Part 1: Free Speech and Digital ID Are Fundamentally Incompatible and Risk Workers’ Freedom

The government’s recent push for a mandatory digital identity system in the UK, often referred to as digital ID or “BritCard”, is being presented as modern, efficient and harmless.

In reality, it threatens core worker rights, particularly the freedom to speak out without fear of retaliation. Understanding how and why this matters is essential for workers across England.

Under the government’s plan, a digital ID stored on a smartphone would contain personal data such as name, date of birth, residency status and a photograph, with the potential for additional data to be added over time.

Once access to employment, housing, welfare or banking becomes dependent on this credential, enormous power is concentrated in the hands of government departments, employers and private-sector companies. This power extends far beyond identity verification and opens the door to behavioural monitoring, linked datasets and individual tracking.

Function creep and expanding surveillance

Digital ID systems with little transparency around data use or access create fertile ground for function creep, where an ID designed for verification gradually expands into surveillance, profiling and conditional access to essential services.

For workers across England, this has a clear chilling effect on free speech. If an employee raises concerns about unsafe conditions, unfair treatment or criticises workplace practices, and their identity is permanently tied to a government-controlled digital system, it becomes easier to intimidate, blacklist or penalise them.

This directly undermines the fundamental right to raise grievances, organise collectively and demand fair treatment at work.

Digital ID also makes people dependent on complex technology and centralised data systems that may fail, be misused or become insecure. Critics have warned that such systems risk turning the UK into a “checkpoint society”, embedding identity checks and surveillance into everyday life.

Workplace democracy under threat

Mandating digital ID risks granting both government and corporations unprecedented surveillance powers over workers’ lives. In the workplace, where openness, solidarity and collective action are essential, this represents a direct threat to workplace democracy.

The Workers of England Union is clear that a universal mandatory digital ID system undermines the ability of workers to speak up, organise, dissent and protect their employment rights.

Such systems do not strengthen freedom. They make it conditional.

Stephen Morris, General Secretary of the Workers of England Union, said:

“When your identity and your livelihood are tied to a government-controlled digital system, the right to speak becomes conditional. That is not freedom, it is control.”

Standing firm against digital control

Given these risks, the proposed digital ID system should be opposed. When technology threatens to replace employment rights and civil liberties, workers across England must stand firm.

In Part 2, the Workers of England Union will explore why workers should be deeply concerned about granting further control to the state, examining the historical reality of how British governments have treated organised labour.