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.
As a result of the drastic changes in general conditions in the medical markets, there has been a considerable slump in Hartmann Group sales and earnings. In addition to cost-cutting measures with regard to costs of materials, there is now no way of avoiding measures to adjust the payroll. In the Group as a whole some 600 jobs are to be axed by the end of 2006. The company has already restructured its organization, which will result in leaner Group and management structures, and therefore enhanced efficiency. The staff cuts, as discussed by the Supervisory Board on 2 December 2004, affect the entire Hartmann Group, including its subsidiaries both inside and outside Germany. Some 500 jobs will be affected in the German companies, around 120 of these at the head office in Heidenheim/Herbrechtingen. There, the company will be pruning staff at all levels, in particular in the Group Head Office overhead functions. On 3 December 2004, the management started negotiations with employee representatives. The company will do its utmost to come to amicable agreements but cannot rule out operationally-necessitated redundancies.
Eurofound (2004), Hartmann Group, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 60891, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/60891.