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.
Kent's last potato packing plant says job losses are inevitable after a major supermarket chain announced plans to end its contract. St Nicholas Court Farms in Thanet said some of the 93 staff will have to go as Morrisons supermarkets has decided to pack its own potatoes. It comes less than a fortnight after a company in Romney said it was to close because it had been dropped by Tesco. Morrisons said it gave the plant plenty of notice ‘to adapt to the situation'. A total of 81 of the 108 workers at the Romney Marsh Potato Company, in New Romney, Kent, lost their jobs when the firm's packing division was closed two weeks ago. Kent NFU chairman Anthony Curwen said the impact of the closures would be felt throughout the production chain. ‘People don't realise how many jobs will be affected throughout the supply chain from lorry drivers to those making the packing materials.'
Eurofound (2005), St Nicholas Court Farms, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 61246, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/61246.