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.
Abanca, the bank company headquartered in Betanzos (A Coruña) and with 631 branches throughout Spain, has announced a workforce adjustment that will affect 350 employees (5.7% of the workforce). The bank takes this decision days after acquiring the Bankoa bank and months after absorbing the Portuguese bank Novo Banco. This has added some 410 workers to the group, so Abanca justifies problems of duplication in 15 Spanish provinces to implement the collective dismissal. The company has communicated that it will prioritize voluntary redundancies for those over 58 years of age. But assumes that if the 350 are not covered, it will implement other measures. The CIG union considers that in the end there will be involuntary dismissals, relocations, and displacements. The union has also rejected the company's proposal, assuming that it would imply dismissing almost all the employees of the banks acquired by Abanca.
Update 28/12/2021: Abanca and the trade unions UGT, CCOO and SIB-SF have reached an agreement for the collective redundancy plan that will affect 370 workers (20 more than initially proposed). 230 of these dismissals will be early retirements and up to 140 voluntary dismissals. The compensation will be 33 days of annual salary per year worked, with a maximum of 24 monthly payments. This amount will increase by two additional monthly payments in the case of voluntary redundancies.
Eurofound (2021), Abanca, Merger/Acquisition in Spain, factsheet number 106014, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/106014.