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.
On 30 September 2016, Pharmaceutical Company Boehringer Ingelheim announced plans to cut up to 9, 000 jobs in Germany by 2021/2022. Mainly affected will be the company's headquarter at Ingelheim as well as its sites in Dortmund and Biberach. According to the spokesperson of Boehringer Ingelheim, the company wants to relocate the production of pharmaceutical products, which are easier to produce in other countries, in order to save costs.
According to sources, job cuts will be implemented as socially acceptable as possible and direct dismissals will be avoided. The company plans to reduce their staff through termination of temporary contracts as well as temporary agency workers and partial retirement. At the moment, about 20% of staff at the headquarter in Ingelheim are employed with a fixed-term contract.
Boehringer Ingelheim employs 3,800 staff in the pharmaceutical production in Germany and in total 47,500 people worldwide. For the latest restructuring see (Boehringer Ingelheim, 2014).
Eurofound (2016), Boehringer Ingelheim, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 88763, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/88763.