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.
DFDS Seaways, a passenger ferry company, has announced that it will cut 130 jobs as a result of the decision to terminate the Harwich to Esbjerg ferry route connecting the UK to Denmark which it operates.
The decision to terminate the ferry route, which constituted the only still operating ferry route between the UK and Scandinavia, was blamed by the company on the high costs necessary to comply with new environmental regulations restricting sulphur emissions, as well as on the dwindling number of passengers and increasing competition from low-cost airlines.
The 130 job losses will affect both on-board and on-shore workers, but it is not yet known how they will be split between the UK and Denmark. In its announcement, the company stated that most on-board workers may be redeployed to alternative ferry routes operated by the company.
For previous restructuring see DFDS 2008.
Eurofound (2014), DFDS Seaways, Internal restructuring in European Union, factsheet number 77003, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/77003.