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.
Iskraemeco is a producer of electrical and mechanical equipment and systems for energy measurement based in Kranj. The company has gone through a long and painful process of internal restructuring, which seemed to be finished with the acquisition of the company by the Egyptian company El Sewedy Cables. The deal was that El Sewedy will gradually decrease the production of mechanical meters and at the same time gradually increase the production of electrical meters. It was planned that the workers would be gradually transferred from one production line to another and that there would be no negative employment impact. This process was supposed to finish by 2010. Now, El Sewedy has changed its plans. The production of mechanical meters will be relocated to Egypt by the beginning of March 2009 resulting in the loss of 370 jobs in Iskraemeco (the current number of employees is approximately 980). The main reason is lower labour costs in Egypt than in Slovenia. The company will have to pay approximately EUR 9 million of indemnity money to the dismissed workers.
Eurofound (2008), Iskraemeco, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Slovenia, factsheet number 67711, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/67711.