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 National Trust, the charity which manages historic locations and areas of natural beauty in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has announced that it will cut 1,200 jobs. The cuts are part of a plan to save GBP100 million (€110 million as at 14 September 2020), almost a fifth of its annual expenditure, to compensate for the loss of income caused by the COVID-19 crisis. The redundancy consultations with the affected employees and the Prospect trade union have already started.
The Trust’s director general said the restructuring is intended to make the organisation 'sustainable in the future' and the focus is on becoming carbon net zero by 2030.
A representative of Prospect warned that 'Once jobs are lost [...] it is very hard to recover them'.
The Trust was founded in 1895. It holds country houses and estates but also smaller houses associated with famous people, for example the childhood home of John Lennon.
Update 8/10/2020:
The National Trust has confirmed a total of 1,296 job cuts: 514 jobs will be cut in a compulsory redundancy process and 782 employees will take voluntary redundancies. The compulsory redundancies include 62 hourly-paid roles, while the voluntary redundancies include 146 hourly-paid roles.
Eurofound (2020), National Trust, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 101815, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101815.