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.
KPN focuses on three core activities in three countries: the Netherlands (fixed network, mobile, IP/data), Belgium (mobile, IP/data) and Germany (mobile). In October 2003, KPN announced that the company would suppress a few hundred jobs in the coming months and years in the fixed network division. Due to the competition in the sector KPN has to constantly reduce its costs. In 2001 the biggest mass dismissal that ever took place in the Netherlands was the axing of some 4,500 KPN employees. According to KPN, this restructuring is still a consequence of that event. January 2004. KPN has specified the number of dismissals: 800. Around 300 marketing and sales jobs at the company's headquarter will go as part of a compulsory redundancy scheme. The rest will be lost through natural attrition. In March 2004, KPN axed 200 jobs in Belgium, through its subsidiary Base.
Eurofound (2003), Royal KPN, Internal restructuring in European Union, factsheet number 59961, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/59961.