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.
Xilinx, a Dublin-based technology firm that manufactures microchips, has announced 130 job losses over the course of the next nine months as a result of the offshoring of some manufacturing and testing operations from Ireland - primarily to Singapore. The company has attributed the redundancies to a 'global reorganisation to ensure ongoing competitiveness'. The redundancies are compulsory, and it is understood that relocation to Singapore is not being offered to Dublin based staff. Staff have been offered redundancy terms of six weeks pay per year of service up to a maximum of one year's pay, on top of statutory redundancy.
Eurofound (2009), Xilinx, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Ireland, factsheet number 68727, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/68727.