Digital Programme Algorithms at the Workplace

Cox, Theo / Oosterwijk, Gerard Rinse. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study: This EU policy study examines the impact of algorithmic management on Nordic workplaces, highlighting challenges such as increased stress, reduced autonomy, job insecurity, and workplace surveillance. Drawing on case studies from sectors like transport, retail, and finance, it explores how robust union involvement and worker participation can mitigate these effects. The report provides recommendations for EU policymakers, advocating for stronger legal safeguards, transparency in algorithms, and a balanced approach that prioritizes worker welfare alongside technological advancement. Lessons from the Nordic model inform strategies to address power imbalances and protect labour rights in the digital age.

 Download the study: Algorithmic management in the workplace

Cox, Theo / Anttila, Johannes. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study: This policy study explores how algorithmic management is transforming workplaces in Finland, particularly in transport, logistics, and retail. While digital tools promise efficiency, they often increase pressure, reduce autonomy, and heighten job insecurity. Drawing on worker and trade union experiences, the study underscores the importance of trust and collaboration in mitigating these effects. Key concerns include privacy, surveillance, and value distribution. The report provides recommendations for Finnish policymakers and trade unions, advocating for transparency, stronger legal protections, and strategies to ensure technology benefits both workers and businesses.

Download the study: Algorithmic management and workplace digitalisation in Finland

Østbø Kuldova, Tereza / Rudningen, Gudrun. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study: 

This report focuses on the intersection of algorithmic governance and co-determination in the financial and news media industries of Norway. We interrogate the possibilities and limitations of the Norwegian (micro) model vis-à-vis new data-driven technologies and their impacts on workers. Zooming in on highly skilled white-collar workers in a standard employment relationship in heavily digitised workplaces, we offer a unique view of the perceptions of these white-collar workers and trade union representatives, as well as of the effects of algorithmic governance and co-determination in practice. We show how algorithmic governance and the use of data-driven analytics fundamentally reshape not only how workers are known to employers, and hence, managed, but also how they see themselves and their work. The digital revolution has increased the informational and power asymmetry between the employer and workers, in favour of the employer. Now, more than ever, we need strong trade unions and increased institutional power, national regulation, and training, and competence building for trade union representatives.

Download the study: Algorithmic governance and co-determination in Norway: Insights from white-collar workers and trade union representatives in the finance and news media industries

Carin Håkansta, Ruben Lind, Pille Strauss-Raats and Pontus Blüme. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 17, 2024.

About this study: This report presents results from a study set in Sweden on the ramifications of digital technologies and algorithmic management (AM) and how technology affects the prospects for workplace co-determination and democracy. It specifically looks at the effects of AM on work and workers’ rights in non-platform work, workers’ response to AM-related issues, and the implications of these results for trade unions, solidarity, and policy. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with informants in the retail, warehousing, and transport sectors in 2024 including five full-time trade union employees and 16 workers/trade union representatives. The Swedish context is characterized by co-determination and occupational safety and health (OSH) legislation that supports workers’ voice and comparatively high levels of collective agreement coverage and affiliation to workers’ and employers’ organisations. Although by tradition positive to new technology, Swedish unions have been hesitant to the introduction of EU laws regulating AM due to the preference to solve labour matters via collective agreements rather than legislation: the hallmark of the Swedish labour market model.

Download the study: Algorithmic management: Experiences and responses. Explorative study of companies and trade unions in the Swedish warehousing, retail and transport industries

Thorn Jensen, Magnus / Oosterwijk, Gerard Rinse / Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study: This report examines the growing prevalence of algorithmic management in warehousing and customer service/telemarketing across Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Despite strong worker protections in the Nordic labor markets, algorithmic management reduces job autonomy, increases stress, and erodes trust between employees and management. Drawing on a survey of union members, the study highlights how transparency and employee influence can mitigate these effects. It offers critical recommendations for policymakers and unions to ensure digitalization enhances rather than undermines worker well-being and job quality.

Download the study: Computer in Command: Consequences of algorithmic management for worker

Thorn Jensen, Magnus / Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study:

This publication focuses on the results of the survey among trade union members in Denmark. The study shows that Algorithmic Management (AM) is already quite widespread within warehouse work, customer service, telemarketing, and citizen services. A significant proportion of survey participants indicate that computer systems are used to assign shifts and tasks, monitor their activities, and evaluate their performance at work. This use of AM has a myriad of negative consequences for employees. They experience less autonomy in the performance of their daily tasks with an increased workload and stress level. Furthermore, this study shows that AM is associated with a diminished level of trust between employers and employees, a lower level of motivation and satisfaction in the job, as well as an increased fear of being fired for not reaching the expectations measured by the algorithm. Fortunately, these negative consequences are not entirely inevitable. The negative effects of AM are considerably less wherever there is a higher degree of employee influence in the decision-making and greater transparency in the management’s decisions. This study demonstrates that it is crucial for policy-makers, trade unions, and everyone in society to ensure that the use of new technologies in the labour market does not undermine employees’ well-being.

Download th study: Computerchefer: Algoritmeledelse har store konsekvenser for medarbejderne

Wrangborg, Jenny / Thorn Jensen, Magnus. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study: 

This publication analyses the consequences of algorithmic management among Swedish warehouse workers. As the first large-scale quantitative analysis of its kind, the results of this study indicate that, on average, the use of AM has negative consequences for employees. The more workers are exposed to algorithmic control, the less autonomy they feel they have in their work, the less trust they feel from and towards their employer, and the greater workload they experience. Its use also affects employees’ well-being at work: When algorithmic control tools are widely used, employees are less satisfied with their jobs and less motivated, and they feel significantly more stressed and more uncertain about whether they will be able to keep their jobs.

But this study also shows that some of these consequences can be prevented through worker influence and transparency in the company’s decision-making processes. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to ensure that the trade unions have sufficient tools to defend their members’ interests when it comes to the implementation of new digital systems in the workplace, both to protect the employees against a dystopian work environment where every aspect of the work can be monitored and controlled and to ensure that the Swedish model, with its large degree of trust between the parties in the labour market, stands strong in tomorrow’s digital reality.

Download the study: Algoritmen som chef: Konsekvenser av algoritmiskt styrt arbete

Immonen, Jere. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study: In the report, we design a new algorithm management index based on survey data, which shows that algorithmic systems have a more widespread use for management in Finland than in other Nordic countries. On the other hand, according to the research, the negative effects of algorithmic management can also be prevented. Algorithmic management does not necessarily have to weaken the position or well-being of employees, but it requires that they are made aware of how it is used. Unfortunately, so far, that condition has not materialised well enough in the Finnish case, as less than half of respondents were satisfied with their employer’s communication or felt they could influence decisions about the use of algorithms.

Download the study: Johtajana Tietokone: Algoritmisen johtamisen vaikutuksia työntekijöihin

Nagell, Hilde. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study: This report, resulting from a survey of workers from the Norwegian context, shows that the use of algorithmic management can be associated to a number of negative consequences such as reduced job autonomy, increased workload, reduced job security, lower trust, reduced job satisfaction and motivation, and higher stress levels. Fortunately, such consequences are not inevitable; Workplace conditions appear to be particularly important in determining whether employees experience negative consequences.

In organizations where employees are involved and have influence in decision-making on the work floor, negative consequences are reported to a lesser extent. On the other hand, employees who report having significant influence on important decisions experience negative consequences from algorithmic management to a much lesser extent.

Secondly, the relationship between employees and managers appears to matter. Where there is a high level of transparency in management decisions, the negative consequences are also far less prominent, and in some cases completely absent.

Download the study: Når sjefen bruker kunstig intelligens: Hvilke konsekvenser algoritmestyrt ledelse har for ansatte

Glavind, Kristoffer Lind / Oosterwijk, Gerard Rinse. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024

About this study: Research on platform workers’ employment terms is often done using surveys or qualitative data like interviews. As part of the FEPS and its Nordic partner’s Digital Programme on algorithms in the workplace, this

policy study seeks to contribute knowledge about platform companies and the terms of employment for workers engaged through them by using different kinds of existing quantitative data in Denmark. The precarious working conditions of platform workers have placed the topic on the agenda of policymakers at the European level, and legislators are looking into ways to regulate the employment relationship of platform workers. In the Danish context, the presumption of an employment contract could help in the question of collective agreements with new platform companies and force the platforms to take on the role of an employer, with the social security obligations that come with it. Many platforms claimed to merely establish contact between customers and service providers and, therefore, did not look at themselves as classic employers. This has led many platform companies to pay workers remuneration or demand that they start a company, typically a single-person firm, to which the salary is paid. The administrative data shows an apparent rise in the number of renumerated

workers in specific sectors in Denmark over the past years. In the transport, information and communication industry, we see a significant increase, which is explicitly comprised of young, non-Danish workers with limited education. This data shows us that, even in one of Europe’s most organized labour markets, platform companies are trying to avoid labour and tax regulations by hiring platform workers through remuneration contracts.

Dowload the study: Employment terms of platform workers. Data-driven analysis of online platforms in Denmark

Juego, Bonn / Østbø Kuldova, Tereza / Oosterwijk, Gerard Rinse. Published by: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Accessed December 9, 2024.

About this study: Driven by the logic of competition in global capitalism, digitalization is revolutionising the workplace, introducing both opportunities and challenges. This policy study reflects on the complex interplay between technology and work, focusing on the impacts of algorithmic management (AM) techniques on workers’ rights, dignity and well-being. Drawing on preliminary findings from an ongoing study of FEPS in collaboration with Nordic-based partners, the policy study highlights the complexities and contradictions of AM and the limitations of current policies and institutions in dealing with the fast-paced digital transformation. It emphasises the importance of worker agency and participation in the innovation process. It proposes the need to create socio-institutional frameworks to direct a pro-labour digital transition and institutionalise co-determination as a viable solution for workers to engage actively with incessant technical changes. It concludes with a forward-looking perspective, advocating for research methodologies and problem-solving approaches that cater to the needs of diverse working contexts. The purpose is to contribute to informed policymaking that ensures a fair, democratic and humane work environment in the digital age.

Download the study: Algorithms by and for the workers. Towards a fair, democratic and humane digitalization of the workplace