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 South-African pharmaceuticals producer Aspen has announced job losses of 140 full-time jobs at the chemical production plant in Oss, in the southern part of the Netherlands. A smaller plant in the nearby town of Boxtel will remain unaffected. The job losses are the result of the obsolescence of the plant's facilities and potential future safety hazards, which have led management to decide to move the activities partially to a newer plant outside of the city and partially to the company's locations in India and South-Africa. There have been no immediate dismissals as of April 2016, but the total reorganisation is to have been implemented by the end of 2017. Both the employer and a trade union official of one of the larger trade unions in the Netherlands, CNV, have stated that a good social plan has been negotiated for the employees losing their jobs, with a focus on helping them to find new jobs. This will, however, be a challenge for older workers who will be made redundant, according to CNV official Jelle Loosman. Aspen is a global player with some 10,000 employees, with manufacturing plants in 11 countries. Aspen has owned the plant in Oss since 2013, when it acquired part of the pharmaceutical company MSD. The job losses in Oss follow the loss of 40 jobs announced in January 2016, to be carried out between April and June 2016.
Eurofound (2016), Aspen, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Netherlands, factsheet number 87373, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/87373.