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 the 8th of November shipbuilding group DCNS announced a voluntary departure plan covering 150 to 200 redundancies by the end of 2012. These voluntary redundancies as well as the non-replacement of natural departures and early retirement will lead to a total job reduction of about 800 in 2012 (6,5% of the workforce).
DCNS group is jointly owned by the French state (75%) and by the electronics group Thales (25%). The company aims to increase its competitiveness and operating margin.
The unions denounced that there was no economic ground for this plan and that the job reductions were inconsistent with DCNS's current economic ambitions.
Eurofound (2011), DCNS, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 72721, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/72721.