Woolworths workers have claimed victory over AI surveillance and automation following a 17-day strike that cost the supermarket giant $140 million.

More than 1,500 employees at three Woolworths distribution centres in Victoria and one in New South Wales went on strike on 21 November, in part over an algorithmic management platform imposed on them that used AI and automation to impose strict goals for their work.

The strike led to shelves at Woolworths being left empty across the two states, and the company has now said that it had cost the company $140 million.

The issue stems from the use of a worker performance management program at these warehouses, dubbed the “Framework”.

According to the United Workers Union (UWU), this platform is based on digital surveillance and has led to a sharp uptick in automation and digital surveillance in the workplace.

Based on the calculated standard times it supposedly takes for a certain warehouse task to be completed, the Framework imposed a “pick rate” on workers, who face disciplinary action if they do not meet this 100 per cent of the time.

The UWU also said that the Woolworths workers were required to wear headsets that monitor their productivity and assign them tasks across the workday.

UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy labelled this scheme as a “punitive productivity framework” that was leading workers to cut corners and work unsafely or face losing their jobs.

‘They have won’

After 17 days of the strike, the UWU and Woolworths agreed on a new enterprise agreement over the weekend that does away with the use of digital surveillance to punish workers for the speed of their work.

Kennedy labelled this a win for the workers over a company that was treating them like robots.

“They have challenged one of the most significant threats to worker safety and wellbeing as we enter a new AI-surveillance era of work. And they have won,” Kennedy said in a statement.

“Negotiations with the company finally saw real movement from Woolworths this week on its ‘Framework’, with a new clause to be added to workplace agreements that ensures that the workers will not be disciplined for the speed that they can work at, and an acknowledgement that not everybody can pick at 100 per cent.

“The new enterprise arrangement won by workers breaks the links between measuring the speed of their work and automatic punishment if they fall behind – a system that effectively attempted to treat Woolworths warehouse workers like robots.”

In a statement, Woolworth’s distribution arm Primary Connect denied that the “Framework” was creating safety risks.

“The framework being criticised by the union has been developed with safety as an inherent component,” a spokesperson for Primary Connect said.

“The measure of work which sits behind the framework has been developed based on the time it should take a person with reasonable skill, applying reasonable effort, working at a safe and conscientious pace, that can be maintained for the duration of a shift, to complete a task.”

The rise of workplace surveillance

The digital surveillance of workers has become an increasingly contested and controversial area in recent years.

The growing popularity of working from home has led many employers to attempt to find new ways to monitor their workers remotely and ensure they are still maintaining efficiency.

Tech giant Apple is currently facing a lawsuit alleging it is illegally surveilling its employees by snooping on their work and personal devices.

A New South Wales Parliamentary Committee in 2022 found that the state’s outdated laws are allowing “unchecked and unchallenged” employers unfettered use of surveillance and automation technologies, leaving workers stressed and sidelined.