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.
Borbet Solingen, a German wheel manufacturer, must cut around 250 jobs at its production plant in Solingen, NRW, Germany.
Around 250 of 644 workers at Borbet Solingen are to lose their job due to insolvency. Borbet Solingen announced on 3 December 2021 that it had to initiate protective shield proceedings (a special form of insolvency proceedings). It remains unclear if the company will continue to operate in the longer term and whether an investor can be found. In June 2022, it is unknown when the insolvency proceedings will be concluded.
The Solingen site has incurred losses of 30 million euros since the beginning of 2020. The company struggles with the Corona crisis, the semiconductor crisis and sharply rising energy and material prices.
The first authorised representative of IG Metall explains that about 250 workers will lose their jobs and that the talks on staff reductions have largely been concluded. However, nothing has been signed yet.
Borbet is one of the world market leaders for light alloy wheels. The group has six locations in Europe and one in South Africa, more than 4000 employees and still achieved a profit of 338 million euros in 2019.
Eurofound (2021), Borbet Solingen, Bankruptcy in Germany, factsheet number 106955, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/106955.