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.
Norwich Union, a firm that operates in the insurance sector and is a subsidiary of Aviva, has announced that it is to cut 385 jobs across the UK. The job losses will affect those workers employed in the firm’s information technology departments, and will mainly affect the firm’s Norwich and Perth sites. The firm stated that many major I.T projects had recently been finished, and that subsequently there was a need to make savings on labour costs. The firm also stated that it hoped that staff would take voluntary redundancy, early retirement, or would find other work in the business. However, the firm did not exclude the possibility of compulsory redundancies. Sean Egan, Chief Information Officer at Norwich Union Insurance, stated:
‘A number of significant projects, such as the integration of RAC into Norwich Union, are now nearing their natural end. We therefore no longer need to maintain or upgrade old systems and services… We understand that this is a difficult time for our people and our priority now is to work through the detail of these changes and support those staff affected by today's announcement.’
Norwich Union employs approximately 36,000 across the UK. As of October 2007, there is no further information on when the job losses will be implemented by.
Eurofound (2007), Norwich Union, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 65912, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/65912.