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 steelmaker Aperam has announced the recruitment of 90 employees by 2024 for its industrial site in Gueugnon (Saône-et-Loire), where 750 people are currently employed. The site, which is specialised in stainless steel, is benefiting from a €40 million investment plan to strengthen its competitiveness and its compliance with environmental standards. The €30 million investment plan launched at the end of 2020 has been supplemented by a further €10 million to improve competitiveness and the environmental footprint, including a new cold rolling mill and a new ‘bright annealing’ line - a mirror-effect stainless steel used for the interior of dishwashers. The site has already recruited 30 employees since the beginning of the year and plans to recruit 90 people by 2024. In Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Aperam has three sites, two of which are for stainless steel: Gueugnon(750 employees), Pont-de-Roide (200 employees) and Imphy (770 employees).
Two former restructurings have been recorded in the ERM database in 2014, with 100/130 job cuts at Gueugnon (Aperam-2014-FR), and in 2011, with 223 job cuts at Isbergues (Aperam-2011-FR).
Eurofound (2022), Aperam, Business expansion in France, factsheet number 106839, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/106839.