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 Pierre Fabre pharmaceutical company has announced it will cut about 551 positions by 2015 in the framework of its "new strategic plan entitled "Trajectoire 2018" focused on innovation, international development and sustainable value creation". The group explains its decision indicating thats its pharmaceuticals division has become "very fragile due to the double effect of low R&D productivity and a major loss of revenues in France following the huge regulatory pressure put on the pharmaceuticals industry (delisting of mature drugs, price drops, rapid rise of generics, etc.)".
The implementation of this plan will result in a reduction of the R&D workforce. The number of positions will decrease from 925 to 658 by 2016, resulting in a workforce reduction of 272 people when taking into account vacancies and job creations. A reduction of 279 staff is also foreseen in the company's commercial medical units.
This is the first social plan in Pierre Fabre's history and management has indicated that it wants to limit the number of job cuts to a minimum, "by providing access to measures encouraging internal and external mobility, as well as professional retraining". The group wants also to "compensate for the R&D jobs lost by offering transfers to growing activities in the Group, as a priority in the Midi-Pyrénées" and to support professional retraining. Pierre Fabre also take the commitment to preserve its "overall workforce level in the Tarn area where the company was born". To smooth employment impacts, the group will set up a mission to "revitalize territories, targeting the Tarn, Haute-Garonne and Corrèze areas".
Eurofound (2014), Pierre Fabre, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 78026, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/78026.