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.
The Danish abattoir, Danish Crown announced on 23 March 2010 that around 600 employees would be fired 'in the near future' as a consequence of the newly signed collective agreement in the sector signed by the social partners in meat production, DI on the employer side and NNF on the employee side. Danish Crown had pressed the negotiators for a 'zero-solution', i.e. no wage increases, but the final agreement contained small wage increases. On this background Danish Crown declared that they would follow a plan B of the company's recently implemented 'scheme of surviving', DC Future, which imply lay-offs.
On 7 April the director of Danish Crown announced that 580 employees in five departments under the pork meat division will be made redundant on this account. According to the director the cutbacks cover streamlining, offshoring and normal adaption. The department in Esbjerg will loose 328 employees. The evening shift will be closed. Smaller reductions will take place in Horsens, Skærbæk and Blans. 192 employees in Rødding will as of now most likely be fired.
According to the union, NNF, they had demanded 'job guarantee' if the they agreed to a decrease at company level, but Danish Crown had not given any guarantees, they said. Furthermore, they argued, it is unheard-of that a large company threatens with offshoring and firings while the organisations are negotiating a renewal of the collective agreement in the sector. The negotiating employer organisation, DI, has not commented the case.
Eurofound (2010), Danish Crown, Internal restructuring in Denmark, factsheet number 70371, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/70371.