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.
Aircraft builder Airbus is to create 650 new jobs through the expansion of its wing-making factory at Broughton in Flintshire, north Wales. The Welsh Assembly government is giving the company a grant of £5.2 million which it said would help boost production. Employing more than 6,000 people, the Airbus plant is already Wales' biggest manufacturing facility. The company is increasing production schedules to tackle its order book, having already boosted deliveries by 18% to a new record of 378 aircraft in 2005, and said it showed there was optimism in the air travel sector. Broughton, and the firm's Filton site, near Bristol, will share production of the lightweight carbon-based wings for the Airbus A350, launched in October 2005, and due to enter into service in 2010.
The Welsh Assembly Government said the grant was a major vote of confidence in the Broughton workforce. The company now employs well over 7,000 people on the site and around north Wales there are around 12,000 people employed by companies that supply Airbus. Flintshire council's chief regeneration officer, Dave Heggarty said 'Employing people in an industry like aerospace manufacture is extremely expensive - training costs are particularly high. The 650 recruited will go through a lengthy programme and the grant will assist with that training.' Alwyn Rowlands, regional officer with the union Amicus said 'The fact that the jobs that are being created are highly skilled and well paid is even better news for the local economy and we will be pressing for them to come on line as quickly as possible'.
Eurofound (2006), Airbus, Business expansion in United Kingdom, factsheet number 62865, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/62865.