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 aircraft manufacturer Airbus has announced a worldwide restructuring plan to cope with the COVID-19 crisis (Airbus-2020-WO). In total, the group wants to cut around 15,000 posts by the summer of 2021. The cuts will take place almost exclusively in the commercial aviation branch. In France, Airbus plans to cut 5,000 jobs. Job destruction has been forced by the collapse in air travel as a result of the pandemic. The cuts have been strongly criticised by both the French government and unions.
Previous internal restructuring was recorded in the ERM database in 2018, with 470 job cuts (Airbus-2018-FR).
UPDATE 22/11/2021: The initial restructuring plan foresaw a downsize of 4,248 jobs in France. Thanks to Government's measures to revive the economic sector affected by the pandemic, the number of layoffs was reduced to 2,246 jobs.
Eurofound (2020), Airbus, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 106795, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/106795.