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.
The public hospital Severo Ochoa in Madrid announced to its employees the intention to carry out 130 redundancies, effective on the last day of 2012. The dismissals affect both medical and auxiliary staff, the majority on fixed-term contracts that will not be renewed.
The figure has been confirmed by the unions, although there are indications that the number could rise to 219. They have also expressed their concern that the job cuts could lead to long waiting-lists for patients. The employees' representatives blame the dismissals on the healthcare reform which allows the hospital's management to outsource some of the services to private companies.
The creation of the public-private partnership for providing healthcare services has been the hallmark of the new public healthcare reform carried out in the Autonomous Community of Madrid. In Spain decisions on public healthcare are taken by the regional governments. Accordingly, every region/autonomous community can implement its own reforms in order to deal with the public spending cuts imposed by the national government.
Eurofound (2012), Hospital Severo Ochoa, Outsourcing in Spain, factsheet number 74796, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/74796.