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.
The Swedish clothing company H&M is going to cut about 1150 jobs in Sweden. Among them, 350 are employees. In addition to this, 800 consultants will also leave the company in the same period. The cut workers are mainly employed in the head office's central functions (100 employees and 800 consultants), business development and IT solutions departments.
The company argues that this decision has been taken in order to support the ongoing restructuring and digitalisation processes of the company. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic also play an important role – between March and May 2020 the sales of the company were 57% lower than same time last year and 80% of the H&M stores have been temporarily closed.
H&M, in addition, communicated that many of people who are leaving have worked at the company for a long time. In order to cushion the effects of the cuts, they have been offered compensation packages of up to twelve monthly salaries.
H&M is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company, with about 179,000 employees in 74 countries. It operates in the sector of fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children.
Eurofound (2020), H&M, Internal restructuring in Sweden, factsheet number 100614, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/100614.