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.
Unipapel, a Spanish company specialised in the manufacture and sale of paper products, has announced to the trade unions that It will apply a labour force adjustment plan affecting 109 workers. Most of the dismissals (79) will be concentrated in the plant in Tres Cantos (Madrid). In addition, 13 workers will be affected in the plant of Logroño and 17 in Aduna (Guipuzcoa). Moreover, the workers that will remain in the company will be temporarily suspended, subject to a temporary labour force plan.
Unipapel belongs to the investment fund Springwater.
Update 06/07/2016: Unipapel has announced that it will replace the employment adjustment plan with a temporary dismissal plan that will last for one year. However, it will affect all staff in Spain, which is a total of 329 workers. It was explained to the president of the Working committee that this decision will not guarantee the future of the company. The president of the working committee stressed that workers have not received wages since April 2016.
Eurofound (2016), Unipapel, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 87608, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/87608.