Alysia Blackham

Great Ormond Street hospital cleaners win racial discrimination appeal Claim by 80 workers that they were subjected to ‘indirect race discrimination’ by wait for NHS pay terms upheld

Employment Appeal Tribunal rules that Great Ormond Street Hospital indirectly discriminated against 80 black and minority ethnic cleaners because of the delay they experienced in obtaining NHS pay and benefits after their services were brought in house in 2021 www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Detailed job postings data do not show a dip around the launch of ChatGPT; rate hikes earlier in 2022 are the more likely culprit Job postings volume for junior and senior positions

‘Our analysis of job postings data from the US, UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands shows no clear evidence that AI is behind the slowdown in early-career employment across much of the west’ @jburnmurdoch.ft.com @sarahoconnorft.ft.com
www.ft.com/content/7fbc...

The headline 'Employment Appeal Tribunal Allows Challenge to Strict Time Limits in Seasonal Migrant Workers’ Exploitation Claims,' a picture of a woman with a microphone surrounded by other people, and further wording that can be viewed at https://www.ier.org.uk/news/employment-appeal-tribunal-allows-challenge-to-strict-time-limits-in-seasonal-migrant-workers-exploitation-claims/

The EAT has allowed an appeal by Latin American seasonal farm workers to proceed, after it was struck out for missing a tribunal deadline. The workers, supported by @uvwunion.bsky.social , argued it is unjust and irrational to expect undocumented workers in crisis to navigate complex legal systems

UTS is hiring! Great faculty, great city. All teaching areas with particular interest in land law, commercial law, civil procedure, Indigenous legal relations.

recruitment.uts.edu.au/OA_HTML/OA.j...

Significant detail in the government's #child #poverty strategy: section 1 of the #Equality Act (2010), the socio-economic duty, will be commenced and public authorities will have to consider the impact of their #policies on poverty and #inequality.

Could be transformational?

UWA Law School is hiring! Lvl B is only open to applicants with working rights in #AUS. Applications close 3 December 2025. Start date negotiable. (I encourage #intLaw people to apply! Ping @anzsil.org) #jobs #jobFairy #academia #lecturer #higherEd external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/52...

This is great to see, but should apply to all grounds of discrimination - not just sexual harassment. Regulating just one area is going to create a mess.

More than *anything* the people who actually know how technology works, who actually build things, wish that people would treat LLMs like every other technology, and be normal about them. Don't build a religion about them, don't force them on people, don't ignore the problems. Just be normal.

“most of the studies [conducted] find that the industry- and economy-wide productivity gains that have been promised by AI companies are not happening.”

This is a serious breach of privacy. Yet employee records have limited protection under federal privacy law. We urgently need legal change to better protect employee privacy.

dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

I haven't fully read this yet but it contains a wonderful heading: "Maching Yearning for a Better Present"

SafeWork NSW orders UTS to pause job cuts due to risk of ‘psychological harm’ Union labels intervention a ‘rare and damning rebuke’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has been forced to pause a plan to slash hundreds of jobs after a rare intervention by SafeWork NSW, which said workers would be subject to a “serious and imminent risk of psychological harm” if management pushed ahead. Under the ruling, UTS cancelled all meetings scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday with around 800 impacted staff and paused the release of its change proposal, which was to be rolled out this week. Continue reading...

SafeWork NSW orders UTS to pause job cuts due to risk of ‘psychological harm’

Deloitte report suspected of AI invented quote from robo-debt case Academics have rejected the consultancy’s explanation of previous mistakes, as the discovery adds to suspicions about the use of artificial intelligence.

It gets worse. The Deloitte report suspected of using AI contains a fake quote and erroneous citations to one of the leading cases on Robodebt.
www.afr.com//companies/p...

I've been reading the court docs and it is incredibly upsetting reading. Absolutely awful.

Commonwealth Bank backtracks on AI job cuts, apologises for 'error' CBA has apologised to 45 affected employees after finding customer service roles were not redundant despite introducing an AI-powered "voice-bot", but the union says the damage is done.

CBA has apologised to 45 affected employees after finding customer service roles were not redundant despite introducing an AI-powered "voice-bot", but the union says the damage is done.

I dug into this in the Alternative Law Journal, and trials of the four day work week are absolutely worth expanding in Australia if we want to boost productivity.

doi.org/10.1177/1037...

If Ted Chiang, a truly superb creative writer (also; a background in compsci), is happy using the gym robot analogy to explain why using chatbots at university is antithetical to the purpose you're paying money and forgoing paid work to be there then I'm fortified in my view it's a good one.

AI tools used by English councils downplay women’s health issues, study finds Exclusive: LSE research finds risk of gender bias in care decisions made based on AI summaries of case notes

In the 'things that could go wrong with genAI that could have been predicted and yet are still happening' camp... AI facilitates medical sexism/gendered health(non)care

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The False Neutrality of Trump’s ‘Woke-Free’ AI Plan | TechPolicy.Press A “woke-free” AI plan is not neutral; it is a blueprint for perpetuating the inequities the US has long struggled to overcome, writes Danielle A. Davis.

"An algorithm instructed to ignore race and gender is not unbiased; it silently reproduces existing patterns of discrimination while labeling those patterns as “truth.”"
www.techpolicy.press/the-false-ne...

Excellent thread.

Firm-level adoption of AI and automation technologies: Case Studies Report - IFOW What is happening on the ground in UK firms as they adopt AI and automation technologies?

Our firm-level work not only surveyed 1000 UK firms about tech adoption, but also did 12 in-depth case studies of AI and automation, with hundreds of hours of interviews with workers about the impact of these tools on the quality of their work, and on their wellbeing.

Champion of truth-telling Sue-Anne Hunter appointed Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People The federal government has appointed Australia's first permanent National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.

The federal government has appointed Australia's first permanent National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.

I spent seven years writing a book on this and she just… said it in three succinct paragraphs to politico.

BREAKING: The EU Commission has released a mandatory template for AI developers to disclose training data. Unlike the Code of Practice, this is not optional. It could have global fallout, as rights holders abroad might use it to sue over copyright.
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e...

Totally coincidentally, this from me yesterday: “A four-day week could help Australia’s economy” on Pursuit

pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-f...

I argue that the four-day work week should prompt us to reconsider what ‘full-time’ work entails. It should be seriously pursued by governments, policy-makers, employers, employees and unions.

Productivity and the four-day work week - Alysia Blackham, 2025 Australia faces declining productivity growth, which risks affecting national prosperity. This article considers whether adopting a four-day work week in Austra...

Just published, open access, in the Alternative Law Journal: 'Productivity and the four-day work week'

I consider whether adopting a four-day work week in Australian labour law could boost labour productivity, drawing on existing trials in Australia and internationally.

doi.org/10.1177/1037...

Our article "Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work" has been published by 'Work, Employment and Society'. With Nick Martindale and @brendanburchell.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1177/0950...

Reproductive Justice PhD Scholarship Opportunity 2025 A new scholarship is being offered to research topics relevant to reproductive justice.

Expressions of Interest have opened for a new PhD scholarship in partnership with the Reproductive Justice Hallmark Research Initiative – please share!
socialequity.unimelb.edu.au/news/latest/...

#AcademicSky #ReproductiveJustice #UniMelb

Researchers created a chatbot to help teach a university law class – but the AI kept messing up Researchers developed an educational chatbot to help law students and save time. But the AI kept giving inaccurate, misleading and even incorrect feedback.

“Far from a time-saving silver bullet .… a tool promoted as labour-saving demands significant labour”

Can chatbots aid law teaching? Probably not yet

theconversation.com/researchers-...