As part of the consultations led by Legislative Assembly of Ontario Standing Committee on Social Policy on Bill 149, Dr. Teresa Scassa submitted to the committee her thoughts on the provisions concerning the use of AI in hiring.
The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has become a widespread trend in the workplace. These devices are applied both in recruitment and hiring processes, and in performance monitoring and analysis.
The proposed amendment to section 8.4 aims to adjust the Employment Standards Act by adding a requirement for employers to give prior notice of the use of artificial intelligence in the process of selecting, evaluating or choosing candidates for a publicly advertised position.
As part of the changes proposed by Bill 149, Dr. Teresa Scassa offers her comments to the Ontario legislator, highlighting points that she believes are non-negligible when it comes to the use of AI. She advises paying attention to existing biases in the use of AI, which are likely to cause discrimination and inclusion failures that are important to consider. In these comments, she also shares some concrete recommendations on how Bill 149 should be amended to take into account all the consequences that the deployment of AI could have on the lives of workers.
Dr. Teresa Scassa's comments are available here.
Dr. Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy, a Full Professor inthe Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, and a Faculty member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa.