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.
In April 2004, Telefónica has announced a restructuring plan involving the redundancy of 10,000 to 15,000 employees (one out of every three workers) within 5 years. 2,362 employees have requested their inclusion in the Job Reduction Plan for 2004. The company has accepted 672 requests which will cost 185.7 million euros. If the company had accepted all the requests, the Job Reduction Plan would cost 672.5 million euros in 2004 alone. The company has saved 76 million euros due to the 2003 job reduction plan. At the end of June 2004, 7,851 workers had adhered to the Job Reduction Plan since the beginning of 2003.
Eurofound (2003), Telefónica, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 59835, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/59835.