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 electronics company Royal Philips Electronics' unit Philips Lighting Vitrite in Middelburg, southern Netherlands, part of Philips Lighting division, and trade unions have reached an agreement on a restructuring. Under the restructuring 100 of the some 220 full-time jobs will be cut. Under a social plan, the redundant employees will have two years to find another job, by keeping their current salaries. The announced restructuring led to a conflict because it became clear that the management took a decision in 2003 to move the production of lighting articles to Poland and China. Trade unions have always had suspicions about this but they were denied by the management.
Eurofound (2005), Philips Lighting Vitrite, Internal restructuring in Netherlands, factsheet number 62748, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/62748.