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 Spanish multinational hotel company NH Hoteles has reached a pre-agreement with workers' representatives on a collective redundancy plan that will affect 187 workers at the company's headquarters. In a statement, the company stated that the plan is necessary to adapt to the ongoing transformation of the hotel sector, led by the 'digitisation of different functions, teleworking or the development of tourist apartments'.
The agreed number of dismissals has been reduced by 35% compared to the initial proposal of the company. The management has also announced the withdrawal of a collective redundancy plan announced in February 2021, that would have applied to 94 employees in its booking centres.
The agreement also obliges the company not to implement further collective redundancies for the next 18 months. In addition, the company will allow affected workers to participate to recruitment processes for new vacancies posted in the following three years. Economic compensations will consist in a minimum of one monthly payment per year worked to a maximum of 20 monthly payments, or €130,000.
412 workers out of the 584 staff employed in the headquarters voted in favour of this pre-agreement; seven abstained, and 11 voted against. However, the trade union CC.OO. considers that there is no justification for these dismissals. The union claims that since dismissed employees represent 1% of the total company's labour costs, the company could have continued to apply temporary collective redundancies to these workers.
Eurofound (2021), NH Hoteles, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 104711, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/104711.