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.
Diadora is an Italian company which produces footwear, t-shirts and other items such as backpacks and bags. The headquarters of Diadora is in Caerano di San Marco, Veneto (Italy). According to its Chairman Moretti Polegato, Diadora plans to reshore 10% of its production activities back to Italy. The objective is to produce 100 thousand pairs of footwear later this year and cover 7-10% of the production across all of product lines in the next three years. The rest of the production is still produced in China, Thailand and Vietnam. Currently, there are 5% of productions carried out by in-house production and Italian suppliers. Polegato said that having the internal production line is very positive for a company like Diadora pointing on product innovation. In addition, “made in Italy” offers Diadora a unique quantification and enables Diadora to track carbon footprint so that control the environmental impact of the production chain. There are now 6 people employed in the reopened plant and it is expected to rise to 9.
Eurofound (2017), Diadora, Reshoring in Italy, factsheet number 122, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/122.