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.
On 8 January 2009 FG Wilson, a company manufacturing diesel and gas generator sets, announced that it is to cut 260 jobs at three plants in County Antrim. The company had previously announced the cut of 160 jobs at the three sites in Northern Ireland. The firm, which currently employs 3,000 people, will make 138 cuts at Larne, 77 at Springvale and 45 at Monkstown.
The company attributed the cuts to a reduction in demand and it stated that the redundancies were necessary in order to secure the 'long term interests of the business'. As a response, the company received applications for voluntary redundancy from a total of 350 employees and announced that it will accept the majority of them.
Eurofound (2009), FG Wilson, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 67686, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/67686.