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 car manufacturer company Seat, which belongs to Volkswagen group, will eliminate 400 temporary agency jobs at its plant in Martorell (Barcelona). Thus, the company will not renew the temporary agency jobs that will finish between October 2015 and July 2016, once these workers have completed a year in the company, which is the maximum time allowed to be hired as temporary agency worker. In order to keep the employees the company must hire them as regular employees, something which the company has rejected. The trade unions oppose this measure. According to them, the work foreseen would require at least that 100 of those employees remain in the company. Seat aims to save €100 million annually with this measure and other plans.
Eurofound (2015), Seat, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 85285, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/85285.