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.
As announced on 19 November 2020, the German steel and engineering company ThyssenKrupp will be cutting approximately 6,000 jobs in Germany due to internal restructuring. While ThyssenKrupp had announced a job reduction programme of 6,000 cuts worldwide last year, the current COVID-19 crisis has intensified the company’s financial losses. The steel section had a loss of €2.8 billion in 2020. The company now plans 11,000 cuts worldwide (6,000 of them in Germany). The job cuts will mainly take place in the steel sector of ThyssenKrupp as the elevator sector continues to be the company’s financial saviour and is heavily profitable. Management, trade union and works’ council will start negotiations shortly. As of today, management expects that there will also be operational terminations. Furthermore, there is no information on the location of job cuts available.
ThyssenKrupp has 103,000 employees worldwide.
Eurofound (2020), ThyssenKrupp, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 102598, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/102598.