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 company Nidar makes all kinds of chocolate and sweets and is 100% owned by Orkla group. The factory is situated in Trondheim with about 350 employees. It was made public on 23 May 2006 that the management plans to cut costs and reduce the number of employees at the factory by 70-90 during the winter 2006/2007. The management states hard competition as the main reason for the need to cut costs.
Most of the downsizing will affect the blue collar workers, but the management also states that most of the few white collar workers will lose their jobs because functions like switchboard and postal services will be taken care of by the group of companies (Orkla).
The union leader for the white collar workers was shocked by the news and expressed surprise at the plans being announced without informing the unions first.
Eurofound (2006), Nidar, Internal restructuring in Norway, factsheet number 63535, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/63535.