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.
Global supplier of automotive systems and components, ZF announced that it will cut its employment throug a collective dismissal programme at its production facility in Częstochowa, Poland. The dismissal will affect 317 jobs, including 203 in the production division. The programme, related to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be negotiated with the local trade unions and carried out in the third quarter of 2020.
ZF has 260 production units in 41 countries and employs over 147,700 people worldwide. In Poland, ZF operates in 6 locations (Bielsko-Biała, Czechiwice-Dziedzice, Częstochowa, Gliwice, Łódź and Warsaw) employing over 7,800 people. In Częstochowa, the company has been operating since 1990; the Częstochowa factory produces locks for seat belts. Previous restructuring programmes in recent years involved business expansion and took place in 2017 (150 jobs created), 2016 (180 jobs created) and 2019 (200 jobs created).
Eurofound (2020), ZF, Internal restructuring in Poland, factsheet number 100919, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/100919.