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.
SSP Group, the UK-based multinational food and drinks company has announced a reorganisation plan that is expected to lead to 5,000 redundancies to save costs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The vast majority of the redundancies will take place in the UK, and it will affect both the company's outlets and the head office.
At the basis of the internal restructuring there is the strong impact of the health crisis on the company's business: between April and May the SSP's global sales resulted 95% below the previous year, and the company expect to reopen, in autumn, only 20% of its 580 UK sites. SSP Group’s chief executive said jobs in the UK were affected particularly strongly because the travel industry had been slower to recover from the first wave of the pandemic and government support to businesses was more limited than in other countries.
The SSP Group owns several brands, including Upper Crust, Caffè Ritazza and Camden Food Company and runs 580 food and drink outlets across the UK. It operates in 35 countries around the world, focusing on railway stations and airports.
Eurofound (2020), SSP Group, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 101391, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101391.