In line with the new 10-minute motion rule, Labour MP Mick Whitley has introduced a novel bill surrounding AI regulation in the workplace.

“As Sir Patrick Vallance warned when he appeared before the Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee on 3 May, we are now living through an AI revolution that will be every bit as far reaching as the first industrial revolution,” the Labour backbencher said to Parliament.

MP Whitely was able to introduce the bill due to the 10 minute motion rule which allows backbench MPs to propose new legislation – the motion was adopted earlier this month.

The bill, Whitely explains, is not a catch-all AI regulation law, but rather is set to stipulate protections for workers amid the increasing adoption of AI.

Rooted in three key principles, the bill is to ensure that everyone is free from discrimination in the workplace, that workers have a right in the decision making process, and that workers have a right to understand how their data is being used by their employer.

The proposed bill utilised many recommendations set out by the Trade Union Congress’s (TUC) “Dignity at Work and the AI Revolution” Manifesto, which aimed to defend worker’s positions in the growth of automation and AI in the workplace.

This includes mandates that ‘high risk’ uses of AI be targeted for further regulation than currently allotted, and a statutory duty for companies to consult with their workers and associated trade unions before adopting AI into the workplace is mandated.

Further, the bill wants to strengthen current laws, including the Data Protection Action 2018 to “explicitly state that discriminatory data processing is always unlawful.”

In addition to this, the bill proposed an amendment to the Employment Rights Act 1996 so that “workers should not be subjected to detrimental treatment as a result of the processing of inaccurate data” and to reverse the burden of proof showing that AI systems are discriminatory.

Part of this work would be making equality audits of AI systems mandatory.

As well, the Bill aims to “establish a universal and comprehensive right to human review of high-risk decisions that have been made by AI, as well as a right to human contact when high-risk decisions are being made.”

Essentially, this would allow workers to advocate for a human to be involved in decision-making even with AI could be used.

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The bill did pass this first round in parliament after receiving no objections, and will be read again on 24 November this year.

Following from the UK Government’s AI whitepaper outline proposed regulation of the burgeoning technology, this Bill provides more specifications on making AI fair and non-discriminatory.

The whitepaper initially was in aim to responsibly enable AI to flourish in the UK, making it a hub for technological innovation.

Since then, the TUC claimed that workers were left without a guardrail against AI which threatened their job security and data protection.