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.
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Airbus, the France-based multinational aviation company, has announced that it will cut 500 agency jobs in its wing factories in Broughton, Wales, where the majority of redundancies will take place, and in Filton, England.
A spokesperson for the company said that Airbus had to reduce production and its “contingent workforce” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trade union Unite said that it was planning to challenge the redundancies, arguing that the agency staff should have been placed on temporary paid leave under the UK government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, similarly to the ‘core’ employees of Airbus. According to the statement issued by Unite, the affected workers had been working for Airbus for several years in production and production-support, however, they had been kept on temporary contracts.
Airbus is the world's largest airliner manufacturer. In the UK, the company employs 13,500 people at 25 sites.
Update 01/07/2020:
Airbus has announced plans to dismiss 1,700 employees, with two thirds of the cuts taking place in Broughton and the remaining ones in Filton. The planned cuts are expected to be completed by summer 2021. The total number of job losses is now at 2,200.
Eurofound (2020), Airbus, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 101070, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101070.