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 management of Schering-Plough Labo NV announced its intention to cut 89 jobs on its site in Heist-op-den-Berg and Boortmeerbeek (Flanders) before mid-2011. The company operats in the production and the packaging of medicines in conjunction with Sentipharm AG its sister company responsible for the distribution of the medicines around the world. This measure is the consequence of the merger in November 2009 of the two parent companies in the United States, involving the implementation of a restructuring plan in the Belgian subsidiaries. The recent loss of patents is one of the main reasons behind this reorganization.
Update 21st April: the company announced 270 collective redundancies instead of the 89 initially planned.
Eurofound (2010), Schering-Plough Labo NV and Sentipharm AG, Internal restructuring in Belgium, factsheet number 70377, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/70377.