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.
Japanese technology company Softbank Group announced that it will cut its workforce at its robotics business worldwide in 2021. Under the restructuring programme, the company is to dismiss about 165 of its 330 employees in France in September 2021. The programme will also affect employees in the UK and the United States – where the restructuring process has already started – but the exact number of cut jobs per country is still unclear. The programme is related to the company's decision to stop the production of its humanoid robots, 'Pepper'. The conditions of the dismissal programme are negotiated with employees’ representatives.
Softbank Group has been operating since 1984; currently, the company employs almost 81,000 people globally. The group primarily operates in the technology, energy, and financial sectors.
Eurofound (2021), Softbank Robotics, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 105016, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/105016.