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.
Shop Direct, an owner of a number of home shopping brands, announced plans to cut 1500 jobs. The company will close three call centres in Sunderland, Burnley, and Newtown in Powys. The closures are blamed on a sharp decline in the number of customers using the phone services to shop followed by a significant increase of the proportion of sales made online from 18% to more than 60%. The GMB union has been in negotiations with the company, but as of 1 February 2010 there is no further information on the case.
Eurofound (2010), Shop Direct, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 70128, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/70128.