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.
Alstom Estonia AS, a company in Ida-Virumaa, Narva announced to cut their jobs by 94 workers, which is about a third of their current workforce. It affects workers maintaining and repairing the equipment of Narva power plants (Narva Elektrijaamad) including for example locksmiths and welders. Although the plan for restructuring was already in the agenda at the beginning of 2016, it was postponed due to additional contractual orders. The company stated that now the workload is lower and it will reduce considerably as of 2017, which is why the lay-off is necessary.
The trade union representing the workers do not understand the need for lay-offs, stating that the employees have plenty of work. They are concerned about the future of the operation of the company,in case the work volume should increase again. As they find the redundancy unfounded, they notified the Estonian Labour Inspectorate to inspect the actions of the company.
The Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund (EUIF) will help the workers to find new jobs and organise information days and job fairs for them in the framework of response service to collective redundancies. EUIF is confident that most of the workers will find a new job, since a new metalwork factory is planned to be opened in Narva in the near future; in that case the skills of those workers will still be needed on the labour market.
Eurofound (2016), AS Alstom Estonia, Internal restructuring in Estonia, factsheet number 88592, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/88592.