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.
Steelmaker Corus has announced plans to suspend operations at its Teeside plant making the 1,920 employees redundant. The announcement came after the decision of a consortium of four international steel slab buyers to terminate their contract with Corus earlier than the foreseen date. According to the supply agreement, the four multinationals would buy about 78% of the site's production until 2014. The company has entered into negotiations with the employees and it stated that it will take all legal measures to ensure that the buyers will meet their contractual obligations. Corus has also asked for the government's assistance while exploring alternative options which might secure the plant's future.
In December 2009, Corus announced that the closure will result in 1700 losses instead of 1920 initially announced in May. The company is partially mothballing the plant, shutting its blast furnace, its steel melt shop and one of the two coke ovens. It will be keeping open the wharf facility that handles imports and shipping, the other coke oven and some of the power generation capacity. After failures to save the business, the cuts will be implemented by the end of January 2010.
Eurofound (2009), Corus, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 68872, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/68872.