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 SNCF railway company has announced a slight reduction in its workforce for 2020 and a further reduction in 2021 of around 1% to 2% of its workforce (amounting to 152,700 employees by end 2019). The workforce will therefore be reduced from about 1,527 to 3,054 positions. According to the SNCF's 'Bilan social 2019', 7,000 jobs were cut in three years, from 2017 to 2019. The workforce fell from around 159,700 at the end of 2017 to around 152,700 two years later. The reduction in the workforce is 'very moderate', according to the SNCF group's CEO, who explains that the company is trying to adjust the numbers by not replacing retirements to avoid redundancies. However, this does not mean that the company is not hiring: in 2020, the company recruited 3,700 people with permanent contracts (CDI) and 700 with 'contract d'alternance' to cover for posts left by retirees.
Previous reports announced several rounds of job expansions (2011-1, 2011-2) and job cuts (2010, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018).
Eurofound (2020), SNCF, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 102927, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/102927.