The commitments CAWS holds itself to, and what it means by the words it uses.
A world where no AI system is deployed in a workplace without workers having the knowledge to evaluate it, the standing to challenge it, and the power to change it. And where that standard is reflected in law, in collective agreements, and in the practice of every employer and institution that touches working people's lives.
The people doing the work decide what matters, and no finding is treated as final until workers have reviewed it.
It is unaffiliated and available to any workforce, union or not, and its findings and resources are its own, offered for the common good.
These systems can create new hazards for the people working under them. Accountability for those hazards sits with the people who build and deploy the systems, not the workers who carry them.
Findings are reported only in aggregate, and no worker is identified to their employer or exposed for taking part.
It equips workers to weigh the risks and the benefits on their own terms, and to set the safety and governance rules needed to protect their health, safety, and livelihoods.
Anyone whose work is directed, monitored, measured, or evaluated by an AI or algorithmic system, whatever their sector, title, or employment arrangement.
AI is a broad field, and CAWS does not take a position on it in the abstract. What CAWS works on is concrete. The specific systems that make or shape decisions at work. The scanner that sets the pace, the scheduler that assigns the hours, the score that flags someone for review, the camera that watches the floor, the model that recommends who gets hired or disciplined. These are the tangible things a workplace can examine, question, and make safer. Not every one is called AI, and the label matters less than what the system decides.
The basic terms of being treated as a person at work when an AI or algorithmic system is involved in decisions about you. CAWS names these terms as:
If any of this maps to what you are seeing where you work, get in touch.