Technology

Filipino digital workers launched a coalition to lobby for labor and free speech protections in the workplace as artificial intelligence is deployed. The AI tools raise new risks, and the firing of a worker who spoke to Rest of World in November signals an industrywide “code of silence” around the impact of AI on the workplace, the group said.

“We call on the government for a proactive and inclusive policy-making, as workers face threats of job losses, diminishing wages, and other harms,” Lean Porquia, convenor of the coalition, said in a press statement. Porquia is also head of research for the BPO Industry Employees’ Network, an organization focused on the rights of business process outsourcing workers.

The Coalition of Digital Employees – Artificial Intelligence, or Code AI, was prompted by Rest of World reporting that led to investigations and the termination of a worker, Code AI members said at a press briefing in Manila. The report, published in November 2024, described advanced AI tools deployed by Concentrix Corporation and Accenture — including AI co-pilots and sentiment analysis deployed for American Express and Meta, Facebook’s parent company — that made work both more efficient and demanding, according to the workers.