What your employer can do with AI — and what they cannot
AI is transforming workplaces across every industry and every country. Employers are using AI to screen job applicants, monitor productivity, score customer service calls, schedule shifts, assess performance, and in some cases decide who gets promoted or made redundant. Much of this is legal. But there are important limits — and knowing them is essential for protecting yourself professionally.
This guide covers the rights that matter most for employees across Australia, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The rules differ by jurisdiction, but the underlying themes are consistent: you have a right to transparency about how AI is used in decisions about you, a right to have a human review significant decisions, and a right not to be discriminated against because of how an algorithm categorised you.
Your rights in the European Union
The EU's GDPR gives you some of the strongest workplace AI rights in the world. Article 22 of GDPR gives you the right not to be subject to decisions that are based solely on automated processing and that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you. Employment decisions — performance ratings that affect pay, redundancy decisions, access to training and development — can meet this threshold.
What this means in practice: if an AI system is the primary or only basis for a decision about your employment, your employer must give you meaningful information about the logic involved; provide you with the right to request human intervention; allow you to express your point of view; and give you the right to contest the decision. This is not just a right to be told "the AI rated you low" — it is a right to understand what factors went into that rating and to have a human actually review your case.
EU AI Act from August 2026 adds additional transparency: employers who use AI in employment contexts that qualify as high-risk (which includes employee management and work allocation in Annex III) must be able to explain their AI systems and must ensure meaningful human oversight of AI-influenced decisions.
Your rights in Australia
Australian workers have a set of interlocking protections. The Fair Work Act requires employers to consult you before making major workplace changes driven by AI — significant changes to how your job is done, how your performance is measured, or how your schedule is determined must be communicated to you in advance, with a genuine opportunity to provide input. The AI Safety Institute framework and AI6 guidance both emphasise that AI affecting employment decisions should have contestability mechanisms — a formal right for you to raise concerns about AI-influenced decisions affecting your work.
The Privacy Act gives you the right to access personal information your employer holds about you, including data collected through AI monitoring systems. If your employer uses a productivity monitoring system that generates data about your work patterns, you can request access to that data. If it is inaccurate, you can request correction. From December 2026, employers' privacy policies must specifically address how AI uses your personal information — and many current policies do not.
Your rights in the United States
The US has no federal law specifically governing workplace AI, but existing anti-discrimination laws apply fully. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act all prohibit employment discrimination — and courts and the EEOC have made clear that AI-produced discrimination is unlawful regardless of whether it was intentional. If an AI hiring screen systematically excludes Black candidates, older applicants, or workers with disabilities, those employers have violated federal civil rights law even if the discrimination was an unintended consequence of algorithmic design.
Several states and cities have additional protections. New York City's Local Law 144 requires employers using automated employment decision tools for NYC job candidates to conduct annual bias audits and notify candidates of AI use. Illinois's AI Video Interview Act requires employers to notify candidates before using AI in video interview analysis. Colorado's AI Act (effective June 2026) requires impact assessments for high-risk AI in employment. If you are applying for jobs or working in these jurisdictions, you have specific rights to know when AI is being used in your assessment.
In any jurisdiction: what to do if you think AI harmed you at work
If you believe an AI system led to an unfair decision about your employment, your first step is to request a human review. In most jurisdictions, you have at least the right to ask that a human being look at your case. Document your request in writing. Ask for the specific factors that contributed to any adverse decision, and ask what human oversight was applied to the AI recommendation. Keep records of your request and any responses. If you believe discrimination was involved, contact the relevant employment regulator: the EEOC in the US, Fair Work Ombudsman in Australia, an employment tribunal in the UK, or your national data protection authority in the EU if the discrimination involved misuse of your personal data.
