Ethics in the digital workplace
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
Virgin Media, the UK-based telephone, television and internet services provider has announced that it is creating up to 500 new customer support positions in Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Teesside. The new jobs include an unspecified number of permanent and fixed-term positions.
This business expansion is a response to the Covid-19 pandemic: the company is ‘on-shoring’ jobs that were outsourced to call centres in India and the Philippines and are now affected by the ‘lockdown’ in these countries.
A representative of Virgin Media said that the company had introduced various safety measures, such as better cleaning and spacing out desks to protect staff working in call centres.
Eurofound (2020), Virgin Media, Business expansion in United Kingdom, factsheet number 100213, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/100213.