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.
Globus closes down its meat processing plant in Budapest, dismissing 216 workers with the aim of rationalising costs and concentrating its efforts on two other profitable ventures: frozen products and canned vegetable. This measure is strongly opposed by trade unions present in the plant, who claim that the restructuring plan is illegal, as the company failed to comply with legal requirements when it failed to inform them in advance about its plan. CEBAB, the French owner of Globus, gave a wide variety of reasons to justify the restructuring, which includes the falling demand for processed meat products but also the falling exchange rate of the local currency. Although the closure was announced only on 16 March, when production ceased, redundancy will only take effect from 7 May. With the ceasing of meat production at Globus, a 125-year tradition will also disappear from the Hungarian food processing industry.
Eurofound (2009), Globus Konzervipari, Closure in Hungary, factsheet number 68791, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/68791.