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.
US-based IT group Intel announced in April 2016 that it would cut its international work force by 11%, a total of 12,000 jobs. In June of the same year, the management announced that the company expect to cut about 80% of its French workers, and almost 750 employees will be dismissed. The plan has been confirmed in July. Employees and unions have taken contact with the ministry of Labour and local government to put pressure on Intel with the aim to reduce the number of job cuts. According to the management, Intel's results for the second quarter of 2016 showed that its net profit fell by 51%. Intel expects to close 5 R&D sites in South France will be affected: Aix-en-Provence (about 35 job cuts), Sophia Antipolis (200 job cuts), Toulouse (280 job cuts), Montpellier (36 job cuts). But job cuts are also expected in the West, in Rennes. A representative from the CFE-CGC union has explained that the government subsidies and research tax credit put France in a position to offer the lowest salary in the Western world for engineers. However, the union has highlighted that the group is moving its R&D facilities and how-know to other countries. Unions wish to open a social dialogue to reduce the number of job cuts even through reduction of pay-roll.
Eurofound (2016), Intel Corporation, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 88299, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/88299.