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.
François Fillon, the Prime Minister of France, has announced that 22,700 jobs in the French Civil Service are to be cut in 2008. The job cuts will be achieved through not replacing 22,700 staff who are retiring next year. The cuts are part of an attempt by the French Government to trim the projected French budget deficit from 2.4 per cent in 2007 to 2.3 per cent in 2008. The reforms, however, fall substantially short of French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s 2007 Presidential campaign pledge to not replace half of those retiring from the Civil Service and to comprehensively transform the state of the French public finances. The job losses were announced on 31st July 2007. French trade unions and the Socialist party are opposed to the measures. They accuse the Government of degrading the standard of public service provision through the cuts.
September 26th 2007
As of September 26th 2007, the French Government has announced that 22,900 jobs, rather than 22,700, will be cut in the French Civil Service in 2008.
Eurofound (2007), Service Public Francais, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 65658, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/65658.