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 proposed £6.7 billion merger between Boots and Alliance Unichem will mean that 1,000 jobs will be lost. The deal brings together Boots' 1,400 mainly high street stores and Alliance Unichem's 939 UK outlets, as well as the latter's large drug distribution business and European outlets. The combined company - to be called Alliance Boots - could save £100 million a year within four years and would be able to expand more rapidly in Europe under the Boots brand. The savings will cost up to £60 million to implement, and both companies will have to pay a substantial fee if they change their mind and break the deal.
The companies said that most of the cost savings would come from logistics and backroom operations, and added that around 1,000 jobs would be lost initially. The companies employ about 100,000 people in total - the equivalent of about 70,000 full-time staff.
Eurofound (2005), Boots, Merger/Acquisition in United Kingdom, factsheet number 62378, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/62378.