This is great to see, but should apply to all grounds of discrimination - not just sexual harassment. Regulating just one area is going to create a mess.

More than *anything* the people who actually know how technology works, who actually build things, wish that people would treat LLMs like every other technology, and be normal about them. Don't build a religion about them, don't force them on people, don't ignore the problems. Just be normal.

“most of the studies [conducted] find that the industry- and economy-wide productivity gains that have been promised by AI companies are not happening.”

This is a serious breach of privacy. Yet employee records have limited protection under federal privacy law. We urgently need legal change to better protect employee privacy. dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

I haven't fully read this yet but it contains a wonderful heading: "Maching Yearning for a Better Present"

SafeWork NSW orders UTS to pause job cuts due to risk of ‘psychological harm’

It gets worse. The Deloitte report suspected of using AI contains a fake quote and erroneous citations to one of the leading cases on Robodebt. www.afr.com//companies/p...

I've been reading the court docs and it is incredibly upsetting reading. Absolutely awful.

CBA has apologised to 45 affected employees after finding customer service roles were not redundant despite introducing an AI-powered "voice-bot", but the union says the damage is done.

I dug into this in the Alternative Law Journal, and trials of the four day work week are absolutely worth expanding in Australia if we want to boost productivity. doi.org/10.1177/1037...

If Ted Chiang, a truly superb creative writer (also; a background in compsci), is happy using the gym robot analogy to explain why using chatbots at university is antithetical to the purpose you're paying money and forgoing paid work to be there then I'm fortified in my view it's a good one.

In the 'things that could go wrong with genAI that could have been predicted and yet are still happening' camp... AI facilitates medical sexism/gendered health(non)care www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

"An algorithm instructed to ignore race and gender is not unbiased; it silently reproduces existing patterns of discrimination while labeling those patterns as “truth.”" www.techpolicy.press/the-false-ne...

Excellent thread.

Our firm-level work not only surveyed 1000 UK firms about tech adoption, but also did 12 in-depth case studies of AI and automation, with hundreds of hours of interviews with workers about the impact of these tools on the quality of their work, and on their wellbeing.

The federal government has appointed Australia's first permanent National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.

I spent seven years writing a book on this and she just… said it in three succinct paragraphs to politico.

BREAKING: The EU Commission has released a mandatory template for AI developers to disclose training data. Unlike the Code of Practice, this is not optional. It could have global fallout, as rights holders abroad might use it to sue over copyright. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e...

Totally coincidentally, this from me yesterday: “A four-day week could help Australia’s economy” on Pursuit pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-f...

Just published, open access, in the Alternative Law Journal: 'Productivity and the four-day work week' I consider whether adopting a four-day work week in Australian labour law could boost labour productivity, drawing on existing trials in Australia and internationally. doi.org/10.1177/1037...

Our article "Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work" has been published by 'Work, Employment and Society'. With Nick Martindale and @brendanburchell.bsky.social doi.org/10.1177/0950...

Expressions of Interest have opened for a new PhD scholarship in partnership with the Reproductive Justice Hallmark Research Initiative – please share! socialequity.unimelb.edu.au/news/latest/... #AcademicSky #ReproductiveJustice #UniMelb

“Far from a time-saving silver bullet .… a tool promoted as labour-saving demands significant labour” Can chatbots aid law teaching? Probably not yet theconversation.com/researchers-...

Are you being watched at work? A new Victorian parliamentary committee report calls for tougher #WorkplaceSurveillance controls, heeding NTEU input based on member submissions by NTEU's Joo-Cheong Tham and team: theconversation.com/being-monito... #HigherEd #auspol #Auspol2025

The latest from me, Joo Cheong Tham and Jake Goldenfein on workplace surveillance, and what a Victorian inquiry says we should do to regulate it.

Research fellow - job opportunity (with me!) - University of Melbourne Law School - 0.5 FTE, to December 2027. Health law and genomic data governance as part of national LINEAGE project jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/92007...

New article: ‘Collective Action, Voice and Equality: Equality Bargaining to Achieve More Equal Futures?’, just published open access in the Adelaide Law Review. I examine equality bargaining in Australian agreements, and conclude there is still a way to go. law.adelaide.edu.au/ua/media/330...

Two more AI hallucinations in Australian court judgements today

New, from me: should legal researchers use AI and LLMs to help speed up analysis? In short, no - or at least not yet. The risks are just too great. Open access in the Alternative Law Journal. doi.org/10.1177/1037...

"Queensland’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, said he was “bewildered” by the announcement and the attorney general’s concerns had never been raised with him." #auslaw #qldpol www.theguardian.com/law/2025/mar...

Having been involved in consultation around these reforms - for literally years - I can attest that a lack of consultation is not the problem here. #auspol www.theguardian.com/law/2025/mar...

Early scholars job! The Amsterdam Center for International Law is hiring two postdocs and a PhD researcher for our European Research Council Starting Grant project on the effectiveness of regional human rights regimes: acil.uva.nl/content/news...

Over the next 2 days the Court of Appeal hears the appeal in Sullivan v Isle of Wight, looking at whether job applicants should be subject to whistleblowing protection, relying on the 'some other status' characteristic under Art 14 ECHR (with Art 10). #ukemplaw

A housing complex for Aboriginal Elders and their carers in Western Australia has received the go-ahead. Indigenous community housing provider Noongar Mia Mia partnered with precast building technology firm NXT TEC on the project near Midland.

Meanwhile, Australian government bureaucrats who’ve actually tried Copilot think it’s pretty useless evaluation.treasury.gov.au/sites/evalua...

From today, the prohibited practices/AI systems in the AI Act enter force. It becomes illegal to use or market, broadly (and loosely): - intentionally v manipulative systems likely to cause someone harm - social scoring that leads to disproportionate consequences/consequences in an unrelated sector

#UWA #Law is looking for TWO B/C #lecturers in private law & business law. See ad for specific needs (again, not optional needs, so only apply if you have this expertise). #jobs #jobFairy #AUS #Perth external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/51...

The number of UK universities actively making redundancies and shrinking has now risen to 88. This number will rise to over 90 this spring, and it could even hit 100 in calendar year 2025. qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

"YoungOnes said it had responded to Madders’s letter. It said employment rights law and employment agency regulations do not apply to the company." www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Open AI's new Operator 'agent' release today as an 'agent that can go to the web to perform tasks for you.' Released as a research preview (ie: getting early consumers to do the training for free), with its main promoted functions being around shopping and purchasing. openai.com/index/introd...

“Right now, Americans are receiving more than a decade of additional time in the most satisfying and prosocial period of life. This is potentially the greatest gift any generation of humans has ever received. The question is whether we will grasp it.” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Amazon to settle a group claim from delivery drivers that it deprived them of thousands of pounds - article states this is 'based on the argument that drivers’ working conditions are dictated by Amazon' - not completely clear but seems to relate to worker status www.theguardian.com/business/202...

I am at this ECHR today for a rather interesting case of Vasilică-Cristi Danileţ, a former Romanian judge who became a bit of an influencer (50,000 FB followers) and then got himself in hot water for posting about attacks on the judiciary in his country.

I know that a lot of labo(u)r researchers aren’t really aware of the issues with the UK Labour Force Survey. This explores the wider problems of large scale surveys. It’s a good short intro.

Union strike wins concessions on surveillance and AI in management of warehouse workers, and wage increase.

It is time to remove youth pay rates. Young people doing the same job should receive the same pay.

Vacancy with us at TCD Law School for Assistant Professor in Intellectual Property Law - applications open until noon, Thursday, 5 December. Details available from jobs.tcd.ie. Happy to field any informal queries!

1/4 The Ulster University PhD studentship competition is now open! Deadline for Law is 24 February 2025 at 4 PM. We invite applications under the following headings (I am especially interested in supervising the first two):

Some wonderful news: I have been promoted to full Professor at Melbourne Law School. I am beyond delighted, and deeply grateful to all my fantastic colleagues and friends who have supported and encouraged me along this journey.