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.
The Dutch insurance provider Achmea, which owns a range of brands providing health, indemnity and income insurance policies, has announced an extension of the internal restructuring programme started in 2013, adding 2,000 job reductions to the already implemented 4,000, to be completed by 2020. Continued redundancies are deemed necessary for the company to be 'future-proof', with a smaller, more efficient workforce, cost reductions of €200 million, and an improved online service provision. Jobs will be lost across the board in the company, and Achmea expects that forced redundancies will be inevitable. The unions have responded with shock and concern over the continuing wave of dismissals in the financial sector. Achmea is market leader in the Netherlands in health insurance, and further has activities in Greece, Turkey, Slovakia, Ireland and Australia, employing some 2,500 employees outside of the Netherlands.
Eurofound (2016), Achmea, Internal restructuring in Netherlands, factsheet number 89726, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/89726.