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 director of the Airbus plant in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) has announced the recruitment of 400 permanent employees and 300 temporary workers (without specifying the length of the assignments) to cope with the increased production rate of the three Airbus A320, A330 and A350 construction programmes. The aerospace group plans to recruit in 2024 at its three plants in the Loire-Atlantique region (Saint-Nazaire, Montoir-de-Bretagne and Nantes). Anticipating recruitment difficulties, the director is inviting "people undergoing retraining to come and knock" on Airbus' doors, as well as women, who currently make up 15% of the workforce. According to the director, this percentage is constantly rising, in line with the Group's "determination". By 2023, one recruitment in five will lead to the hiring of a female employee.
Tow large job creations were recorded in 2022, with the recruitment of 3,500 employees in France, announced in February 2022 Airbus-2022b-FR and 1,500 new employees in France Airbus-2022a-FR as part of the programme to recruit 6,000 employees worldwide Airbus-2022-WO. Previous announcements of job reductions within the group Airbus in France were recorded in the ERM Database: 470 job cuts in 2018 Airbus-2018-FR; 546 job cuts in 2017 Airbus-2017-FR and 582 job cuts in 2016 Airbus-2016-FR.
Eurofound (2023), Airbus, Business expansion in France, factsheet number 200599, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/200599.