A leading union figure is urging employers to share the productivity gains from artificial intelligence with workers by moving toward a three-day working week. Sally McManus, secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), said the benefits of the technology should flow to employees as well as businesses, not just boost corporate profits.
Union Vision for AI Benefits
'The union movement is not saying AI is a terrible thing. It could be a really fantastic thing,' Ms McManus stated. 'We'd like that to happen for our country, and we'd like to see a time when jobs are more interesting, we can somehow tax those big companies, and we can share the benefits, and we can all be working a three-day working week.'
She also warned that companies need to consult with employees before introducing AI tools. 'The law says you need to consult people when you introduce a change that is going to have an impact on their skills and their future careers and what they're going to need into the future,' Ms McManus said. 'So you actually have to consult people when you introduce AI. Full stop.'
Government and Public Sentiment
Albanese government Assistant Minister for Technology Andrew Charlton said Australians are uncomfortable with technology being imposed on them rather than working for them. 'What Australians dislike is the feeling that technology is being done to them, rather than for them,' he said.
Mr Charlton warned that the benefits often flow offshore to a small number of large companies, while the downsides are felt locally. 'The benefits flow offshore to a handful of very large companies, while the costs, to their jobs, their privacy, their power bills and their neighbourhoods, land at home.'
Many Australians share that concern, with growing scepticism that businesses adopting AI will use it to replace workers and cut costs. A University of Melbourne and KPMG survey of more than 48,000 people across 47 countries found just 30 per cent of Australians believe the benefits of AI outweigh the risks.
Labour Market Impact
Those concerns are increasingly playing out in the labour market. As AI expands rapidly, major corporations around the world are restructuring workforces and investing billions into automation technologies.
In the United States, Goldman Sachs has predicted that by 2045, up to 50 per cent of jobs could be fully automated, potentially affecting around 300 million roles. In Australia, the shift is already being felt. In March, Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes made headlines after cutting more than 1,600 jobs, with AI cited as a key factor in the restructuring. Mr Cannon-Brookes said AI had impacted 'the mix of skills we need' and 'the number of roles required in certain areas'.
ASX-listed logistics software giant WiseTech Global has announced an AI-driven restructure to cut about 2,000 jobs, or one-third of its workforce, over a two-year period.
