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 French Heuliez Group is specialised in the development and production of niche vehicles. The French coachbuilder's biggest contract since re-entering the seating sector in 1998 is the welded steel frame it does for the rear seat of the Renault Modus small minivan. In this sense, Heuliez opened a seat-frame plant in Morales, Spain, last year near the Johnson Controls seat plant that supplies Renault's Valladolid assembly plant. Johnson Controls Inc. is the Tier 1 seat supplier to Renault. And in January 2007 Heuliez will open a plant in Slovakia (Trencin). The main reason given for the loss of 425 jobs is the economic situation and the car market. According to the Trade union, the company plans to axe 541 jobs from 1,671 in total at its plant in Cerizay (Deux Sèvres). The group promised to set up a plan of reindustrialisation. A new meeting between Heuliez, the Minister of Work and trade unions should be fixed in June.
Eurofound (2006), Heuliez, Offshoring/Delocalisation in France, factsheet number 63429, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/63429.