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.
Hellenic Petroleum, Greece's biggest refiner, launched voluntary retirement for 150 administrative staff to save costs as it plans to hire 297 workers in its core refining business.
The group's CEO announced Friday 12 June 2009 an early voluntary exit plan for 150 employees till late summer as the company is cutting operating costs and wants to boost earnings from its core refining and marketing operations, targeting a doubling of its operating profit by 2012. The plan targets mainly the administrative division for workers aged 47-48. The group separately plans to hire 297 new employees in its refining business, where it plans to spend around 1.4 billion euros ($1.97 billion) by 2012 to upgrade facilities at Aspropyrgos and Elefsina, near Athens, and Thessaloniki. Employees concerned by the early retirement scheme are likely to take up the offer, according to the secretary general of Hellenic Petroleum's. Hellenic Petroleum is a Greece-based company active in the energy sector. Its main activity is Refining, consisting of three refineries in Greece (Aspropyrgos, Thessaloniki, and Elefsina) and one in the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (OKTA). The Group's other sectors are: Retail Sales of Petroleum Products; Petrochemicals/Chemicals; Oil & Gas Exploration and Production; Engineering, providing engineering and consulting services; Power Generation Production & Trading; Participation to Natural Gas, and Pipeline Networks - Sea Transportation. The Group is active in 10 countries in southeast Europe and Middle East and employs 5,184 people in Greece and abroad.
Eurofound (2009), Hellenic Petroleum, Internal restructuring in Greece, factsheet number 69122, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/69122.