Protection Against the Risks and Abuses of Algorithmic Management in the European Legal System: The Need for an Integrated Approach

The essay, after analysing the risks of algorithmic management to workers’ fundamental rights, examines the protections available within the European legal framework. It provides an integrated analysis of three regulatory areas that can be invoked against algorithmic opacity: data protection, anti-discrimination laws, and algorithmic transparency. This integrated approach leads to the conclusion that European social law offers important tools to counteract abuses of algorithmic power. However, there are areas of uncertainty which must be addressed by general recognition of the rights to algorithmic transparency, explicability, and understanding which must be granted to workers and their representatives.