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.
Footwear manufacturer Gabor is to relocate production to Slovakia from a site in Spittal, Carinthia by the end of 2010, dismissing all of the remaining 170 employees of the Austrian site which is to close.
According to the company's CEO, Leopold Ebner, the closure is due to the recession and the increasing cost pressure. The 170 staff members set to lose their jobs are presently engaged in manufacturing of samples. This will be transferred to the Slovakian production site. Severance terms for the employees will be negotiated, according to Mr Ebner.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Gabor still operated three production sites in Austria. In 1992, the Deutschlandsberg site was closed down, which affected 300 employees, followed by the closure of the Villach site in 1995. Up until 2003, the production site in Spittal was still employing 950 staff members, but reduced its workforce over the course of the following years. The most recent reduction took place in 2009, when the serial production of shoes was ceased. Gabor dismissed 250 of its 400 employees at the time (see related factsheet ).
The Austrian site is a subsidiary of the German shoe manufacturer Gabor which is headquartered in Rosenheim. It operates further production sites in Slovakia and Portugal.
Eurofound (2010), Gabor, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Austria, factsheet number 70304, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/70304.