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 20th of July, the plywood manufacturer Plyrosol International announced the closure of its two sites and dismissal of its 182 employees. The site located in Fontenay-le-Comte (Vendée) employs 112 people and another one in Lisieux (Calvados) - 70 people.
The company was taken over by a Chinese company in 2009 and was placed in bankruptcy one year after. The Lebanese group Ghassan Bitar bought Plyrosol in October 2010.
The new management aims to transfer production and some of the employees to its plant of Epernay (Marne) over 2013 and to sell the two closed sites. The plan of the management has to be approved by the commercial court in September.
UPDTADE 10 September 2012: the Commercial Court of Lisieux has decided the liquidation of the company that employed 277 employees. Three sites will be closed: Lisieux, 70 employees ; Fontenay-le-Comte, 112 employees; and Epernay, 95 employees. The employees that will receive their dismissal letters want to pursue the activities in the framework of a cooperative. The have asked for the support from the state.
Eurofound (2012), Plysorol International, Closure in France, factsheet number 73918, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/73918.