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.
Philips, a Dutch company producing electrical household appliances is cutting 400 of the 1700 jobs in its production facility in Drachten.
Philips wants to move parts of its production to Indonesia and China. Additionally, the production of baby products will be outsourced to an external European producer.
The intervention is part of a major reorganisation round that Philips CEO Roy Jakobs announced more than a year ago. In total, approximately 10,000 of the 80,000 jobs at the group will disappear. The jobs cut in Drachten consist of 200 permanent jobs and 200 flexible jobs. With the reorganisation, the company wants to reduce costs after the setbacks of recent years. Philips' turnover fell due to problems with apnea devices and parts shortages. Philips also wants to increase its flexibility with the interventions.
Previous restructuring events have been recorded for Philips in the ERM database. Most recently in 2023, the company announced it will cut 1100 jobs, almost entirely at the head office in Amsterdam and the research and development department in Eindhoven. Philips-2023-NL. The global restructuring programme of Philips where the 10,000 job cuts were announced has also been recorded in the ERM events database Philips-2022-WO.
Eurofound (2024), Philips, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Netherlands, factsheet number 201332, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/201332.