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.
Telecommunications company Versatel announced on 30 May 2006 that it will cut 200 jobs in the Netherlands and Belgium. A Versatel spokesman said that most of the employees concerned in Amsterdam already left the company by other means than direct dismissals but that the company still considers direct dismissals to be inevitable. The company does not want to tell the reason for this reorganisation but the spokesman admitted that the company is short of cash at the moment. The company recently spent a lot of money on soccer broadcasting rights and on a new telecommunication network. During the first three months of 2006 the company lost 23 million euro.
Since 2005 the Swedish company Tele2 holds 80% of the Versatel shares. Until now Tele2 has not succeeded in acquiring all the Tele2 shares because a group of minority shareholders keeps resisting the take over bid.
Eurofound (2006), Versatel, Internal restructuring in European Union, factsheet number 63572, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/63572.