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.
350 workers in North Yorkshire have lost their jobs after DHL, a storage firm, closed down their warehouse in Sherburn-in-Elmet, near Selby. DHL started making redundancies in April when supermarket chain Somerfield stopped using the warehouse in Sherburn-in-Elmet, near Selby. The majority of the warehouse's 900 employees have already been laid-off. But a big new contract to keep the site running fell through earlier this month and the remaining 350 staff clocked off for the last time on Friday. Brian Anderson, the Transport and General Workers' Union's industrial organiser, said the job losses were 'devastating'. He said the workers were committed to the firm and enjoyed working there, so the situation was 'very, very sad'. Somerfield stopped using the £30m distribution site when it sold 171 of its Kwik Save stores. It was hoped that Huddersfield-based firm BTTF would take it on, but Mr Anderson said the cost of running the massive site was too great for a small operator like BTTF, who have now set up a warehouse in the north-east.
Eurofound (2006), DHL, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 63554, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/63554.