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.
SNS Bank has announced to its employees that between 800 and 900 full time jobs will be cut in the next four years. The reorganisation is to result in cost savings amounting to €100 million in the coming years, which is deemed necessary due to the currently low interest rates putting pressure on the bank's profit by decreasing the difference between earnings on mortgages and expenditure on private savings accounts, the bank's most important products. As of December 2016, it is yet uncertain which departments will be affected and whether forced redundancies will be necessary, but it is certain that part of the redundancies will be among external hires. The union FNV has again expressed its concern about ongoing restructuring in the banking sector and calls for concerted efforts by both employers and employees to bring it to a halt. SNS Bank was nationalised in 2013 and is the only large bank in the Netherlands that has not implemented large-scale reorganisations in recent years. It now is the last bank to reorganise, following Rabobank, ABN Amro and ING.
Eurofound (2016), SNS Bank, Internal restructuring in Netherlands, factsheet number 89720, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/89720.