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 French rubber tyre manufacturing multinational Michelin has announced a labour adjustment plan, making 176 workers at its manufacturing plants in Vitoria and Lasarte redundant, both in the Basque Country. 150 employees in Vitoria and 26 in Lasarte are set to lose their jobs.
The Vitoria plant will be worst affected by the plans. The announcement comes just a month after its workers voted to leave the national works council to negotiate with the company alone. This decision is said to have led to a loss of confidence by management in the Vitoria Plant.
Michelin's managers justify the cuts by their existing downward forecasts, as a fall by 5% in 2024 compared to 2023 is expected, which is already "a bad year". Trade Unions have negatively reacted to this announcement and have appealed workers to join forces against the plans of Michelin in Vitoria.
The Vitoria plant is Michelin's largest in Spain with 3,500 employees. The company has also announced a halting of its foreseen investment plans in the Vitoria plant (75 million euro).
Updated 30/01/2024: Michelin has informed the unions that, after the introduction of several measures to foster voluntary redundancies within the company, there is still a surplus staff in the Vitoria plant of 105 workers. The company is also applying some production changes to adapt to a decreasing demand.
Eurofound (2023), Michelin España, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 200540, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/200540.