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.
Berloni, one of the main Italian producers of furnishing products for the house, is to cut 166 jobs in its five Italian plants. According to the company, the reorganisation plan and the job cuts are due to the fall in sales and to the negative effects on the furnishing market caused by the recent economic crisis. In order to cushion these negative effects the company and the trade unions reached an agreement at the end of 2010 on the recourse to the job-security agreement for two years. The new restructuring plan provides for the recourse to a two-year extraordinary Wage Guarantee Fund scheme. At the end of this period, the mobility procedures will start for 166 workers. The trade unions were surprised by the new company's decision and they expressed intention to find alternative solutions in order to avoid the job-cuts. Berloni has around 400 employees in its five plants.
Updated, 26-09-2014: On 25 September 2014, trade unions and Berloni signed an agreement that will lead to the collective dismissal of about 140 employees of the company. Redundant workers will benefit mobility allowance. The company has gone bankrupt but a NewCo, Berloni Group, owned by Berloni family and the transnational company Hcg, is expected to acquire, by the next October, the kitchen production business unit, hiring the remaining 100 workers.
Eurofound (2011), Berloni, Bankruptcy in Italy, factsheet number 71991, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/71991.