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.
Babcock Marine, a firm that operates in the marine sector, has announced that it is to cut 600 jobs at its site in Devonport in Plymouth. Ships are maintained and upgraded at the site in Devonport. 4,300 are employed by the firm at the site, and the job losses will be implemented between April 2008 and March 2009. Management at the firm attribute the job losses to financial difficulties. The firm has also been affected by the loss of contracts with the UK Government. Babcock Marine acquired the dockyard in 2007 from Devonport Management Limited.
Jack Dromey, Deputy General Secretary of the trade union Unite, criticized the job losses and stated that management’s plans for the job losses would be scrutinized by his union. An official from the Prospect trade union criticized the use of contractors at the site and stated that contractors should be eliminated at the site before employees.
Eurofound (2008), Babcock Marine, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 66314, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/66314.