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.
Comdata, a transaction processing services provider, is to create 914 new jobs. The creation of new jobs derived from a business branch transfer from Vodafone Italia - one of the main telecommunications providers operating in Italy - to Comdata. The business branch transfer was announced in September 2007 and involves 914 workers. The two companies and the main sectoral trade unions reached an agreement which defines the conditions of the transfer with particular regard to protections and guarantees for the workers involved. Among the guarantees, the agreement envisages that Vodafone Italia and Comdata undertake to guarantee full employment stability during the seven years of the deal, except in the case of voluntary resignations and dismissals for just cause. Moreover, the transferred workers are entitled to all of the rights and economic and legal protections laid down by the national and sectoral collective agreements, as well as to the benefits provided at company level. Comdata consequently undertakes to apply to the transferred workers the nationwide collective agreement for the telecommunications sector in force for Vodafone, and the supplementary agreements stipulated by the company regulating performance-related pay and other matters. An employee referendum in November 2007 approved the agreement. The turnout at the referendum amounted to 707 out of the 914 workers entitled to vote. Among the voters, 406 workers cast votes in favour of the agreement, and 291 against it, while 10 ballot papers were blank and/or spoiled. Comdata is leader in customer management services. In Italy, it has around 20 sites and 4,000 employees.
Information on the agreement on transfer of Vodafone employees to Comdata is available on the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO).
Eurofound (2007), Comdata, Business expansion in Italy, factsheet number 67077, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/67077.