Stay up up to now with free updates
Simply register for Employment within the UK myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.
Banks, insurance firms and accounting firms should prepare to fund the retraining of tens of millions of employees whose jobs could possibly be displaced by artificial intelligence, British unions will warn at next month's Trades Union Congress.
Accord, the bank employees' lobby group, will call on financial services groups to arrange to fund a “large-scale” programme to retrain a lot of their nearly 2.5 million British employees in a motion to the union's annual conference.
A Citigroup report warned in June that half of all banking jobs were in danger from automation.
“Congress notes with concern a report from June 2024 which states that as much as 54 percent of banking jobs and 48 percent of insurance jobs could possibly be displaced by AI in the longer term,” says the Accord motion published on the TUC website.
“It is predicted that job losses on account of AI shall be higher within the financial services sector than in another sector of the economy,” it continues.
Meanwhile, Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, certainly one of the most important trade unions, told the Financial Times that Britain was “falling behind” and needed to support “latest technologies”.
“This means government and employers working with unions to construct a greater future for all and avoid the very real dangers of unemployment, inequality and prejudice attributable to AI,” she said.
Several union leaders will increase pressure on Labour ministers to introduce laws regulating the usage of AI by employers at next month's conference in Brighton.
Union representatives will discuss 4 different motions on the rapidly evolving technology, including Accord's, the union's website says. Any motion passed will change into official union policy.
Over the past 14 years, the TUC has often been ignored by the Conservative government, however the overwhelming election victory of the Labour Party – which receives tens of millions of kilos in donations from union supporters – suggests that that is about to alter.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is currently pushing through a package of “New Deal” labour market reforms which might be essentially a wish list of the trade union movement and include, amongst other things, the repeal of all of the Conservatives' anti-strike laws from the last decade.
The Starmer government can also be working on a bill to manage the AI industry, which is meant to encourage rapid development. However, the bill won’t address concerns raised by the TUC and its affiliated unions concerning the way forward for jobs.
Rather, this system may have a really narrow scope, specializing in safety testing and government oversight of probably the most advanced and largest AI models being developed by technology corporations corresponding to OpenAI, say people briefed on this system's contents.
Last 12 months, the TUC published draft laws to manage AI within the workplace, setting out latest legal rights, including an obligation of transparency about employers' use of AI and protection against unfair dismissal consequently of the technology.
Kate Bell, deputy general secretary of the TUC, said AI within the workplace was already resulting in “life-changing decisions”, including how employees are hired, managed and fired.
“Other countries are regulating AI within the workplace in order that employees and employers know where they stand,” she said, pointing to laws within the US, China and Canada. “The UK urgently needs to place in place latest safeguards to guard employees from exploitation and discrimination.”
Jana Mackintosh, managing director of payments, innovation and resilience at trade body UK Finance, said: “As it is a highly regulated sector, corporations are taking a cautious approach to adopting AI. As well as hiring people in the sector, corporations are discussing best practice, training their staff in latest skills and educating their workforce on use AI effectively and responsibly of their roles.”
The government was asked for a comment.
The other three motions to be presented on the TUC conference were drawn up by Unite, the Artists' Union England and the TUC Young Workers' Conference.
The Unite union's motion warns that artificial intelligence is increasingly getting used to “control employees through remark”. Low-paid, outsourced employees from ethnic minorities are particularly in danger.
It calls on the federal government to pass laws giving unions the proper to be consulted on the usage of AI within the workplace, ensuring that recruitment is free from bias and discrimination, protecting employees from AI-powered decisions, and providing for the proper to human involvement when technology makes 'high-risk' decisions corresponding to hiring and firing.
The Artists' Union England is asking on the federal government to “strengthen democratic systems” against potential threats posed by AI.
In his motion, he calls on the TUC to push for laws to guard the mental property rights of artists and inventive employees and to demand “a ban on the usage of artificial intelligence within the workplace without an explicit collective agreement”.
The fourth motion from the TUC Young Workers' Conference calls on employers to seek the advice of their employees on the usage of latest technologies within the workplace.
