Governing workplace AI: Normative tensions between the AI Act and labour law

Abstract

AI is increasingly deployed in hiring, scheduling, performance monitoring, and disciplinary processes. These are areas marked by vulnerability and the need for legal protection. Yet, the AI Act provides a horizontal approach to AI regulation, not specifically attuned to employment. It treats the use of AI in the workplace as just one of the high-risk areas, governed through technical safeguards without recalibrating for the normative and institutional functions of labour law. This chapter examines these tensions by analysing how the AI Act interacts with key labour law principles and related legal instruments such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Platform Work Directive (PWD), and the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU). Central to the analysis is the question: can a regulation built on risk-tiered, labour law-neutral compliance sufficiently safeguard workers’ rights in unequal employment settings? The chapter argues that AI governance risks bypassing labour law’s protective function unless explicitly anchored in rights-based frameworks.