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.
United Polymers, in Maerdy South Wales, went into administration on 21 October 2004, putting 310 jobs at the site under threat. 48 staff at the plant have already received redundancy notices. United Polymers, which also employs 65 people in Corsham, Wiltshire, makes rubber and plastic moulded products for the car industry. United Polymers took over the car components factory from engineering group Fenner, which had opened the plant in 1997. It was built on the site of two pits at the former Maerdy colliery - the last pit to close in the Rhondda in 1990, which left the village an unemployment blackspot. The factory was built after reclaimation on the site of the mine by the Welsh Development Agency in one of the most economically-deprived parts of Wales. The area has also been hit by recent job losses.
Eurofound (2004), United Polymers, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 60685, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/60685.