Telecom workers are urging the government to impose limits on the application of artificial intelligence in the industry, expressing concerns that AI is utilized to oversee employees and alter the accents of call center staff from overseas. The Canadian Telecommunications Workers Alliance raised these issues on April 30 during a session with the House of Commons’ standing committee on industry and technology in Ottawa.
Representing 32,000 workers in Canada’s telecom sector, including employees at Bell, Rogers, and Telus, the alliance, which encompasses major unions such as Unifor, the United Steelworkers union, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, outlined their worries about AI. Unifor’s telecommunications sector director, Roch Leblanc, mentioned that at least one company was using AI to disguise the accents of offshore agents, potentially misleading customers into thinking they were interacting with Canadian-based staff.
Leblanc disclosed that around 20,000 jobs in the telecom industry had been lost in the past decade due to automation and offshoring, with fears that AI could expedite this decline. He highlighted the advanced use of AI in telecom, including monitoring workers by tracking their movements and task durations. Additionally, AI is employed to analyze call center conversations to redirect calls or detect sales-related patterns.
Advocating for governmental restrictions on AI-based monitoring, Leblanc emphasized the negative impact on workers’ mental well-being and workloads. The alliance also stressed the need for a permanent federal working group on AI to ensure collaborative oversight of AI implementation by the government, industry, and civil society.
Nathalie Blais, a research advisor with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, emphasized the potential invasiveness of AI and called for its responsible use to benefit society rather than mislead individuals or displace jobs. The alliance further demanded enhanced safeguards for workers’ job security, rights, and the protection of Canadians’ data.
In response, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon assured that the forthcoming national AI strategy from the federal government will address the impacts on the labor market.
