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.
In April 2014, the tobacco products manufacturer Philip Morris has announced that it will end cigarette production in Melbourne (Australia) by the end of this year (180 job cuts) as the company shifts production to South Korea and it will close its factory in Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands on 1 October 2014. This site employs 1,370 employees, and 1,230 manufacturing workers risk losing their jobs. An additional 400 workers employed by service providers are also affected, as are an estimated 2,000 jobs in the region.
The ERM has also reported on restructuring in Italy and the Netherlands in 2014.
Eurofound (2014), Philip Morris International, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 76924, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/76924.