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 online retailer Amazon is to create 4,000 new jobs at its two logistics centers in Prague and Brno. The centers are to be opened by the second half of 2014 and job creation will follow in the three subsequent years.
With the new logistics centers, the company responds to growing demand across Europe.
On top of the 4,000 new jobs recently announced, about 6,000 workers will be hired periodically as seasonal workers.
Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and employs about 88,400 staff worldwide. In Europe, the company is so far operating 23 logistics centers. Earlier this year, the company had already announced the creation of 600 permanent jobs in another logistics center close to Prague.
Update, 02-04-2014:
Amazon announced that it would not build a distribution centre in Brno where 1,500 were to be created. Amazon said that long-term negotiations did not bring any meaningful results. Neither the city of Brno nor the South Moravian region would provide satisfactory industrial estate. Amazon will look for an alternative location in Central Europe.
Eurofound (2013), Amazon, Business expansion in Czechia, factsheet number 76028, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/76028.