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.
Manufacturer of insulators L’Isolante K-Flex opened a collective dismissal procedure for 187 workers at its factory in Roncello (Monza).
The company intends to cease production in Italy and the job cuts will affect all blue-collar workers. It should retain in Roncello only the 60 employees working in research and development activities. The decision was attributed to problems of over production, which make the plant's activities no longer economically viable. The management however announced that they will provide economic incentives to individual dismissals and they will use active labour market measures to support the redundant workers.
The government and unions strongly criticised the decision also in consideration of the significant public aids received by the company over the last years to deploy its activities in the country. The media sources report concerns that these funds were actually diverted to other facilities abroad where to delocalise production. Workers have been issuing protests for more than one month, with strikes and blockades.
L'Isolante K-Flex is based in Italy and operates in 11 countries with an employee base of 2,000.
Eurofound (2017), L’Isolante K-Flex, Internal restructuring in Italy, factsheet number 90507, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/90507.