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.
Italian sugar manufacturer Eridania Sadam is to dismiss 162 employees at its sites of Castiglion Fiorentino (Arezzo), Celano (L’Aquila), Fermo and Jesi (Ancona).
The plants were closed following the drastic reduction of sugar production quotas agreed by the EU and the Italian Government in 2006 in the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy. Over recent years, the company, trade unions and public institutions signed agreements in order to reconvert the plants using public subsidies. Meanwhile, workers have benefitted from the Wages Guarantee Funds, which are to expire by the end of June 2015. However, as the public authorisations needed to convert the sites have not been released yet, and a further prorogation of the Wages Guarantee Fund is not possible, the company is initiating a mobility procedure with a view to hiring back the workers in case the plans will eventually be accepted.
Eurofound (2015), Eridania Sadam, Closure in Italy, factsheet number 79335, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/79335.