Stephen Murphy
People working from home could have to accept technology tracking the number of mouse clicks they make and time spent on social media.
That's the warning from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which wants clear guidance for how bosses can use surveillance.
Working from home is something a lot of us have had to get used to over the last year, but there's concern about bosses turning to artificial intelligence technology to check up on their employees.
That includes tools that count the number of mouse clicks, keyboard taps or time spent on social media.
"There's also informal practices where workers are being required to leave their laptop camera on and microphone on so supervisors can spontaneously check-in" says Dr Laura Bambrick from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Neil McDonnell from business group ISME says it's nothing new:
"Monitoring always took place in one form or another in the workplace, whether it was looking at email activity or task lists - self-reporting and so on."
ICTU is worried the tools could be used to decide who gets a bonus or let go from a company.
It's urged the government to come up with clear guidance so employers can monitor people's work - but not in a way that's invasive.
