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.
Engineering group Rolls Royce is to cut around 200 jobs in its marine division in Norway. Parent company Rolls Royce has cut around 4000 jobs over the last two years. The marine division has seen cuts of 1000 jobs. Rolls Royce Marine currently employs 4800 people globally and 1750 in Norway, most located in Møre and Romsdal. The reduction is part of a global restructuring plan first announced in December 2016, which will cut 800 jobs in the first half of 2017. The restructuring takes aim to cut costs to a level suited to the current market situation in the petroleum sector. A quarter of these cuts will be undertaken in Norway, where all employees were offered severance packages providing three to seven months extra pay, dependent on seniority and age. 176 employees applied for the severance packages, which were intended to be in effect from March. The company has stated that each application will be evaluated and that it is unlikely that all will be accepted. Some direct dismissals will likely be used to meet the target of 200.
Eurofound (2017), Rolls Royce Marine, Internal restructuring in Norway, factsheet number 90581, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/90581.