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 management of the Top Office shops (which belong to the Mulliez group), specialised in the sale of office furniture and supplies, has announced the closure of six sites in France. In total, according to the CGT union, 105 jobs will be cut,that is a third of the workforce.
The union CGT denounces the management which is using the pretext of the COVID-19 crisis to cut 105 positions ; to make the jobs of receptionist and cashier host disappear; to close six shops and reorganise the support services. The six shops concerned are those of Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis), Lampertheim (Bas-Rhin), Mérignac (Gironde), Portet-sur-Garonne (Haute-Garonne), Brest (Finistère) and Le Havre (Seine-Maritime). The interunion called on all the employees of the company to go on unlimited strike from 18 September onwards.
Eurofound (2020), Top Office, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 101890, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101890.