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.
Around 1,600 jobs will go after the UK's largest computer maker, which produces Tiny and Time PCs, went into administration and closed its 80 shops. The Tiny and Time computer brands abruptly closed all of its retail stores and began laying off staff at its Burnley factory. Granville Technology Group, which makes 500,000 computers a year, is understood to be close to collapse. All directors except its part-time chairman have resigned.
Asked if the business had solvency concerns, a spokesman said: 'Granville Technology's first responsibility is to its staff and customers and we are not making any further comment at this time.' Granville, which employs 1,500 workers, was due to file accounts with Companies House in April 2005 but has failed to do so. A spokesman for Granville said the company was still trading through all divisions except its 78 retail stores, called The Computer Shop, and that the Burnley factory remained in production. 'The stores are closed for stock-taking while a credit card transaction issue is being resolved,' the spokesman said. 'They will be shut until further notice.'
Eurofound (2005), Granville Technology Group, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 62000, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/62000.