Uber drivers are going to strike on 13 September due to unfair pay rates, cleaning fee reimbursements policies excessive working hours and lack of representation and transparency in Uber's policies. I hope Uber listens. www.hcamag.com/nz/specialis...

“Over the past quarter century, American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known” apnews.com/article/chin...

Research shows that some of the richest multi-national technology corporations - like Facebook and Amazon - are paying very little tax on the money they are making in New Zealand www.tjanz.org/big_tech_med...

My latest newsletter is about how the double standards that allows big tech to commit the most appalling crimes -- and to get away with them. whatwelost.substack.com/p/big-tech-a...

For example, making a digital platform increasingly awful for gig workers. #labor onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This seems shortsighted. From a purely pragmatic perspective, while I'm not an expert on this, my understanding is that NZ has obligations under various trade treaties to comply with international labour standards.

Breaking up with big tech: a human rights based argument for tackling big tech's market power. This report by Amnesty International which lists the harms flowing from big tech's market power is spot on. www.amnesty.org/en/wp-conten...

I've lived through all of these changes and it won't be too much longer till I'm ready to walk away.

A new piece from @caileangallagher.bsky.social at the @workersobservatory.org 🔔 "That’s why we’re calling for this type of work to placed at the centre of the Scottish Government’s Fair Work agenda." www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

My latest newsletter is about the excesses of big tech, why Europe should declare war on Silicon Valley, and how it can win. whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-europe...

BREAKING: California lawmakers have reached an agreement with Uber and Lyft that will open the door for app drivers to form unions and organize for increased pay and better benefits. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

I suspect this number does not include all the students who are desperately seeking part time work to support their studies and not finding it. This is heartbreaking. These aren't just numbers, its people's lives.

Dependent contractors are poorly served by current law. They don't get the rights of employee but they are economically vulnerable. ilostat.ilo.org/blog/casting...

#BREAKING: We are calling on the Prime Minister to show leadership by removing Brooke van Velden as Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, following her recent comments that politicise the Employment Relations Authority and breach the Cabinet Manual. 1/6

Algorithmic Wage Discrimination is spreading beyond 'Gig' work: Healthcare, Customer Service, & Logistics bosses are buying AI products that set compensation structures & wages using real time data. @wilneida.bsky.social & I did an audit & here are our findings equitablegrowth.org/how-artifici...

Algorithmic wage discrimination was first documented in app-controlled ride-hail and food-delivery work. Read more on how surveillance pay works and where it is deployed in the U.S. economy, along with recommendations to ensure fairness in setting workers’ pay: equitablegrowth.org/how-artifici...

Here’s a giant screw-you to this bank and to the snake-oil peddlers who sold them on miracle AI—that ultimately can’t replace workers. Wild how yet another AI flop barely makes headlines, while every “AI taking jobs” story blows up everywhere. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Once again tapping the sign that reads “the alternative to collective bargaining is dragging out the factory owner from his house and beating him to death in front of his family,” because that’s what we had before collective bargaining Unions are there for *your* protection too, management

NEW ZEALAND: Pay equity: Five unions to take government to court over law changes www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/18/p...

Two amazing resources on worker voice and AI that you should know about: (1) ILO’s Global Case study of AI and algorithmic management by @vdoellgast.bsky.social and team The single best compendium of international law and union cases I’ve seen on this topic www.ilo.org/sites/defaul... (1/2)

This looks like a useful report on the uberisation of healthcare www.ituc-csi.org/ilo-yellow-r... I'm hoping to do some work on this over summer.

This is a good resource for people interested in regulation of platform work digitallabour.ilo.org e.g I can see Uruguay has just brought in quite comprehensive law on the protection of workers engaged in tasks through digital platforms. (Very much the opposite of the current New Zealand approach.)

On the NZ context "Rather than preventing the misclassification of workers, the law changes may make it easier. They do little to address the challenges vulnerable contractors face, fail to tackle the structural problems of platform work, & disregard how other countries are modernising their laws."

Just published on the Conversation a new piece by me with Annick Masselot and Lynne Coker about the government's proposed "gateway test" theconversation.com/contractor-o...

More than 30 of the companies, which collect and sell consumers’ personal information, hid their deletion instructions from Google...

"At once a source of demystification of AI for the recently concerned and an intervention which encourages veteran sceptics to sharpen their criticism, [The AI Con] serves as a call to action to ridicule AI hype as a consumer, argue against it as a citizen, and resist it as a worker."

“The Government’s pay equity overhaul has faced an onslaught from leading political figures and a former governor general, at the first unofficial People’s Select Committee into the changes - with three more hearings this month.” #nzpol www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

It's depressing that New Zealand is about to become the latest success in Uber's regulatory arbitrage campaign.

Big Tech no longer cares if we like their products. As long as we stay. As long as we pay. Their real goal? Please shareholders. Lock users in. Push hype (especially AI) to boost stock prices. The actual service? Just good enough to avoid a painful switch. That’s a sad but accurate summary.

I know I shouldn't be surprised by anything that big tech does but really, this is so gross - firms want to adjust the price of services based on your location, phone model and even how much battery you've got left themarkup.org/artificial-i...

Emotion privacy. This might be a promising concept to push back against intrusive surveillance. www.ifow.org/news-article...

#nzpol 1/8 Brooke van Velden’s Employment Relations Amendment Bill is an attack on the fundamental rights of working people. The Bill has passed its first reading—here’s how it’ll threaten your rights at work. A 🧵

“In emails and briefings, the ministers and their staff acknowledged their plans would bypass public scrutiny, extinguish existing claims, and potentially breach people's rights.” This seems like a sentence less synonymous with democracy than, say “breach of rights poorly disguised as savings.” 🤔

This links very well to the report we published on the 'Amazonian Era', revealing how the practices and business models that emerged within the gig economy are being packaged up and made available for download to the furthest corners of our workplaces: www.ifow.org/publications...

Dynamic pricing isn't just about #Oasis... IFOW Co-Director, Dr @abbygkgilbert.bsky.social has written superb piece for @trustforlondon.bsky.social on greater role algorithms are playing in workplaces - allocating hours, monitoring performance and setting pay. trustforlondon.org.uk/news/not-jus...

Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How To Fight Back blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities...

Wanted to share my latest jot on two great articles from @veenadubal.bsky.social and @iajunwa.bsky.social on employee data and how we should regulate its use.

Banning AI wage setting and price gouging based on creepy surveillance and leveraging desperation? Sounds like a much needed intervention to me www.commondreams.org/news/casar-t...

My latest newsletter is about how Big Tech killed the concept of ownership, in the process turning consumers into digital serfs. whatwelost.substack.com/p/i-miss-act...

Are you a union negotiator, researcher, policymaker, or journalist tracking how digital tech is used at work--and how unions are responding? Explore @ucblaborcenter.bsky.social's inventory of collective bargaining provisions related to workplace tech: laborcenter.berkeley.edu/negotiating-...

"Only drop kicks enrol to vote on election day"? What about people who have only just turned 18? Is this what our Deputy Prime Minister thinks of young New Zealanders?

Amazon is acquiring Bee, which sells a $50 device that resembles a Fitbit, is always listening, transcribes conversations, and serves up daily AI summaries (Emma Roth/The Verge) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Yet another vulnerability of NZ government indulging Microsoft’s anti-competitive behaviour, which has seen most agencies shift from dedicated records management software to the ‘free’ Sharepoint bundled with their MS365 licenses. @smalltorquer.bsky.social

In other news, New Zealand is slipping down global rankings for perceived corruption.

At least Uber's paying it's fair share of corporate tax to have such an influence on #NZPol legislation. Uber's paying it's fair share of tax, right? *inserts Padme meme* www.1news.co.nz/2025/07/02/u...

Our employment laws are well overdue for a real shakeup, which draws clear lines between employee and contractor relationships, strengthens the protections for both, and doesn't prioritise the profits of shitty companies who exploit grey areas to keep people in insecure and desperate circumstances

Confirming what we all already knew- the proposed change to s6 and New Zealand's legal definition of employee was drafted at UBER'S behest. If this becomes law, I really hope the opposition parties commit to repealing it. lawnews.nz/employment/m...

If Microsoft is happy to give the US access to French data without the French authorities being informed, I don't think they'd hesitate for a single second to pass on New Zealand data. Does this matter? I think it does.

The story about the CEO being forced to resign from his job because he was caught on camera at a Coldplay concert is horrendous. The fact that I and probably much of the English speaking world know about this is even worse. Social media surveillance dystopia indeed. www.404media.co/the-astronom...

Platform companies like Uber helped normalise this dynamic pricing and workers have pushed back with attempts to monitor and track rates (see Worker Info Exchange), but yes, "without a public record of all fares, it would be difficult... to determine if Delta is charging vastly different fares..."