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.
US cigarette paper Schweitzer-Mauduit International Inc. has announced that Papeterie de Malaucène is slated to shut down in September. The 211 workers are asking the government to intervene to help find a buyer for the plant.
On 22 July, two managers of US cigarette paper manufacturer Schweitzer-Mauduit were held by workers for more than three hours over redundancy plans. The workers held two managers of US cigarette paper manufacturer Schweitzer-Mauduit for more than three hours in Malaucene in southeastern France, demanding they continue to negotiate over the closing of their plant, officials and witnesses said.
Union representatives at a string of French companies have recently barricaded their managers in their offices during negotiations over job losses and restructuring, releasing them only when concessions have been agreed.
The wave of incidents, which in some cases has seen managers locked in overnight but always released unharmed, has added a more menacing twist to France's often-tense industrial relations.
Eurofound (2009), Papeterie de Malaucène, Closure in France, factsheet number 69349, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/69349.