unions, and workplace
legal services providers);
• Civil rights and privacy
organizations;
• Employers (including for-profit,
non-profit, and government employers)
that are using automated surveillance
and management systems or considering
using such systems;
• Platforms, crowdsourcing websites,
transportation network companies, ridehailing services, and other entities that
match workers with opportunities to
generate income;
• Trade and business associations
representing employers;
• Developers and vendors developing
or selling automated surveillance or
management systems;
• Researchers (including researchers
using both qualitative and quantitative
methods to understand the use,
prevalence, benefits and risks, and
impacts of automated surveillance and
management systems on individuals
and society); and
• State, Tribal, local, and Territorial
governments.
To assist commenters in developing
responses, OSTP has crafted the
questions below that commenters may
answer. Respondents may provide
information for one or more of the
topics below, as desired. However,
OSTP welcomes members of the public
to submit any personal experiences,
data, information, and research relating
to the use and impact of automated
worker surveillance and management
systems. Please do not to include
personally identifying information in
the body of your response.
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1. If you are a worker or organization
representing workers (such as a worker
center, union, or legal services
provider), please tell us about your
experiences with automated worker
surveillance and management systems
or the experiences of the workers you
interact with, including:
a. The type of work you do (e.g.,
describe the relevant job, employer, and
industry);
b. Whether you are a member of a
labor union;
c. The type of automated surveillance
or management you have experienced,
including the location of the monitoring
technology (such as an app you had to
use or download; a device you had to
use, carry, or wear; or a camera that
monitors you);
d. Whether the automated
surveillance or management was used
during a labor organizing drive;
e. Whether and when your employer
informed you about their use of
automated worker surveillance and
management systems;
f. Whether you (or, if relevant, your
representative, like a labor union) have
any input or control over how, where,
and over what automated surveillance
occurs;
g. Whether you know how the data
generated by surveillance is used for
management or other purposes
(including purposes related to
employment or labor market
competition);
h. Whether you (or, if relevant, your
representative, like a labor union) have
any visibility into the data collected on
you or how it is used, including
whether data on you collected by
surveillance can be shared with other
companies, trade groups, or third
parties;
i. How the use of automated
surveillance and management systems
has changed how you do your job or
how your employer treated you at your
job;
j. Whether your employer has used
information from an automated
surveillance and management system in
support of any discipline against you—
and if so, what the action was, how and
when you were informed, and what
information was provided to you or
your representative (such as a labor
union);
k. How automated surveillance and
management has affected you—whether
positively or negatively—including any
economic, safety, physical, mental, and
emotional impacts;
l. How automated surveillance and
management systems have affected your
workplace rights, including rights
around collective action, labor
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organizing, collective bargaining, pay,
reasonable accommodations, health and
safety, discrimination, and
harassment—or your expectation of
retaliation when exercising these rights;
m. How these systems have impacted
your non-working hours, personal time,
or the privacy of other members of your
household;
n. If you are disabled or have a health
condition, how automated surveillance
and management systems have
impacted or may impact your use of
reasonable accommodations; such as
assistive technology or accessibility
features of software or breaks, or
affected your ability to keep information
about your condition private from your
employer, supervisor, or coworkers;
o. If you are disabled or have a health
condition, how automated surveillance
and management systems have affected
performance reviews or other
management activities, or concerns
about how these systems may affect
performance reviews or how your
management treats you; and
p. Whether you work for an employer
that receives Federal funds (for instance,
as a Federal contractor).
2. If you are an employer or
organization representing employers,
please tell us about your experiences
implementing or using automated
worker surveillance and management
systems, including:
a. The type of business you are in, or
represent, including your industry and
roughly how many workers you employ;
b. Whether any of your employees are
represented by a labor union;
c. The types of automated worker
surveillance and management systems
your business has implemented or is
considering implementing;
d. The purposes for which your
business decided to implement
automated worker surveillance and
management systems, such as safety and
health, productivity, competition,
liability or insurance, compliance, or
resource and worker management;
e. How your business decided to use
specific automated worker surveillance
and management systems, including
decisions not to use particular products
or types of systems, to limit their scope,
and relevant training;
f. In what ways your business uses the
information collected through
automated surveillance and
management systems, such as for
management, human resources, and
business operations, including whether
the information is sold or shared with
other businesses or otherwise
influenced by other businesses’
activities;
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g. Any steps your business has taken
to solicit or incorporate worker input
into how automated worker surveillance
and management systems are adopted,
implemented, and used; whether
workers may opt out of such systems
(and any consequences for doing so);
and how generated data is used or
shared with other parties;
h. Any involvement of third parties
(such as vendors) in collecting or
maintaining information on workers and
any control retained by the employer;
i. Any steps you have taken to ensure
that the use or sharing of automated
worker surveillance and management
systems does not infringe on workers’
rights;
j. How you decide the categories of
workers for whom you deploy
automated worker surveillance and
management systems (e.g., managerial
versus non-managerial workers);
k. Any policies or protocols adopted
to govern the use of automated worker
surveillance and management systems
or the data they produce; and Whether
your organization receives Federal
funds.
3. If you are a technology developer or
vendor, please tell us about your
experience developing or distributing
automated worker surveillance and
management systems, including:
a. The purposes for which employers
adopt your products and how they
deploy these products;
b. How the impact, performance, and
efficacy of your products is audited and
validated by you, employers, and
workers;
c. How you and the users of your
products manage data collection,
storage, and maintenance, including
access to data by third parties;
d. Whether you provide guidance to
employers on your products and their
appropriate use, including guidance on
notifying workers about the use of
technology, and offering opportunities
for workers to consent to or opt out of
data collection;
e. Whether you engage with
employers to help them implement your
products in ways that protect workers’
rights, health, and safety—or otherwise
take steps to help protect workers who
will engage with your products; and
f. Any steps you have taken to ensure
that the use of automated worker
surveillance and management systems
does not infringe on workers’ rights.
4. Data and research-related questions
we are interested in include:
a. What data and evidence exist on
the prevalence of automated worker
surveillance and management systems
across different industries, occupations,
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and regions, including changes over
time?
b. What data and evidence exist on
the impact of automated worker
surveillance and management systems
on workers, including workers’ pay,
benefits, and employment, physical and
mental health, and ability to exercise
workplace rights?
c. What data and evidence exist on
the impact of automated worker
surveillance and management systems
on labor rights, including workers’
abilities to form and join unions and
bargain collectively with their
employers?
d. What data and evidence exist on
how the impact of automated worker
surveillance and management systems
differs across groups of workers,
including based on characteristics such
as race, national origin, sex, age,
disability, religion, or health status?
e. What data or evidence exists on
whether automated worker surveillance
and management systems are being used
for discriminatory purposes or resulting
in discrimination?
f. What data and evidence exist on
whether automated workers
surveillance and management systems
impact employers’ ability to recruit and
retain workers?
g. What data or evidence exists on
how the provision of reasonable
accommodations is accounted for in the
design and operation of automated
worker surveillance and management
systems?
h. What data and evidence exist on
why employers decide to adopt
automated worker surveillance and
management systems?
i. Are there any existing or new
systems that aggregate worker
surveillance data across multiple
employers?
j. What are new or emergent
automated worker surveillance and
management systems—or new and
emergent uses of existing technologies—
that Federal agencies should be
tracking?
k. Where might further research,
including by the Federal Government,
be helpful in understanding the
prevalence and impact of automated
worker surveillance and management
systems?
5. Last, we are especially interested in
the following questions about policies,
practices, or standards that could
protect workers:
a. What guidelines, standards, or best
practices might inform the design of
automated worker surveillance and
management systems to protect workers’
rights?
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b. Are there policy approaches to
regulating automated worker
surveillance and management systems
from state, Tribal, territorial, or local
governments or other countries that
Federal agencies could learn from?
c. What policies or actions should
Federal agencies consider to protect
workers’ rights and wellbeing as
automated worker surveillance and
management systems are developed and
deployed, including through
regulations, enforcement, contracting,
and grantmaking?
Dated: June 13, 2023.
Stacy Murphy,
Deputy Chief Operations Officer/Security
Officer.
[FR Doc. 2023–12995 Filed 6–16–23; 8:45 am]
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[Release No. 34–97707; File No. SR–
NYSENAT–2023–09]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE
National, Inc.; Notice of Filing and
Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed
Rule Change To Amend Rule 7.37 To
Specify the Exchange’s Source of Data
Feeds From MEMX LLC
June 13, 2023.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the
‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2
notice is hereby given that on May 31,
2023, NYSE National, Inc. (‘‘NYSE
National’’ or the ‘‘Exchange’’) filed with
the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the ‘‘Commission’’) the
proposed rule change as described in
Items I and II below, which Items have
been prepared by the self-regulatory
organization. The Commission is
publishing this notice to solicit
comments on the proposed rule change
from interested persons.
I. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Terms of Substance of
the Proposed Rule Change
The Exchange proposes to amend
Rule 7.37 to specify the Exchange’s
source of data feeds from MEMX LLC
(‘‘MEMX’’) for purposes of order
handling, order execution, order
routing, and regulatory compliance. The
proposed rule change is available on the
Exchange’s website at www.nyse.com, at
the principal office of the Exchange, and
at the Commission’s Public Reference
Room.
1 15
2 17
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U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
CFR 240.19b–4.
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 117 (Tuesday, June 20, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39870-39873]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-12995]
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OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY
Request for Information: Extension of Comment Deadline Automated
Worker Surveillance and Management
AGENCY: Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
ACTION: Notice of request for information (RFI).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Employers are increasingly using automated systems to monitor,
manage, and evaluate their workers. These systems may allow employers
to manage supply chains, improve health and safety, or make other
informed business decisions. At the same time, applications of
surveillance and monitoring systems can also pose risks to workers,
including to their health and safety, equal employment opportunities,
privacy, ability to meet critical needs, access to workplace
accommodations, and exercise of workplace and labor rights, including
their rights to form or join a labor union. The White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) seeks comments from the public to
better understand automated surveillance and management of workers,
including its prevalence, purposes, deployment, and impacts, as well as
opportunities for Federal agencies to work with employers, workers, and
other stakeholders to ensure that these systems do not undermine
workers' rights, opportunities, access, health, or safety.
DATES: Interested persons and organizations are invited to submit
comments on or before 5 p.m. ET, June 29, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking
Portal at regulations.gov. However, if you require an accommodation or
cannot otherwise submit your comments via regulations.gov, please
contact the program contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. OSTP will not accept comments by fax, or comments submitted
after the comment period closes. To ensure that OSTP does not receive
duplicate copies, please submit your comments only once. Additionally,
please include the Docket ID at the top of your comments.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to submit
your comments electronically. Information on how to use
Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents,
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site
under ``FAQ'' (https://www.regulations.gov/faq).
Privacy Note: OSTP's policy is to make all comments received from
members of the public available for public viewing in their entirety on
the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. Therefore,
commenters should be careful to include in their comments only
information that they wish to make publicly available. OSTP requests
that no proprietary information, copyrighted information, or personally
identifiable information be submitted in response to this RFI.
Instructions: Response to this RFI is voluntary. Respondents may
answer as many or as few questions as they wish. Responses containing
references, studies, research, and other empirical data that are not
widely published should include copies of or electronic links to the
referenced materials. Any information obtained from this RFI is
intended to be used by the Government on a non-attribution basis for
planning and strategy development. OSTP will not respond to individual
submissions. A response to this RFI will not be viewed as a binding
commitment to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed. This
RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance or financial
incentives. All comments, including attachments and other supporting
materials, will become part of the public record and subject to public
disclosure. Proprietary information or sensitive personal information,
such as account numbers or Social Security numbers, or names of other
individuals, should not be included in the body of your response.
Respondents interested in submitting anonymous comments should use the
option on www.regulations.gov/.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alan Mislove, Assistant Director for
Data and Democracy, [email protected], 202-456-4444.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: Employers are increasingly using automated systems to
monitor, manage, and evaluate their workers--both on and off the job.
According to a 2022 investigation by the New York Times, eight of the
ten largest private U.S. employers track the productivity metrics of
individual workers.\1\ Use of automated surveillance and management
systems has increased with the spread of remote work during the
pandemic, and now often extends to workers' homes.\2\ Private-sector
research
[[Page 39871]]
suggests that the percentage of large employers using automated tools
to track their workforce may have doubled since the beginning of the
pandemic to some 60%.\3\
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\1\ https://www.yahoo.com/video/bosses-giving-return-office-fight-191121126.html.
\2\ https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/monitoring-remote-workers.aspx.
\3\ https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/the-right-way-to-monitor-your-employee-productivity.
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Automated worker surveillance and management systems may track
workers' location, pace or quality of work, communications (e.g., text,
chats, emails, social media), interactions with other workers or
customers, and computer activity. Such surveillance can be accomplished
through a variety of techniques, ranging from software on workers'
computers to dedicated electronic devices that workers wear or carry on
their person. The market for these technologies and systems has greatly
expanded in recent years, and a number of vendors are now developing
products to help employers electronically monitor and manage their
workers in a variety of contexts.
Examples of applications of automated surveillance and management
of workers that have been reported in the press include:
Warehouse workers who are tracked by whether they are actively
moving products
Grocery store cashiers who are monitored on the speed of their
transactions with customers
Office workers whose keystrokes, chats, emails, and other
communications are collected and monitored
Lawyers whose computer cameras track whether their eyes are
actively focused on the screen
Call center workers whose calls are monitored by a computer
that judges the emotional state of customers
Copywriters whose computers automatically take screenshots of
their activity to track which applications they are using
Home healthcare workers whose locations are monitored by an
app that verifies patient visits
Nurses whose time on task and location are tracked through
radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in identification badges
Delivery or rideshare drivers whose vehicles track their
location, speed, and driving behavior
Long-haul truckers whose eye movements are monitored and
locations tracked
Fast food workers whose pace of work in preparing meals is
tracked and reported
Teachers whose lessons delivered remotely online are recorded
and analyzed electronically
These systems may allow employers to more closely monitor worker
performance; protect public health and safety; make decisions about
promotion, discipline, or termination; or manage work assignments,
schedules, and supply chains. At the same time, applications of
automated surveillance and management systems can also pose risks to
workers and even violate labor and employment laws.\4\ Emerging
research suggests that certain applications of these systems may
undermine the quality of work; workers' rights to a safe and healthy
workplace; compensation for time worked; labor market competition; and
workers' ability to organize and work collectively with their coworkers
to improve working conditions, including through labor unions. Certain
applications of these systems--when paired with decisions about working
conditions, promotion, discipline, or termination--may also treat
otherwise similar workers differently on the basis of their race,
ethnicity, gender, religion, age, national origin, health or
disability, or other protected status. Some systems may also violate
antitrust and privacy laws, for instance, if employers use technologies
to artificially reduce wages.
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\4\ See for instance, https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Data-and-Algorithms-at-Work.pdf, https://cdt.org/insights/report-warning-bossware-may-be-hazardous-to-your-health/, and https://equitablegrowth.org/research-paper/workplace-surveillance-is-becoming-the-new-normal-for-u-s-workers/.
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Automated worker surveillance and management can also cause and
exacerbate disabilities and interfere with legal protections for those
with disabilities. Automated worker surveillance and management systems
can potentially put workers at risk for physical injury and mental
health distress that can cause or exacerbate anxiety, depression,
cognitive disability, and trauma responses; interfere with legally-
protected workplace accommodations that enable individuals with
disabilities to participate in the workforce; and reveal workers'
otherwise-undisclosed disabilities to employers.
In 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
released the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights (``Blueprint''), which
stated that individuals ``should be free from unchecked surveillance.''
\5\ The Blueprint noted that continuous surveillance can pose harms to
workers, using the example of electronic monitoring intended to stymie
workers' efforts to organize a labor union. Consistent with the
Blueprint, the Office of Science and Technology Policy seeks to further
study the use of automated surveillance and management systems in the
workplace, including their prevalence, impacts, and deployment, as well
as opportunities for Federal agencies to work together with employers
and workers to ensure that these systems do not undermine workers'
rights or their safety.
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\5\ https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/data-privacy-2/.
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This focus on automated surveillance and management in the
workplace is also consistent with the Administration's commitment to
ensuring that all workers have access to high-quality, well-paying
jobs, including jobs with opportunities to organize and bargain
collectively with their employers through labor unions, as articulated
in the Executive Order 14025 (Worker Organizing and Empowerment) \6\
and through a competitive market for their labor, as articulated in
Executive Order 14036 (Promoting Competition in the American
Economy).\7\ This initiative advances the Biden-Harris Administration's
historic commitment to racial equity and support for underserved
communities, by investigating whether automated surveillance and
management systems ``contribute to unjustified different treatment or
impacts,'' as articulated in Executive Order 14091 (Further Advancing
Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the
Federal Government) as well as the Administration's call for robust
protections for Americans' privacy.
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\6\ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/04/26/executive-order-on-worker-organizing-and-empowerment/.
\7\ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/07/09/executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/.
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Request for Comment: This request for information seeks input from
the public on the prevalence, uses and purposes, and deployment of
automated worker surveillance and management systems, including impacts
of these systems on workers' legal rights and lives. It includes
workers' physical and mental health; privacy, dignity, and autonomy;
and ability to exercise workplace rights, including rights to
collective action, pay, reasonable accommodation, health, and safety,
and freedom from retaliation, discrimination, and harassment. It also
seeks input on how employers may share data collected through these
surveillance applications and how worker surveillance may contribute to
unfair competition between firms.
[[Page 39872]]
This RFI focuses on automated surveillance and management by
employers that may track workers' locations, pace of work, performance
or output, compliance with policy or regulations, or social media
activity; their emails, texts, chats, phone calls, and other
communications; or other similar measures. Such surveillance may take
place during or outside of work hours, and on or off the worksite. This
request for information also covers workers in traditional employment
relationships (i.e., W-2 employment) as well as other employment
relationships, such as independent contractors and gig economy workers.
OSTP is particularly interested in hearing from:
Workers who have experienced automated surveillance and
management (including workers of color, low-paid workers, immigrant
workers, and workers with disabilities);
Worker organizations (including worker advocacy groups,
worker centers, labor unions, and workplace legal services providers);
Civil rights and privacy organizations;
Employers (including for-profit, non-profit, and
government employers) that are using automated surveillance and
management systems or considering using such systems;
Platforms, crowdsourcing websites, transportation network
companies, ride-hailing services, and other entities that match workers
with opportunities to generate income;
Trade and business associations representing employers;
Developers and vendors developing or selling automated
surveillance or management systems;
Researchers (including researchers using both qualitative
and quantitative methods to understand the use, prevalence, benefits
and risks, and impacts of automated surveillance and management systems
on individuals and society); and
State, Tribal, local, and Territorial governments.
To assist commenters in developing responses, OSTP has crafted the
questions below that commenters may answer. Respondents may provide
information for one or more of the topics below, as desired. However,
OSTP welcomes members of the public to submit any personal experiences,
data, information, and research relating to the use and impact of
automated worker surveillance and management systems. Please do not to
include personally identifying information in the body of your
response.
1. If you are a worker or organization representing workers (such
as a worker center, union, or legal services provider), please tell us
about your experiences with automated worker surveillance and
management systems or the experiences of the workers you interact with,
including:
a. The type of work you do (e.g., describe the relevant job,
employer, and industry);
b. Whether you are a member of a labor union;
c. The type of automated surveillance or management you have
experienced, including the location of the monitoring technology (such
as an app you had to use or download; a device you had to use, carry,
or wear; or a camera that monitors you);
d. Whether the automated surveillance or management was used during
a labor organizing drive;
e. Whether and when your employer informed you about their use of
automated worker surveillance and management systems;
f. Whether you (or, if relevant, your representative, like a labor
union) have any input or control over how, where, and over what
automated surveillance occurs;
g. Whether you know how the data generated by surveillance is used
for management or other purposes (including purposes related to
employment or labor market competition);
h. Whether you (or, if relevant, your representative, like a labor
union) have any visibility into the data collected on you or how it is
used, including whether data on you collected by surveillance can be
shared with other companies, trade groups, or third parties;
i. How the use of automated surveillance and management systems has
changed how you do your job or how your employer treated you at your
job;
j. Whether your employer has used information from an automated
surveillance and management system in support of any discipline against
you--and if so, what the action was, how and when you were informed,
and what information was provided to you or your representative (such
as a labor union);
k. How automated surveillance and management has affected you--
whether positively or negatively--including any economic, safety,
physical, mental, and emotional impacts;
l. How automated surveillance and management systems have affected
your workplace rights, including rights around collective action, labor
organizing, collective bargaining, pay, reasonable accommodations,
health and safety, discrimination, and harassment--or your expectation
of retaliation when exercising these rights;
m. How these systems have impacted your non-working hours, personal
time, or the privacy of other members of your household;
n. If you are disabled or have a health condition, how automated
surveillance and management systems have impacted or may impact your
use of reasonable accommodations; such as assistive technology or
accessibility features of software or breaks, or affected your ability
to keep information about your condition private from your employer,
supervisor, or coworkers;
o. If you are disabled or have a health condition, how automated
surveillance and management systems have affected performance reviews
or other management activities, or concerns about how these systems may
affect performance reviews or how your management treats you; and
p. Whether you work for an employer that receives Federal funds
(for instance, as a Federal contractor).
2. If you are an employer or organization representing employers,
please tell us about your experiences implementing or using automated
worker surveillance and management systems, including:
a. The type of business you are in, or represent, including your
industry and roughly how many workers you employ;
b. Whether any of your employees are represented by a labor union;
c. The types of automated worker surveillance and management
systems your business has implemented or is considering implementing;
d. The purposes for which your business decided to implement
automated worker surveillance and management systems, such as safety
and health, productivity, competition, liability or insurance,
compliance, or resource and worker management;
e. How your business decided to use specific automated worker
surveillance and management systems, including decisions not to use
particular products or types of systems, to limit their scope, and
relevant training;
f. In what ways your business uses the information collected
through automated surveillance and management systems, such as for
management, human resources, and business operations, including whether
the information is sold or shared with other businesses or otherwise
influenced by other businesses' activities;
[[Page 39873]]
g. Any steps your business has taken to solicit or incorporate
worker input into how automated worker surveillance and management
systems are adopted, implemented, and used; whether workers may opt out
of such systems (and any consequences for doing so); and how generated
data is used or shared with other parties;
h. Any involvement of third parties (such as vendors) in collecting
or maintaining information on workers and any control retained by the
employer;
i. Any steps you have taken to ensure that the use or sharing of
automated worker surveillance and management systems does not infringe
on workers' rights;
j. How you decide the categories of workers for whom you deploy
automated worker surveillance and management systems (e.g., managerial
versus non-managerial workers);
k. Any policies or protocols adopted to govern the use of automated
worker surveillance and management systems or the data they produce;
and Whether your organization receives Federal funds.
3. If you are a technology developer or vendor, please tell us
about your experience developing or distributing automated worker
surveillance and management systems, including:
a. The purposes for which employers adopt your products and how
they deploy these products;
b. How the impact, performance, and efficacy of your products is
audited and validated by you, employers, and workers;
c. How you and the users of your products manage data collection,
storage, and maintenance, including access to data by third parties;
d. Whether you provide guidance to employers on your products and
their appropriate use, including guidance on notifying workers about
the use of technology, and offering opportunities for workers to
consent to or opt out of data collection;
e. Whether you engage with employers to help them implement your
products in ways that protect workers' rights, health, and safety--or
otherwise take steps to help protect workers who will engage with your
products; and
f. Any steps you have taken to ensure that the use of automated
worker surveillance and management systems does not infringe on
workers' rights.
4. Data and research-related questions we are interested in
include:
a. What data and evidence exist on the prevalence of automated
worker surveillance and management systems across different industries,
occupations, and regions, including changes over time?
b. What data and evidence exist on the impact of automated worker
surveillance and management systems on workers, including workers' pay,
benefits, and employment, physical and mental health, and ability to
exercise workplace rights?
c. What data and evidence exist on the impact of automated worker
surveillance and management systems on labor rights, including workers'
abilities to form and join unions and bargain collectively with their
employers?
d. What data and evidence exist on how the impact of automated
worker surveillance and management systems differs across groups of
workers, including based on characteristics such as race, national
origin, sex, age, disability, religion, or health status?
e. What data or evidence exists on whether automated worker
surveillance and management systems are being used for discriminatory
purposes or resulting in discrimination?
f. What data and evidence exist on whether automated workers
surveillance and management systems impact employers' ability to
recruit and retain workers?
g. What data or evidence exists on how the provision of reasonable
accommodations is accounted for in the design and operation of
automated worker surveillance and management systems?
h. What data and evidence exist on why employers decide to adopt
automated worker surveillance and management systems?
i. Are there any existing or new systems that aggregate worker
surveillance data across multiple employers?
j. What are new or emergent automated worker surveillance and
management systems--or new and emergent uses of existing technologies--
that Federal agencies should be tracking?
k. Where might further research, including by the Federal
Government, be helpful in understanding the prevalence and impact of
automated worker surveillance and management systems?
5. Last, we are especially interested in the following questions
about policies, practices, or standards that could protect workers:
a. What guidelines, standards, or best practices might inform the
design of automated worker surveillance and management systems to
protect workers' rights?
b. Are there policy approaches to regulating automated worker
surveillance and management systems from state, Tribal, territorial, or
local governments or other countries that Federal agencies could learn
from?
c. What policies or actions should Federal agencies consider to
protect workers' rights and wellbeing as automated worker surveillance
and management systems are developed and deployed, including through
regulations, enforcement, contracting, and grantmaking?
Dated: June 13, 2023.
Stacy Murphy,
Deputy Chief Operations Officer/Security Officer.
[FR Doc. 2023-12995 Filed 6-16-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3270-F1-P
