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.
Birmingham City Council is to cut 2,000 jobs, which constitutes 5% of the workforce, as part of plans to cut £70m. It is hoped that early retirement and voluntary redundancy will make up the majority of the job losses. It is suggested that a multi-million pound overspend in child protection services and services for older people and adults with learning disabilities has necessitated the current savings. No date was given by which job losses are expected to be completed.
Tony Rabaiotti, of local government workers union Unison, stated "What the council is trying to do is offer a kind of moral blackmail to employees and that is not good enough. These are political decisions." Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, said: "This is a massive number of job cuts, and the council cannot be serious. It is absolutely wrong to push local government workers on to the dole queues. Birmingham needs its local government workers working, providing the vital services families in the community need to help them recover from the recession."
Eurofound (2010), Birmingham City Council, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 70177, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/70177.