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.
British American Tobacco (BAT), the world’s second biggest manufacturer of cigarettes, is to cut 50 out of 400 jobs in Hamburg in the coming one and a half years.
The reduction will affect departments such as IT and international purchasing which will be relocated to London. A social plan is to be established including early retirement possibilities. The measure is part of an international restructuring plan. As is the case for the cigarette industry internationally, BAT suffers from the decreasing number of smokers. The company has indicated that it will focus increasingly on the production of electric cigarettes.
The company employs around 2,000 people in Germany.
Eurofound (2015), British American Tobacco, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 79239, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/79239.