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.
Total, the French multinational energy company, presented a voluntary redundancy scheme affecting 100 employees per year for the next 6 years. The departure plan will be open to all employees with more than 10 years seniority within the company. Employees are able to submit their demand to participate in the scheme until mid-September 2011. The company aims at reducing costs in order to cope with the increasing competition from the European market and the ongoing downtrend in consumer demand. Half of the redundancies concern the headquarters in La Défense, the rest affects sites all over France.
Total is a leading multinational energy company with 96,387 employees and operations in more than 130 countries. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading.
Eurofound (2011), Total, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 71876, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/71876.