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.
Danish Crown is the largest slaughterhouse company in Denmark with several production sites across the country. It has announced to dismiss 350 employees: 275 employees will be dismissed in the slaughterhouse in Sæby, while another 75 employees will be dismissed in the Ringsted slaughterhouse. The reason behind the job cut is related to rising costs for the increase in energy and feed prices due to the war in Ukraine; farmers, who collectively own the company, are supplying fewer pigs for slaughter. The prices per kilo pigmeat cannot compensate the rising energy and feed prices. The dismissed employees will be prioritized if positions open up in other Danish Crown slaughterhouses.
Danis Crown has around 6,000 employees in slaughterhouses and has around 8,000 employees in Denmark. The company is owned by 5,000 danish farmers and is one of the world's largest exporters of pig meat.
Updated 06/10/2022
After negotiations between trade unions and shop stewards, the number of dismissals have been reduced from 350 to 146. Dismissals in Sæby has gone down from 281 to 121 and in Ringsted from 75 to 25. The reductions is partly due to voluntary resignations and restructuring of the work organisation.
Eurofound (2022), Danish Crown, Internal restructuring in Denmark, factsheet number 107399, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/107399.