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.
Beverage deliverer Durstexpress plans to cut around 1,000 job in the first half of 2021. Durstexpress is an affiliate of the Oetker group. After the Oetker group bought the delivery service Flaschenpost in autumn 2020, it continued to merge both companies. Due to the merger, around 1,000 jobs are made redundant as three storehouses (in Berlin, Leipzig and Bremen) will be closed. Dismissals had to be postponed by one month in Berlin and Leipzig after the local employment agencies denied speedy redundancies. Dismissed employees are invited to apply for a new job at Flaschenpost. The sectoral union NGG fears that the consequence will be lower pay and worse working conditions. The management denies such a strategy,
Eurofound (2021), Durstexpress, Merger/Acquisition in Germany, factsheet number 103690, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/103690.