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 world’s largest steelmaker Arcelor Mittal announced that it will close its steel mill in Kraków, Poland and relocate the production to the unit in Dąbrowa Górnicza. The process will begin in October 2020 and will take several weeks. The decision will result in 650 workers losing their jobs. However, the management emphasised that they would try to find employment for as many of the affected employees as possible.
The restructuring programme is associated with the COVID-19 pandemic which exacerbated an existing crisis in Europe’s steelmaking industry as well as increases in the price of raw materials and high prices of carbon dioxide emissions under the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme.
Arcelor Mittal is the largest steel producer in Poland, employing 11,000 people at six locations: Chorzów, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Kraków, Sosnowiec and Świętochłowice. In 2019, the company employed 1,200 people at the Kraków site.
Eurofound (2020), Arcelor Mittal, Relocation in Poland, factsheet number 102194, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/102194.