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.
The aluminium window manufacturer, K.Line, has announced the recruitment of 150 employees by the end of 2023, notably for a new production unit currently under construction which aims to serve the joinery market for the tertiary sector. K.Line has already hired 200 people by 2022. The group has 1,500 employees in its four factories at Les Herbiers (Vendée) employment area and has achieved a turnover of €428 million in 2021 (+20%). The challenge for the management is to recruit in a region where the unemployment rate does not exceed 3.5%, half the national average. To recruit, the company organises open days. It has granted salary increases (+2.5% in September 2021, +3% at the beginning of 2022, then +2.5% in July 2022) and improved well-being at work: opening of a large company restaurant, additional parking spaces, comfortable break and walking areas. The thermal comfort of the workshops has been improved, as has the ergonomics of the workstations, in order to create more accommodating conditions for female staff, which currently represents 43% of the workforce.
Eurofound (2022), K. Line, Business expansion in France, factsheet number 107889, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/107889.