"Profiling the Unemployed in Poland" – report

In October 2015 we published a report on “Profiling the Unemployed in Poland: Social and Political Implications of Algorithmic Decision Making”. The report focused on the lack of transparency and discriminating character of profiling assistance for the unemployed in Poland, introduced by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy in May 2015.

By dividing people into three categories by their “readiness” to work, the place they live, disabilities and other data the system’s default criteria of profiling assistance are leading to discrimination. In our report, we formulated recommendations, how to amend the system to respect fundamental rights.

First of all, more transparency should be provided, to ensure that people seeking help of the labor offices are assisted according to the fair and transparent criteria. The regulations should be based on the common law, not just internal regulations Any terms based on stereotypes – therefore leading to social exclusion – should be reformulated. Secondly, the unemployed should be granted possibility to appeal from the result of the categorization.

The report was based on statistics from 100 labor offices and interviews with both public officials and the unemployed.