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.
Burberry is a famous fashion brand established in Britain in 1856 and has more than ten thousand employees. In 2012, critiques were made against the company due to the fact most of the production was not made in Britain. Pressure from customers led to the backshoring of part of the company's production from Asia to the UK. Moreover, Asian markets' appeal has decreased while the "Made in" effect for luxury products has grown in relevance. Burberry faced a slowdown in its key Asian markets which has sent the company’s share price falling. As a result, in 2015 the company announced that it intented to invest at least £50m in a new UK factory to produce its trademark trenchcoats, creating 200 extra jobs in Yorkshire. The facility in Leeds will draw together production of the coats and the gaberdine cloth they are made from – currently made at two separate sites in Castleford and Keighley. All 800 current staff are expected to move to the new site by 2018, which will give Burberry the capacity to potentially triple its current UK production of 5,000 coats a week. Work on the new factory will start next year.
Eurofound (2015), Burberry, Reshoring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 203, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/203.