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.
Electrolux, a Swedish appliance company dismissed 114 employees at its Satu Mare plant. The company laid off engineers, welders, locksmiths and belt workers. Last autumn the Swedish group completed an investment at Satu Mare plant and announced the development of local production.
According to the company’s announcement, the layoffs come as demand for home appliances has fallen with the onset of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Specifically, the Russia and Ukraine were important markets for company. The layoff process started on 24 November 2022 and ended on 29 December 2022.
The Satu Mare plant has a long history of more than one hundred years and produced stoves under the Samus brand before being taken over by the Swedish group.
In 1997 when the takeover took place, the factory employed around 2,300 people, compared with 936 at the end of 2021.
Eurofound (2023), Electrolux, Internal restructuring in Romania, factsheet number 108199, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/108199.