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.
Texas Instruments, manufacturer of semi-conductors, revealed plans to lay off 1,700 employees as part of a previously announced cost-cutting strategy. The company plans to move away from producing application chips for mobile phones due to the strong competition in this field.
Texas Instruments currently employs approximately 35,000 staff worldwide with more than 80 per cent of its workforce in the Americas and Asia and some workforce in Europe (9 per cent) and Japan (6 per cent). The announced job cuts will affect approximately 5 per cent of its current global workforce.
According to a senior official of the company, Texas Instruments is planning to work closely with all staff affected by the redundancies, by providing a range of support measures such as compensation, benefits and job search guidance.
A timeline for the restructuring has yet to be announced.
Eurofound (2012), Texas Instruments, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 74493, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/74493.