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.
Clothing retailer Austin Reed is set to cut 1,000 jobs after failing to find a buyer for the business. The company announced in April 2016 that it would be entering administration and at that point, there were hopes that a buyer could be found. The Edinburgh Woollen Mill owner Philip Day did come forward to buy the Austin Reed Brand as well as the Country Casuals Brand. As part of the deal five concession outlets, located in Boundary Mills stores were also sold; a move which saved 28 jobs. However there has been no buyer for the bulk of the business, meaning that 120 stores will close by the end of June 2016.
Eurofound (2016), Austin Reed, Bankruptcy in United Kingdom, factsheet number 87866, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/87866.