For EPSU, trade unions can get the best from the digital transformation if they have workers’ rights to informa­tion and consultation respected and collective bargaining genuinely applied. Digitalisation must be implemented through social dialogue and with the full involvement of workers and their representatives.

This is why EPSU is following closely the issues of digitalisation and the application of IA to workplaces. In September 2025, it urged the European Commission to prioritise public ownership of digital infrastructure and strong worker involvement while developing its new Apply Artificial Intelligence Strategy. This strategy focuses on public administrations, health, judiciary, and education. EPSU warns that “this plan would create cybersecurity and even national security risks without strong public ownership and worker involvement. Sensitive data from hospitals, schools and courts cannot simply be fed into systems run by private tech giants or stored on US-controlled clouds. EPSU calls then for “publicly owned digital infrastructure and democratically governed public clouds”.

USF supports EPSU’s Public Services Agenda, adopted in May 2025, in which EPSU urges European institutions to “guarantee algorithmic transparency in AI-driven public services” and to “regulate the use of AI at work in line with the EU Central Government Social Partner agreement on digitalisation”. EPSU argues that AI must strengthen public services, not replace public service workers. That means full implementation of the EU AI Act, strict protection of personal data, consultation and bargaining with workers over any AI deployment. Public service workers must shape how these tools are introduced, with time and training provided. More broadly, instead of handing essential services to private corporations and feeding them with public money, Europe must choose public investment, democratic control and digital sovereignty to ensure that AI serves people and planet, not profit.

EPSU welcomed the European Parliament report on digitalisation, artificial intelligence and algorithmic management in the workplace – shaping the future of work, adopted in December, which acknowledged the importance and urgency to regulate IA and called for a European legal framework. For EPSU, this framework would provide legal certainty and predictability and would be in line with Europe’s social model and workers’ fundamental rights, at a time when workers are impacted by the roll-out of artificial intelligence tools in the workplace.  Automated human resource programmes, including for dismissals, surveillance, and the use of algorithms to decide on work, over which workers have limited or no say, are already applied. For EPSU, if the European Commission promotes the use of AI through its Apply AI, it has done little to strengthen workers’ rights and employers’ obligations to go with this development. A number of employees have no confidence in their employers and their motives for the use of AI.

Along with EPSU, USF supports ETUC’s call on the Commission to include a Directive on AI at the workplace in its Quality Jobs Act proposal, which should respect inter alia “the importance of human authority over artificial intelligence”.

Back in November 2022, an agreement had been adopted between the European employers and the unions on digitalisation, telework, and AI at the place of work. Since then, the signatories have been seeking legislative action, in order to set common minimum standards, ensure equal treatment for all workers, and guarantee uniform enforcement across the EU. The implementation of the agreement has been delayed by the Commission, which has conditioned it upon completion of the consultation of social partners on telework and right to disconnect, in which EPSU took part actively.  Since this agreement has been approved, EPSU has been pushing for its implementation via a directive, which would be meaningful as the EU Apply AI Strategy targets public administrations, judiciaries, health and in general public services. EPSU issued its response after the European Commission published its second-phase consultation on telework and the right to disconnect in the fall of 2025.

USF agrees that this agreement would provide a strong basis for EU action on the right to disconnect, in particular a general right not to engage with work communications outside working time,        integration with occupational safety and health and working time frameworks. implementation through social dialogue with negotiated modalities, and enforcement mechanisms.

More generally, USF is following closely EPSU’s work on digitalisation and AI in the workplace at the EU level.

EPSU attended the February meeting of social partners in central government administrations in Brussels for their first meeting of the year. Among issues discussed was the (non) implementation of “the digitalisation agreement, which is still pending. It has been more than three years now. Following the questions of the social partners, the Commission confirmed that the implementation is now linked to the publication of the Quality Job Act, expected not before the end of 2026.”

Earlier in February, EPSU had joined a broad coalition calling on Members of the European Parliament, EU Member States and the European Commission to reject a proposed change in the AI Omnibus that would weaken a key transparency safeguard in the EU AI Act.

In February, EPSU also participated in the ETUI Future of Work Conference in Brussels, which brought together researchers, trade unionists, policymakers and practitioners from across Europe to explore how digitalisation and technological transformation are reshaping work, labour relations and regulatory frameworks. A key interdisciplinary forum, it highlights the implications of digital tools, artificial intelligence (AI) , and algorithmic management for job quality, collective rights, occupational health and safety, and social dialogue. A prominent theme was job quality and discussions underscored that AI and algorithmic management should be scrutinised for their effects on work conditions, career prospects, and worker wellbeing, emphasising the importance of worker voice, co-determination and regulatory pathways in managing AI at work.

At the end of February, EPSU had signed a joint letter with 28 other civil society organisations urging EU institutions to resist digital deregulation and to enforce existing rules that protect people’s rights, consumers, and fair competition. “The letter (..) warns that Europe’s growing dependence on a handful of dominant platforms leaves the digital backbone of society vulnerable.”

In November 2025, EPSU joined 126 civil society organisations, unions and public-interest groups urging the European Commission to rethink its forthcoming “Digital Omnibus”, as the proposals would reopen and weaken cornerstone laws such as the GDPR, the ePrivacy framework and the AI Act.

Read more on EPSU’s work on IA and digitalisation.