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.
IBM International Services Centre is a subsidiary of IBM Slovensko, and one of the largest employers in the segment of shared services for IT. It serves the IBM headquarters as well as other subsidiaries, providing services for accounting, data processing, management of internal IT systems, consulting and marketing. It employed 3200 people in 2022.
The company announced that it plans to layoff of 188 employees from their site in downtown Bratislava. This is due to economic reasons, with the main goal being to saving resources. IBM’s Global CEO stated that the company will not hire new employees for the positions, which can be replaced by Artificial Intelligence systems.
The Layoffs should be completed by the end of October 2023.
Eurofound (2023), IBM International Services Centre, Internal restructuring in Slovakia, factsheet number 200383, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/200383.