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.
The German mail-order retailer Otto is to close down one of its five sites in Austria - i.e. a plant in Graz (Styria) responsible for delivery and sending back services. Thus, 270 employees stand to lose their jobs, starting redundancies in the first quarter of 2010. This was announced by the German headquarters on 4 February 2009. The planned redundancies have been justified with the need to streamline the whole group's logistics structure and the fact that the Graz site has had to suffer considerable geographic disadvantages compared with other sites. A social plan for the workers affected is currently being developed. The closure of the Graz plant is part of an encompassing restructuring programme of the whole Otto group. However, the remaining plants in Austria are currently not planned to be subject to restructuring measures.
Eurofound (2009), Otto Logistics, Closure in Austria, factsheet number 68253, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/68253.