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 Commercial Court of Paris has approved the acquisition of the shoe store chain 'La Halle', which has been in receivership since 2 June, to the Beaumanoir Group. The operation entails 2,200 redundancies, including the 289 employees of the Issoudun warehouse (Indre). Beaumanoir Group takes over 366 stores and 2,520 employees of the clothing chain, which operates 820 stores in France. The Commercial Court also chose to associate the Beaumanoir group with two other candidates: Chaussea, which proposed the takeover of 181 stores and 1,031 jobs, and SuperChauss'34, interested in 23 outlets, that is 150 employees. The first finally acquired 128 stores, while the second got 14. According to the documents published in the court's decision, nearly 3,300 jobs were preserved thanks to these three takeovers.
The Beaumanoir Group, which was the best-selling of the 25 candidates for the takeover, has obtained the support of the government, in particular by obtaining a state-guaranteed loan. The €41 million loan is intended to enable Beaumanoir to finance the takeover, future collections and the brand's recovery plan. In all, the group, which already employs 13,600 people worldwide, says it wants to invest €60 million in La Halle.
Eurofound (2020), La Halle aux chaussures, Merger/Acquisition in France, factsheet number 101317, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101317.