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.
Cordis Europe, a firm that manufactures medical equipment and is a subsidiary of multi-national Johnson & Johnson, is to close its site in Roden with the loss of 660 jobs. The Roden site will close by the end of 2008, and production at the site will be ‘offshored’ to locations in Mexico and the United States. Johnson & Johnson have attributed the decision to close the Roden site to increased competition, an increase in costs, and a decline in the global demand for medical equipment. Dutch unions have criticized the decision, and have argued that the plant is currently profitable.
Eurofound (2007), Cordis Corporation, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Netherlands, factsheet number 65931, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/65931.