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.
Amazon, the US e-commerce and cloud computing services multinational has announced the creation of up to 400 new jobs in a new automated logistics centre, to be opened in early September 2024 in Siero (Asturias, Spain). This new centre has a surface area of more than 175,000 square metres and it has implied a total investment of 300 million square meters. It is expected that the centre will provide employment for 1,500 people in three years' time.
The new logistics centre has a automated area of almost 40,000 square metres and includes technologies such as palletising robots, an arm-shaped robot that groups pallets and eliminates the need to lift loads manually, and automatic guided vehicles, among other technologies. The centre will offer a wide variety of jobs, both highly skilled and blue-collar.
Amazon has experienced some previous business expansion examples in Spain in 2023 Amazon 2023-ES and 2022 Amazon 2022-ES, amongst other years.
Eurofound (2024), Amazon, Business expansion in Spain, factsheet number 201078, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/201078.