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.
German airline Lufthansa has announced that it will create 10,000 jobs worldwide over the next 18 months, 5,000 this year and 5,000 by 2023. The company's recruitment decision follows the serious problem of staff shortage that emerged during the summer 2022: since the beginning of 2022, almost 7,000 flights have been canceled. Lufthansa is dealing with a renewed demand for travel, after the mass dismissals and flight bans during the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, it had announced the dismissal of 39,000 people worldwide by the end of 2021, because of the pandemic's impact on the air travel sector (Lufthansa-2020-WO). During summer 2022, the travel demand increased to 80% of pre-pandemic level in just few weeks and the company was not ready to face it.
According to the CEO Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa is recruiting in operations, in cockpit and cabin crew, as well as ground personnel.
Eurofound (2022), Lufthansa, Business expansion in World, factsheet number 107258, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/107258.