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.
Unione Banche Italiane (Ubi), a financial services group created as a result of a merger of several banks in November 2006, is to cut 1,400 jobs between 2007 and 2010. The agreement reached between managers at the group and trade unions also specified that a further 300 redundancies will take place as a consequence of the re-organization plans implemented by the banks that formed Ubi in 2006. It is hoped that 400 of the total job losses will occur through natural turnover of employees, but it is expected that 1,300 workers will be directly dismissed. These workers will benefit from a special sectoral ‘solidarity fund’ to help redundant employees, and economic incentives for voluntary redundancy will also be offered by the group. Workers receiving help from the ‘solidarity fund’ will receive their salary for 12 months, in addition to an undisclosed lump sum. Ubi employs 22,000 in Italy and has a network of 2,000 branches. The group was created by the merger of Commercio & Industria, Popolare di Bergamo, Banca Lombarda, Banca Regionale Europea, and a number of smaller territorial banks.
Eurofound (2007), Unione Banche Italiane, Internal restructuring in Italy, factsheet number 65706, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/65706.