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 CIECH Group, the second largest producer of sodium carbonate in Europe and the largest Polish manufacturer of plant protection products (PPPs) and salt, has announced plans to close its plant in Govora (Valcea County) by the end of 2020. The scheme for collective redundancies was outlined in late March and almost 500 employees will voluntarily depart.
CIECH Soda, the Romanian subsidiary of the group, announced that amid economic uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic and due to unsuccessful negotiations on the resumption of industrial steam supplies to the plant, it had to complete the voluntary departure programme on 1 April. The company announced that of 600 employees, 100 employees responsible for the production of sodium silicates, as well as for maintenance of the production plant would be kept.
The Govora plant was taken over by the Polish Group in 2006.
The CIECH Group, founded in Lodz in 1945, is one of the biggest companies in the chemical industry at European level.
The group has eight plants in Poland, Romania and Germany, with a workforce of 3,700.
Eurofound (2020), CIECH Soda Romania, Internal restructuring in Romania, factsheet number 101066, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101066.