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 Norwegian-Swiss parquet producer Bauwerk Boen is to shut down its production site in Salzburg, making 114 out of 154 employees redundant. The manufacture of standard parquet will be relocated to the group's production site in Kietaviskes (Lithuania) (see here). Only marketing and sales for Austria will remain in Salzburg. The restructuring is to be finished by next spring. The reason for the closure in Salzburg is a strong price pressure which has been around for several years due to overcapacities and cheap imports. Due to the lower production costs in Lithuania, the company will remain competitive. The company, which has only recently been formed via a fusion of the Swiss Bauwerk Parkett and the Norwegian Boes AS, hopes to secure the remaining 40 jobs in Salzburg in the long run.
According to the company, Bauwerk Boen wants to consensually terminate all 114 employment relationships, thus granting the concerned workers better conditions than would apply with a regular notice of termination. Together with the Public Employment Service (AMS) Salzburg, further measures in order to guarantee a socially acceptable restructuring process will be evaluated.
Eurofound (2013), Bauwerk Boen, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Austria, factsheet number 75517, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/75517.