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.
US-based sportswear brand New Balance has announced that it will cut over 500 jobs in Spain and Portugal in 2022. The company is closing its physical stores in the countries to focus only on selling through the internet. Currently, the brand has 22 stores in the two countries. The company is also planning to centralise all the European operations in the Netherlands, so the decision will lead to the closing of the company’s Iberian distribution subsidiary, Alfico. This will affect another 1,500 jobs in about 30 companies that supply services to New Balance.
New Balance was founded in 1906 in the United States. In 2021, the company employed about 7,000 people worldwide.
Eurofound (2021), New Balance, Closure in European Union, factsheet number 106128, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/106128.