Class and Social Background Discrimination in the Modern Workplace: Mapping Inequality in the Digital Age

This book exposes how inequalities based on class and social background arise from employment practices in the digital age. It considers instances where social media is used in recruitment to infiltrate private lives and hide job advertisements based on locality; where algorithms assess socio-economic data to filter candidates; where human interviewers are replaced by artificial intelligence with design that disadvantages users of classed language; and where already vulnerable groups become victims of digitalisation and remote work.

The author examines whether these practices create risks of discrimination based on certain protected attributes, including ‘social origin’ in international labour law and laws in Australia and South Africa, ‘social condition’ and ‘family status’ in laws within Canada, and others. The book proposes essential law reform and improvements to workplace policy.

Angelo Capuano is a Lecturer in Law at Central Queensland University. His published work on discrimination law has been used in court and tribunal decisions in Australia and South Africa, including by the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Outside of academia, Angelo has years of practical experience as a government lawyer, court researcher and judge’s associate.