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.
Nokia supplier, Laird Technologies, is to close its Hungarian manufacturing plant in Szombathely, capital of Vas County (West Hungary), affecting in total 700 workers. Temporary agency workers had already been laid off in November while 127 employees are expected to lose their job by February 2009. Although up till the middle of December it seemed that more than 200 people would be able to keep their jobs, a recent announcement by the company's CEO in Hungary confirmed the complete closure of the factory by spring 2009. The St Louis (USA) based company is a leading producer of antennas, electromagnetic interfaces and other data communication related equipment, which opened its Hungarian plant in 2005 and had been creating new jobs until late summer 2008. The Szombathely plant was producing antennas for mobile phones and has been badly hit by the shrinking demand for new mobile handsets caused by the economic crisis.
Eurofound (2008), Laird Technologies, Closure in Hungary, factsheet number 67730, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/67730.