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.
Italian bank Carige Banca announced the forthcoming reduction of its headcount by 500 workers. The bank employs about 5,000 employees in Italy, mostly located in Liguria and Toscana.
The job cuts were agreed with unions after the bank disclosed in July its industrial plan. The plan aimed at reversing the negative budget performance by disposing of non-performing loans, reducing labour costs and branches, strengthening the focus on retail and small business clients, and differentiating the services to clients.
The exits will be managed without recurring to collective dismissals. In detail, the bank and unions set the target of 600 incentivised retirements by 2020 for employees already reaching public pension requirement over the next three years and the hiring of at least 100 workers during the same period.
In order to reduce costs and avoid further job losses, the agreement also envisages a three-day reduction of annual worked days for 2017 and 2018 (increased to five for managers).
Eurofound (2016), Banca Carige, Internal restructuring in Italy, factsheet number 89710, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/89710.