Equality in recruitment and employment

Early day motion 391, tabled 27 April 2020 by Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party). Signed by 13 members.

This House notes the increase in use of artificial intelligence and automated-decision-making to recruit, manage and pay workers remotely through the coronavirus pandemic; recognises that learning from past patterns of behaviour to inform decisions about the future increases the risk of deepening inequality for people and groups who are already experiencing disadvantage; further notes that fair access to, and terms of, work is critical at a time when 15 per cent of the workforce have already lost their jobs and over 2 million people are claiming universal credit; expresses concern that the auditing tools most commonly used to assess the risk of discrimination are importing legal standards from the United States which do not reflect the purpose or requirements of the Equality Act 2010; recognises new research from the Institute for the Future of Work which reveals significant limitations in exiting approaches to assessing the impacts of automated systems on equality; and calls on the Government to develop and enforce high industry standards to promote good governance and compliance of the Equality Act, to require regular Equality Impact Assessments as proposed by the Institute for the Future of Work and to review the application and enforcement of the Equality Act to ensure it is fit for purpose.

Signatures by party: Scottish National Party 10, Labour 2, Independent 1.