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.
14 subsidiaries out of the 17 that make up the Geoxia group, which is specialised in the construction of individual houses- under the Maisons Phénix, Maisons Castor and Maison Familiale brands-, have been liquidated by the commercial court of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), due to the lack of a viable takeover solution. 1,150 employees in the offices and at the building sites will be dismissed. 1,600 construction sites were underway and were either suspended or left untouched when the company suspended operations in May due to a lack of liquidity, before being placed in receivership on 24 May.
Only two factories will continue their activities for three months, in order to close the administrative files. The sites are Phénix Métal Industrie (Indre-et-Loire) and Geoxia Composants. (Sarthe), which together employ around 80 people.
Geoxia, a symbol of the access of the working classes to property via the purchase of individual houses, was born after the war in 1945, and experienced its first difficulties in 2008 with the subprime crisis and the abolition of purchase subsidies for modest households. The final blow came with the health crisis and the rise in raw material prices. According to the CEO, the COVID-19 crisis caused a loss of €50 million in turnover and, unlike its competitors, the company did not obtain a State Guaranteed Loan (Prêt garanti de l'Etat - PGE). The Ministry of the Economy announced its intention to 'help employees find a job in a sector known to be in high demand for labour'.
Eurofound (2022), Geoxia, Closure in France, factsheet number 107031, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/107031.