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 BMW production plant in Debrecen is under construction. The recruitment has already begun, even though the plant will not start producing before 2025. The firm is recruiting several hundred employees in several dozens of positions, including engineers, chemists, SAP operators, quality control and process experts.
BMW announced in November 2022 that it would also build a battery assembly plant in addition to the vehicle production plant. As a result, the total number of jobs will amount to 1500 by the end of 2025, an increase of 1400 from about 100 employees in June 2022.
Since Debrecen is close to the Romanian border, the firm started recruiting in Romania, using social network platforms.The plant will produce fully electric vehicles that are to be supplied with batteries assembled onsite.
With the addition of the battery assembly plant, the total investment cost will exceed €2 billion, about 3% of which is granted by the government as a non-refundable subsidy. Some observers note, however, that the total value of government support is roughly five times the direct subsidy, if the state-financed infrastructure investments directly related to the BMW plant are also taken into account.
Eurofound (2022), BMW, Business expansion in Hungary, factsheet number 108136, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/108136.