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.
The management of the French banking group, Caisse d'épargne, has announced that 4500 jobs will be cut between now and 2012. 3,500 of them will disappear in the banking industry of the group, and 1,000 in other commercial activities.
The management had earlier attributed these cuts to a European regulation concerning the opening to competition of the "Livret A". This is a type of savings account exempt from taxation, which is very widespread in France : more than 45 million French people possess it.The new legislation will authorize every bank to issue these instruments, which werehitherto exclusively reserved to certain banks, namely the Caisse d’Epargne, the Banque Postale and the crédit Mutuel.
Management now concedes that the job cuts are part of a larger plan, existing for some years, which aims to reinforce the efficiency of the group. The new law is merely a catalyst.
Management states that there will be no compulsory redundancies, and the whole plan will be implemented on a voluntary basis.
Eurofound (2008), Caisse d'Epargne, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 66624, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/66624.