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.
Finnish telecommunications company Nokia announced that about 450 jobs are at risk of being cut in Finland, with cuts affecting offices in Espoo and Tampere. The cooperation negotiations commenced in mid-October 2023.
According to Nokia, these layoffs are part of a world-wide scheme to reduce expenditure by €1,200 million. An estimated 14,000 employees will be laid of world-wide. The departments affected in Finland are mainly within 5G R&D and construction, cloud-based services and administration.
A shop steward for senior white-collar employees at Nokia Espoo says that the scale of the job cuts came as a surprise because the global economy and the market are facing a significant challenging situation.
This is the third negotiated layoff this year, with Nokia previously initiating layoffs in Finland 2023 - FI July and May Nokia 2023 - FI. In Espoo, an additional 72 employees have already been laid-off in mid-October.
*Updated, 23/December/2023 During cooperation negotiations, the number of jobs to be cut was reduced to 350, affecting all Nokia's business locations in Finland - Tampere, Espoo and Oulu. The factory in Oulu was not part of the internal restructuring. During 2023, the company has laid off nearly 600 people in total.
Eurofound (2023), Nokia, Internal restructuring in Finland, factsheet number 200407, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/200407.