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.
Aviva, a multi-national group that operates in the insurance sector, has announced that approximately 1,800 jobs will be cut at its subsidiary Norwich Union at sites across the UK. The job losses will be implemented by 2010, and will involve the closure of sites in Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and Southampton. Sites in Dundee, Basildon, Ipswich, Exeter, and Worthing will also be affected by the job losses. The majority of Norwich Union's insurance operations will in the future be conducted at seven sites in Norwich, Perth, Bishopbriggs, Stretford, Manchester, Leicester and Southend. Management at Aviva attributed the job losses to the need to rationalize Norwich Union's operational structures and to follow changing patterns of customer demand. Graham Goddard, the deputy general secretary of the UK trade union Unite, stated:
'Unite is angry to learn that Aviva is to cut 1,800 jobs across the country. The news for staff that their jobs are in jeopardy is truly devastating.'
Mr. Goddard also stated that Unite would meet with management at Aviva in an attempt to aid those workers facing the loss of their jobs. Aviva was created through a merger of Norwich Union and CGU in 2000. Aviva employs approximately 59,000 globally. Norwich Union employs approximately 36,000 across the UK. A series of job losses have been implemented by Aviva in the UK since its creation in 2000.
Eurofound (2008), Norwich Union, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 66717, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/66717.