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.
On 05. September 2023, the German oil and gas company Wintershall Dea has announced that it will be cutting 500 jobs worldwide as part of an internal restructuring programme and 300 of these jobs are to be lost in Germany. As of now, there is little information on the other locations affected. However, the company has said it will retain headquarters in Cairo, Abu Dhabi, and Tripoli, but combine business units in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates under a single regional entity. Currently, Wintershall Dea has approximately 2,000 employees worldwide.
The restructuring has become inevitable after Wintershall Dea announced its complete withdrawal from Russia at the beginning of 2023. Consequently, Wintershall Dea intends to safe up to €200 million annually. Half of the savings are to be achieved through the job cuts. The locations mainly affected will be the company’s headquarters in Kassel and Hamburg, Germany.
The company intends to make the job reductions as socially acceptable as possible. Wintershall Dea will start negotiations with the workers’ representatives shortly.
The restructuring event in Germany has been recorded in the ERM events database Wintershall Dea-2023-DE.
Eurofound (2023), Wintershall Dea, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 200552, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/200552.