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.
On 5 October 2011, unions protested to put pressure on the management of US pharmaceutical group Schering-Plough which had announced, in February, a redundancy plan at their site in Hérouville-Saint-Clair (428 employees).
Some 100 jobs are expected to be cut at the site. However the management decided to freeze the restructuring until 31 December 2011 and, meanwhile, find a company to take over the pharmaceutical activities of the site.
CGT union representative Joël Boyer said management has indicated that due to lack of buyer for the pharmaceutical part of the site, production will be transferred to Germany and the Netherlands. The restructuring plan is a consequence of the process of merging with fellow US pharmaceutical company Merck. When the merger was announced, Merck indicated that 15% of the global workforce of the two groups would be cut.
Eurofound (2011), Schering-Plough, Merger/Acquisition in France, factsheet number 72542, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/72542.