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.
Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Martin & Servera Logistik, an affiliate of Swedish restaurant and catering company Martin & Servera, has announced its plan to dismiss up to 250 workers, employed at the four company's logistics centres in Sweden. In Umeå, they will cut down a maximum of 30 jobs, in Enköping a maximum of 45 jobs. The most significant dismissals will take place in Norrköping where a maximum of 97 jobs may be cut, and in Halmstad where a maximum of 78 employees will lose their jobs.
According to Martin & Servera, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on their business activity. According to the company, they have used the possibility temporarily provided by the Swedish state to cut down employees’ working hours. The company estimates that the COVID-19 crisis will have long-term effects on demand for their products and argues that these dismissals are a way to adapt their business activity to a situation where it is no longer possible to cut-down employees' working hours.
Eurofound (2020), Martin & Servera Logistik, Internal restructuring in Sweden, factsheet number 100805, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/100805.