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.
Construction machinery manufacturer Liebherr International announced the creation of 400 new jobs in Germany. The entire group intends to hire 2,000 new employees in 2011. This is part of a worldwide business expansion which will result in the creation of 2,000 new jobs. The company employed nearly 32,979 staff at the end of 2010 and it is now experiencing rising demand for its products.
Turnover of Liebherr International, which is headquartered in Switzerland, increased by 14% to just under EUR 3.30bn (USD 4.67bn) in the first half of 2011. Liebherr International managing director Winfried Böhm expects growth to continue in the second half of 2011. The company plans among others to invest into new machine for the plants in Biberach (Germany) and Nizhny Novgorod and the expansion of factories in Brazil and India.
Liebherr International employed just under 33,000 people at the end of 2010, almost 14,000 employees thereof in Germany. The group specialises among others in construction machinery, cranes, refrigerators and freezers as well as machine tools.
Eurofound (2011), Liebherr International, Business expansion in Germany, factsheet number 72242, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/72242.