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.
Elektropont, a retailer of electrical goods, has closed down all 70 of its stores in Hungary, leading to 250 job losses.
The company, founded in 1990 in Baja (Bács-Kiskun county) operated since 1997 as a nationwide retail chain selling electrical products for domestic use. Though some of the major suppliers had already withdrawn their products from the stores, the closure was finally triggered by the cancellation of the credit insurance of the company, which impeded continuing the company's operations. Earlier the chain lost a strategic investment when the German Electronic Partner Gmbh. sold its 25% shares to the majority shareholder.
After the closure of the stores, the company's 250 workers were not dismissed but were instead offered the termination of their contract on mutual agreement. They did not initially receive their salaries. Their situation was rectified after a liquidator paid off the remaining workers.
Eurofound (2008), Elektropont, Closure in Hungary, factsheet number 69242, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/69242.