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.
The British life sciences technology company Whatman cut a seventh of its workforce on 1 january 2005 and admitted that sales had been disappointing.
The laboratory equipment company said it would cut 160 jobs following the €50.2 million (£35.6 million) takeover of the German laboratory business Schleicher & Schuell in December 2004, which created a firm with 1,160 employees. About 14% of that workforce will go, with most jobs lost at sites in the US and Germany.
The company, which makes laboratory filters for the life sciences industry, announced the cuts to book the one-off costs in the current financial year. Factories in Banbury in Oxfordshire and Dassel in Germany will be folded into one site, resulting in some job losses. The S&S head office will also see headcount reduced as it is absorbed into Whatman's Headquarters. The sales and business development arms of both businesses will be merged and streamlined. Two US factories are to close.
The chairman, Bob Thian, said the Banbury factory would not close and there would be no UK job losses.
Eurofound (2005), Whatman, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 60983, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/60983.