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.
UK supermarket chain Marks & Spencer will close nine stores across the UK resulting in the loss of 430 jobs. Three of the stores marked for closure are traditional food and clothing outlets located in Stevenage, Wood Green in North London and in Castle Bromwich near Birmingham. A Simply Food outlet located in Shirley, also near Birmingham is among the sites being closed. The outlet five stores that sell end-of-season clothing are located in Walsall, Aldershot, Pontypridd in Wales, Hounslow in west London and North Shields.
The closures are reportedly the result of Marks & Spencer plans to modernise stores as consumers shift to online shopping. The company has said that the 430 affected workers will be offered jobs at other stores located nearby. Prior to this announcement, Marks & Spencer had 852 stores in the United Kingdom including 302 traditional clothing and food stores, 46 outlet stores and 504 Simply Food stores.
Eurofound (2015), Marks & Spencer, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 84337, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/84337.