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.
Vueling is preparing an employee redundancy programme to cut posts in its maintenance division in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville, according to airlines sources, although they have not finalised the number of people affected. The layoffs are a result of the merger with Clickair, following which Iberia took over responsibility for the airlines' maintenance work. In total, 200 posts will be reduced, with some of them reassigned to Groundforce, which looks after Iberia's handling. Vueling will also try to encourage around 50 office workers to take voluntary redundancy, although it is still not certain which departments will be affected, according to Efe yesterday. For now, Vueling plans this week to begin negotiating the introduction of the programme with the Department of Employment, while informing employees of the measure. These actions will conclude the workforce adjustment which Vueling has carried out to adapt to its progressive fleet reduction, from 24 to 16 planes, undertaken over the last few months, and to bring about the merger with Clickair.
Eurofound (2009), Vueling, Merger/Acquisition in Spain, factsheet number 68977, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/68977.