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.
Steelmaking manufacturing company US Steel Košice announced a plan to dismiss more than 600 employees. The reason behind the restructuring is the need to redesign the organisational structure which will improve the company's competitiveness in the steel industry. The company will lay off full-time employees who are close to retirement age and for those who are not, the company will help with profession change. The restructuring will take place in October 2022. Severance pay will be an average of € 32,000 per employee, far above the framework of Labour Code in Slovakia.
As part of the American group United Steel Corporation, Steel Košice is the largest employer in eastern Slovakia harnessing more than 20,000 jobs in the plant itself together with its supplier/logistics chain.
A previous internal restructuring was recorded in the ERM database in 2019, with 2,500 job cuts (US Steel Košice-2019-SK).
Eurofound (2022), US Steel Košice, Internal restructuring in Slovakia, factsheet number 107557, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/107557.