AI at work: what rights do employees have?

AI can cut your shifts, mark your work down or reject your application. You have rights to challenge a significant decision made solely by software, and the same pay, equality, privacy and dismissal rules still apply. Today, save the message or rota and ask in writing what data drove the decision and for a human review. If your job is at risk, check the claim deadline now. We explain the rules in force on 1 October 2026.

Which law actually applies to AI at work?

The UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 govern your personal data. Since 5 February 2026, Articles 22A to 22D, introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, govern significant decisions made solely by automated processing.

In England, Wales and Scotland, the Equality Act 2010 protects applicants and staff against unlawful discrimination. There is no qualifying service requirement and discrimination compensation is uncapped. Northern Ireland has separate discrimination legislation.

The Employment Rights Act 1996, Working Time Regulations 1998 and Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 govern GB dismissal, redundancy and hours. The Employment Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, changes these rules in stages.

Automated decisions: your right to a human

The law now permits significant automated decisions using ordinary personal data, subject to safeguards. A lawful basis, fairness and accuracy are still required.

A decision is solely automated if nobody meaningfully participates in making it. A manager rubber-stamping a dismissal list is not enough. A decision is significant if it has a legal or similarly significant effect, such as dismissal or job rejection. A shift change or score may qualify if its effect on your work or income is serious enough.

Under Article 22C, whoever controls the processing must provide safeguards for a significant, solely automated decision involving your personal data:

1. Information. Information about the decision taken about you. Ask what data and factors drove it.
2. Representations. A chance to correct errors and explain your circumstances.
3. Human intervention. A person must be able to reconsider the decision, rather than simply repeat the software’s answer.
4. Challenge. You must be able to contest the decision.

Article 22B generally prohibits significant, solely automated decisions using special category data, such as health, ethnicity, biometric identification or union membership. One exception requires explicit consent to all the personal-data processing behind the decision. The other requires contractual necessity or legal authorisation, together with the substantial-public-interest condition in Article 9(2)(g). Consent must be freely given, which is difficult where your employer holds more power.

Significant, solely automated decisions also cannot rely wholly or partly on “recognised legitimate interests” under Article 6(1)(ea). This differs from ordinary legitimate interests.

Can your employer monitor you with AI?

Keystroke logs, screenshots, webcams, location tracking and productivity scores can all involve monitoring. Your employer needs a lawful basis, must explain its purposes and must collect only necessary data. High-risk processing requires a data protection impact assessment. The ICO’s monitoring guidance covers home and on-site work.

Biometrics used to identify you are special category data. In enforcement action announced on 23 February 2024, the ICO stopped Serco Leisure and associated organisations using facial-recognition and fingerprint attendance checks affecting more than 2,000 employees at 38 facilities. They had not demonstrated necessity or proportionality, and staff had no clear alternative to being scanned.

If monitoring makes you think about resigning, do not resign without advice. You can complain to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) without resigning; see what the Information Commission can do.

CV screening, scoring and bias

An employer can use AI to screen CVs or score interviews. Buying a tool from a supplier does not remove the employer’s responsibility for discriminatory recruitment.

A significant rejection made solely by software triggers Article 22C. If a recruiter genuinely decided, those safeguards may not apply, but equality and other data rights remain.

Under section 19 of the Equality Act, a selection rule can be indirect discrimination if it disadvantages a protected group and you personally, without proportionate justification. A video-interview scoring rule may disadvantage disabled applicants. Disability law also covers discrimination arising from disability and failures to make reasonable adjustments. Extra time or a different assessment may be needed.

Ask for the criteria, your score and breakdown, and evidence of fairness checks. A subject access request concerns your personal data, not every company document or the source code. Keep the advert and rejection message. See AI in recruitment.

Can AI sack you or make your role redundant?

Automation can create a genuine redundancy if the employer needs fewer employees to do work of a particular kind. It does not make every resulting dismissal fair.

The employer must consider a fair process, including genuine consultation, fair selection where selection is needed and suitable alternative work. An unexplained productivity score is no substitute for that process. If the system counted disability-related absence against you, the same dismissal may raise both unfair-dismissal and discrimination issues. The statutory fairness test depends on the circumstances.

In Great Britain, you normally need two years’ continuous service for ordinary unfair-dismissal protection as at 1 October 2026. Some automatically unfair reasons need no qualifying service, including dismissal because of a protected whistleblowing disclosure, certain health-and-safety activities or trade union activity. It is the reason for the dismissal that matters, not whether software carried it out. Only employees claim unfair dismissal; workers may have other protections against detriment.

Statutory redundancy pay normally requires two years’ continuous employment. It gives half a week’s pay for each full year of service below age 22, one week’s pay for each year aged 22 to 40 and one and a half weeks for each year aged 41 or older. Only 20 years count. The GB weekly-pay cap is £751 for relevant dates from 6 April 2026, making the maximum £22,530. Your contract may give more.

Proposing 20 or more redundancies at one establishment within 90 days requires consultation with the recognised union or elected representatives. It must start in good time, at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect, or 45 days for 100 or more. The employer must also submit form HR1 to the Secretary of State.

Failure can lead to a protective award of up to 180 days’ pay per affected employee for dismissals from 6 April 2026. A business-wide threshold is scheduled for 2027, not already in force. See collective redundancy consultation.

App, gig and zero-hours workers

Unfair-dismissal and statutory redundancy rights belong to employees. Workers who are not employees still have working-time rights. An app’s “self-employed” label does not settle your status; the real relationship matters.

Agency workers have data and discrimination protections too. Employment duties depend on the agency and hirer arrangements; neither is automatically your employer.

Guaranteed hours, reasonable shift notice and short-notice payments are scheduled for 2027, including provisions for qualifying zero-hours, low-hours and agency workers. Dates remain unfixed. Existing contract, pay, equality and data rights may help meanwhile. See zero-hours contracts and employment status.

Hours, rosters and the “right to switch off”

A roster generated by AI must still comply with working-time law. For most adult workers, the GB rules include a 48-hour average weekly limit, unless you validly opt out, 11 hours’ daily rest and 24 hours’ uninterrupted weekly rest or 48 hours per fortnight. A working day longer than six hours normally entitles you to an uninterrupted 20-minute break during the day. Workers also generally get 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave. Young workers and some jobs have different rules; lawful exceptions can require compensatory rest.

For example, if you finish at 8pm, the normal 11-hour daily-rest rule means you should not start again before 7am. A 48-hour opt-out does not waive rest-break or holiday rights. Keep screenshots of rosters that appear to breach them and raise the problem promptly. See GOV.UK’s rest-break guidance and our working-time guide.

There is no general statutory right to disconnect in UK law. The Employment Rights Act 2025 did not create one. Nor does faster software give you an automatic right to a shorter working week without a contract change. You can ask for different hours through the day-one right to request flexible working, withdraw a 48-hour opt-out with the required notice or raise a grievance about excessive demands. See the right to disconnect, flexible-working requests and AI approval of leave requests.

What to do if the algorithm acts against you

1. Save the evidence. After your shift, take a screenshot of the decision, score, rota or deactivation notice. Note the date and what happened. Keep payslips, contracts and messages somewhere you can access if your shifts disappear.
2. Ask for a human review. Write: “Was this a significant decision made solely by automated processing? Please give me the information and human review required by Article 22C.” Correct errors and ask what a reviewer actually considered.
3. Ask for your data. Request your scores, inputs, logs and recorded overrides through a subject access request. Separately ask for the selection criteria and fairness checks. Keep the advert or rejection if you applied for a job.
4. Get someone on your side. Contact your union: UNISON for care or health, USDAW for retail, GMB or Unite for warehouse and logistics work, or IWGB for app-based delivery. If you are not a member, Citizens Advice or a law centre can help you find advice. Raise a grievance or appeal, but do not let it use up your tribunal deadline. See AI and contract changes.
5. Start Acas early conciliation in time. For most GB claims about events on or after 1 October 2026, the limit is six months minus one day. Earlier events usually have three months minus one day. Interim relief after some dismissals, such as for whistleblowing, must be sought within seven days. Early conciliation affects the clock; a grievance or appeal does not. Check the exact limit with Acas and see how tribunal claims work.
6. Report the right problem. Report minimum-wage underpayment, including where unpaid training or rounded time pulls your pay below the minimum wage, to HMRC. In England and Wales, report serious labour exploitation to the Fair Work Agency, and report unsafe work to HSE or your council (HSENI or your council in Northern Ireland). For discrimination, get advice from the Equality Advisory and Support Service in Great Britain, or the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. For unlawful data use, you can complain to the employer (the data controller) and to the Information Commission, which took over from the ICO on 30 September 2026. For the same minimum-wage issue, Acas says you must choose either a tribunal claim or an HMRC complaint, not both.

How long do you have?

For most GB claims concerning events on or after 1 October 2026, the deadline is six months minus one day. For earlier events, most claims still have three months minus one day. Statutory redundancy pay and equal pay already had longer limits. Scotland’s breach-of-contract limit changes on 9 November 2026. Check the Acas time-limit guidance for your claim.

What is still to come?

The January 2027 dismissal reforms and later guaranteed-hours rights are scheduled changes, not current entitlements. Flexible-working and business-wide collective-consultation changes are also planned for 2027. Future dates remain subject to implementation. Follow the Employment Rights Act reform guide.

Questions people ask

Do I have to consent to facial-recognition clock-in?

No. Consent must be freely given and withdrawable. An employer using another basis still needs both a lawful basis and a special-category condition, with necessity and proportionality. Ask for an alternative.

An AI rejected my application. Can I challenge it?

A significant, solely automated rejection triggers Article 22C safeguards. Applicants also have discrimination protection without qualifying service. A low score alone does not prove bias; keep evidence of the criteria and assessment.

Does redundancy pay apply if AI replaces my role?

Normally yes if you are an employee with two years’ continuous service, dismissed for redundancy. The scheduled six-month unfair-dismissal qualification does not reduce redundancy pay’s two-year requirement.

Can I refuse night shifts assigned by an app?

Using an app does not itself let you refuse a contractual shift. Working-time, safety, equality and contract rights still apply. Raise missing rest rather than assuming a blanket refusal is protected.

Sources

1. Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, section 80: UK GDPR Articles 22A to 22D and commencement, legislation.gov.uk
2. Data (Use and Access) Act commencement plans, GOV.UK
3. Employment Rights Act 2025, legislation.gov.uk
4. Employment Rights Act implementation timetable, updated 25 September 2026, GOV.UK
5. Employment tribunal time limits, updated 1 October 2026, Acas
6. Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026, legislation.gov.uk
7. Explaining your redundancy payments, GOV.UK
8. Redundancy consultations, GOV.UK
9. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 98: fairness of dismissal, legislation.gov.uk
10. Monitoring workers guidance, ICO
11. Serco Leisure biometric-monitoring enforcement announcement, 23 February 2024, ICO
12. Equality Act 2010, legislation.gov.uk
13. Working Time Regulations 1998, legislation.gov.uk
14. Rest breaks at work, GOV.UK
15. Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, legislation.gov.uk
16. Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order (Northern Ireland) 2026, legislation.gov.uk
17. National Minimum Wage Naming Round 22 educational bulletin, 17 October 2025, HMRC
18. Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, October to December 2025, Ministry of Justice