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.
Hygena, a brand of fitted kitchen and a subsidiary of Fournier Group, will relocate kitchen production to its French site in Thônes (Haute-Savoie) from its current location in the UK. This decision will also lead to job cuts in the logistics site of Wancourt (Pas-de-Calais). Support functions at the headquarters at Seclin (Nord) will also be cut and several Hygena shops will be closed. The management has announced that it will offer 140 positions within the Fournier group to the affected employees and will help to find employment solutions for the others. It is expected that 76 positions will be transformed into sales positions, however, as employees could refuse a change of their employment contract, the number of dismissals could increase beyond the 268 that have already been announced. Fournier is the owner of the custom made kitchens brand Mobalpa and took over Hygena in October 2014. Hygena has 125 shops in France and 710 employees. The company is struggling with a decrease in sales from €142 million in 2013 to €120 million in 2012.
Eurofound (2015), Hygena, Reshoring in France, factsheet number 231, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/231.