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.
US energy multinational Chevron has announced that it will reduce by 225 jobs the number of workers that are based in Aberdeen, Scotland. The internal restructuring of the company that has resulted in these job losses is part of a broader review of its business operations in the North Sea. The company has stated that the aim of the restructuring was to refocus its operations upon a more ‘asset-based design’ and to give it greater flexibility.
The job cuts represent around one-fifth of the workforce in Aberdeen, which was comprised of 1,100 people including both employees and contractors before the announcement was made. The company has stated that there is a possibility that the final number of job cuts could be reduced to some degree, should it be possible to relocate some of the impacted employees to jobs in other countries where Chevron has operations or because some staff can be repatriated to Scotland from abroad.
Eurofound (2014), Chevron Upstream Europe, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 77332, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/77332.