Canadian Telecom Unions Present AI Concerns to Parliamentary Committee

Telecommunications workers in Canada called for government restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence in the sector, according to Cbc. The Canadian Telecommunications Workers Alliance detailed its AI concerns on April 30 in front of the House of Commons' standing committee on industry and technology in Ottawa.

The alliance includes three major unions in the sector: Unifor, the United Steelworkers union, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

It represents 32,000 workers in Canada's telecommunications industry, including Bell, Rogers, and Telus. Companies can use artificial intelligence to disguise the accents of overseas call centre workers, the workers' alliance stated. Artificial intelligence is being used to mislead Canadians into believing they were speaking with Canada-based employees while being unaware that the jobs had been offshored, according to a statement attributed to 'He' in the reporting.

Customers should be informed when AI is being used, the same source added in the context of these practices. Roughly 20,000 jobs in the telecommunications sector had been lost over the past 10 to 15 years due to automation and offshoring, Leblanc stated. The alliance feared artificial intelligence would accelerate the trend of job losses, he added.

Leblanc urged governments to restrict AI-based monitoring, saying it increased psychological stress and intensified workloads. AI is being used to monitor workers by tracking technicians' movements and measuring the time spent on tasks, according to Leblanc.

AI can analyze call centre conversations word-by-word to reroute calls or identify patterns linked to sales and subscriptions, he also stated.

He said AI use was particularly advanced in telecommunications. Nathalie Blais, a research advisor with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the technology could be 'very invasive' and should be used 'for the common good,' rather than in ways that might mislead people or eliminate jobs.

She said the alliance wants a permanent federal working group on artificial intelligence that brings together government, industry and civil society to collaborate on how the technology is implemented.

The alliance also called for stronger protections for workers' jobs, their rights and the security of Canadians' information. Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said on Monday that the federal government's promised new national AI strategy will consider impacts on the labour market.