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.
Izar is specialised in the manufacture of ships for civil and military use. The company is owned by the Spanish public consortium SEPI. The company launched a job reduction plan for its centres in Cadiz and Seville in February 2004 with 400 redundancies. The company has to undergo a restructuring process because of two major reasons. The first one is that it received aids amounting to €1,000 million from the European Commission that where proven illegal and has to pay them back. The second reason is that its market share regarding military activities has decreased within the last years and its losses amount to 659 million euros since the year 2000. In agreement with the labour representatives, The public consortium SEPI has launched an industrial plan which finally involves 3983 redundancies, not the 4100 initially planned, all over the company's plants in Spain. This plan is based on early retirement measures for employees over 52 years old. On 20 january the European Commission approved the industrial plan but said it wants the illegal aids paid back as soon as possible.
On 17 March 2005 the Labour Ministry approved the Izar job reduction plan. The plan creates redundancies in the following plants: 701 for the Fene centre, 699 for the Ferrol centre, 610 for the Puerto Real plant, 577 for the Sestao plant, 374 for the Cartagena plant, 222 for the Gijón plant, 200 for the Cadiz plant, 193 for the San Fernando plant, 166 for the Manises plant, 144 for the Seville plant and 97 for the Madrid plant. The job reduction plan includes the following measure: an aid corresponding to the 76 % of the regulated wage until the retirement age (65 years), unemployment and aids from the Social Security for workers over 60 years old. The process will be concluded on 31 December 2006.The plants for civil engineering will be sold whereas the industrial State-owned Consortium SEPI will continue with the military plants.
Eurofound (2004), Izar, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 60919, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/60919.