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.
Dutch-Korean company LG. Philips Displays, the global leader in display technologies, operating in the Czech Republic since 2001, announced in May 2005 its intention to build a high-tech development centre for its European network of subsidiaries. The Czech plant in Hranice should have become one of the most significant manufacturing sites focusing on vacuum tube production. The foreign investor planned to create 1810 new jobs by 2007 and would have received 650 million CZK in support from the Czech government. A total investment of up to 600 million euros within 3 years was foreseen. However, in March 2006 the Czech subsidiary in Hranice announced financial difficulties due to worsening conditions on the cathode ray tube (CRT) market, unsustainable debt and the holding company's inability to further fund subsidiaries worldwide. The Czech government has been looking for an appropriate solution but hesitated to provide another financial injection. The administrator of the assets has put the company up for sale. According to the Secretary of Commerce, the sale could save the 1,300 jobs now under threat.
Eurofound (2005), LG.Philips Displays, Bankruptcy in Czechia, factsheet number 61538, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/61538.