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.
Swedish automotive industry manufacturer, Scania, is to hire 400 workers at one of the company's sites in Södertälje, Sweden.
In 2014, the Scania Group became part of the Volkswagen Group, and this week Scania has signed an agreement with the Metal Worker's Union to follow Volkswagen's policy concerning temporary agency workers. According to the new agreement, the share of temporary agency workers cannot make up more than ten percent of the site's total labour force of metal workers. Therefore, 400 (out of 800) of the workers now employed through agencies will be offered permanent contracts directly with Scania. Furthermore, the new agreement states that a person who has been employed as a temporary agency worker for two years will be automatically offered a permanent contract with Scania.
Scania operates in around 100 countries and employs 35,000 people worldwide. The ERM has reported on previous restructuring events at Scania's Swedish sites in 2014, 2011, 2010, 2006 and 2005.
Eurofound (2015), Scania, Business expansion in Sweden, factsheet number 83594, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/83594.