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.
UK cable manufacturer, AEI Cables has announced that more than 200 jobs are at risk at its factory located in Birtley in Country Durham. A 45-day formal consultation period on redundancies will start on September 14, 2016. A buyer is being sought however the factory might be closed altogether which would see all of the 240 staff being made redundant. In operation for 175 years, AEI Cables has been losing money for a number of years and only been able to continue operating because of financing from its parent company. The factory was purchased out of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) two years ago by the Dubai-based Ducab Group when volatile copper prices and competition from cheaper imports resulted in more than 100 workers at AEI Cable being made redundant.
Updated, 03/01/2017; Following unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer for AEI Cables, parent company Ducab Group has decided to close the manufacturing base. 200 staff will be made redundant in the first week of January 2017, with another 40 staff to go by the beginning of March 2017. As happened with the previous owners, Duncab Group has chosen to enter a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) and redundancies will not be paid to staff. Staff may apply to the Government's Statutory Redundancy Pay Scheme.
Eurofound (2016), AEI Cables, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 88503, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/88503.