European Commission opens consultation on Quality Jobs Act including AI at work

The European Commission has opened a second-phase consultation with EU-level social partners on its proposed Quality Jobs Act and has placed algorithmic management and AI at work among the law's priorities. The Commission is explicitly seeking views on measures to make automated decisions more transparent, ensure they remain human-centred and protect employees from excessive monitoring.

The consultation was launched on 20 July 2026 and runs until 28 September 2026. It follows an earlier engagement phase and asks social partners — European-level employer and worker organisations — to provide detailed input on a package of proposals that could be turned into a legislative initiative later this year. The Commission's online notice lists algorithmic management, worker surveillance and automated decision‑making as topics for which it wants concrete proposals and examples.

By naming algorithmic management and AI at work as priorities, the consultation elevates issues that have already drawn regulators' attention. Employers' growing use of algorithmic scheduling, productivity scoring and automated screening has prompted legal scrutiny and union pushback across the bloc. The Commission said it is looking for "views on possible measures to increase transparency of automated decision‑making systems, strengthen human oversight and protect workers from excessive monitoring practices," language that signals an intention to address both procedural protections and limits on surveillance intensity.

The Quality Jobs Act is framed by Brussels as a cross‑cutting effort to improve job quality, covering pay, working time, social dialogue and work organisation; the AI and algorithmic elements sit alongside more familiar labour policy questions. The Commission's approach mirrors the twin regulatory strands emerging at EU level: sectoral labour interventions and a separate digital rulebook for AI. The bloc's wider AI regulatory architecture — notably the AI Act and related guidance on trustworthy AI — has already established risk‑based obligations for high‑risk systems, and the consultation suggests Brussels is preparing tailored employer‑facing rules that address workplace-specific harms.

EU‑level social partners will be able to shape what obligations and safeguards are proposed. The Commission asks for evidence on how automated systems are used in recruitment, performance management and rostering, and on the practical impact of transparency, explanation and human‑in‑the‑loop requirements for workers and HR teams. It also requests examples of existing collective bargaining or company‑level arrangements that govern algorithmic tools, indicating Brussels wants to build on social dialogue where possible.

The consultation notice does not set out detailed legal texts, penalties, or a timeline for adoption beyond the suggestion that work could feed into a legislative proposal later in 2026. It also gives little detail on enforcement mechanisms — for example, whether oversight would be handled by labour inspectors, data protection authorities or new bodies — and it does not specify mandatory requirements for auditing or third‑party certification of workplace AI. Those omissions leave open key questions that social partners are expected to address during the next two months.

For HR leaders, the move signals that algorithmic workforce tools are likely to face firmer European regulation and that employers should prepare to document uses of automated decision‑making, engage with workers and trade unions, and review monitoring practices. How prescriptive the final act becomes will depend on the consultation responses and on political agreement in Brussels, but the Commission's explicit focus on transparency, human oversight and protection from excessive monitoring establishes the priorities that will shape debate over the rest of 2026 and into the legislative process.