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.
Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, part of the Plymouth Hospitals NHS [National Health Service] Trust, is to cut 400 jobs. Up to 100 compulsory redundancies are possible. Hospital managers said that more day cases meant fewer patients needed to stay in overnight. Managers added that they hoped to limit compulsory redundancies, and that most jobs would go by not filling vacancies. But unions said that staff were 'very concerned' about cuts.
Iain Andrews of the union Unison said: 'The trouble is that we don't know where they're going to be.'
'Management are still discussing the conditions, but our members are out there wondering if it's going to be them in the firing.'
Eurofound (2006), Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 63864, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/63864.