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 Swedish postal service company, Postnord, plans to reduce the number of employees by around 300, mainly in Sweden. The company is reducing in its administration functions. However, it is not yet clear which functions the reductions will affect.
The company's costs have increased at the same time as letter and parcel volumes fell last year, forcing the company to cut its workforce by 3,000 employees. According to Postnord's CEO, the cuts are not enough and the company is looking at laying off another 300 employees. They point out, among other things, that parcel volumes have also begun to fall alongside the continuing decline in the number of letters handled by the company. The CEO further states that the cuts are due to the current economic situation.
PostNord has also been cutting jobs in Norway and Denmark (Postnord 2023 - EU)
Postnord operates in the Nordic countries and employs a total of 26,300 people. In Sweden, the company has around 18,000 employees.
Eurofound (2023), Postnord, Internal restructuring in Sweden, factsheet number 108342, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/108342.