New Zealand workers say they were forced to ‘defecate in distribution aisles’ after bathroom breaks tracked by AI

Résumé détaillé

Employees stage protest demanding guarantees for future

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Workers at New Zealand's largest retailer said they were forced to defecate in the distribution aisles due to their bathroom breaks being monitored by artificial intelligence.

More than 300 workers at The Warehouse Group's distribution centres in Auckland and Christchurch staged protests this week over fears of major redundancies and employee privacy due to AI surveillance.

The Workers First Union alleged that there have been instances of staff urinating and defecating in distribution aisles due to their breaks being tracked by AI.

These claims were rejected by the Warehouse Group, which argued that "this has never happened".

Workers told public broadcaster RNZ that they feel they're being treated second-best to robots and feared for their future.

"Do I look like a robot? No. I don't," said one worker who has been working at a distribution centre for 23 years. "We are here to protest about these things [because it should be a human doing] the job, not a robot job."

Union organiser Hayley Courtney said having managers follow people to the toilet and "telling them off for a fundamental right is absolutely ludicrous". Ms Courtney said she had been fighting the issue for eight months.

Ms Courtney said workers were not resisting technological advances to improve efficiency, but wanted assurances about their future.

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