Article · AI translation
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IT Home reported on November 14 that, according to a report by the UK's The Independent on the 13th local time, employees of New Zealand's largest retailer, The Warehouse Group, have accused the company of using AI to monitor how long they spend in the bathroom, causing some employees to urinate and defecate in the aisles of its distribution centers.
This week, more than 300 employees at The Warehouse Group's distribution centers in Auckland and Christchurch held protests over concerns that AI monitoring infringes on their privacy and that the use of new technology could trigger large-scale layoffs.
Employees believe the company places even more importance on robots than on its staff, and they expressed concern about their job prospects. IT Home learned from the report that an employee who had worked at a distribution center for 23 years asked, "Do I look like a robot? Of course not. We're protesting because these jobs should be done by people, not robots."
Workers First union organizer Hayley Courtney stressed that employees do not oppose introducing new technology to improve efficiency; they simply want the company to protect their jobs in the future.
She said the company had introduced a "large robot" for picking orders and that AI-equipped drones had also replaced some workers who manually counted inventory. "AI has even started monitoring how long employees spend in the bathroom."
She also said some employees had held back from going to the bathroom until they had accidents. "We've found excrement on the floor. Things improved after I put a firm stop to it, but people really did have accidents on the floor. We don't know who they were or the exact circumstances. Being pushed to that point must be deeply embarrassing, and it happened several times."
The Warehouse Group denied the allegations and said it was shocked and outraged by the union's claim that employees had been forced to urinate and defecate in the workplace.
The group's chief people officer, Richard Parker, explained: "What we use is not at all the AI the union describes. It is technology that monitors work efficiency through scanning devices, which distribution centers around the world have used for decades. It has nothing to do with employees going to the bathroom."
Parker also denied that inventory-counting drones had cost employees their jobs: "In fact, we've added three temporary positions in this area. The drones have improved the accuracy of inventory counts and the customer experience, and they have also made distribution centers safer because employees no longer have to operate machinery to work at height every night. No employer can guarantee what jobs will look like in the future, but we will always consult with employees in line with our obligations and offer retraining and opportunities to move into other roles wherever possible."