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.
Michelin, the France-based global tyre manufacturer has announced that its factory in Dundee, Scotland will not reopen after a closure prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The closure makes 350 jobs redundant from 1 July 2020 – until then the affected employees continue to receive their full pay.
In 2018 Michelin announced plans to close the plant in 2020 and offered employment support to affected employees. The manager of the factory said that since the announcement 500 of the factory’s 850 workers had found new jobs.
An officer of Unite the Union said that they had been working with Michelin during the coronavirus outbreak.
The factory in Dundee opened in 1971 and it was the first Michelin factory in the world to start using wind energy with two wind turbine generators. Michelin's UK head office and truck tyre retreading factory in Stoke-on-Trent are not affected by the redundancies.
Eurofound (2020), Michelin Tyres, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 100238, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/100238.