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.
Unisys France, the French subsidiary of the worldwide information technology services and solutions company Unisys, has announced that it will cut 138 positions in France (37% of its workforce) in the framework of an EU wide restructuring. The job reduction will mainly consist of forced dismissals. The job cuts will affect the sales workforce and senior positions; unions expect that the consequence will be that no more contracts will be signed with customers in a near future. Therefore they are expecting a closure of the French subsidiary by 2020 as all the current contracts will ended between 2018 and 2020. According the CFE-CGC union, Unisys has already closed nine subsidiaries in the EU (Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, and some Eastern Europe countries). Unisys aims is to located the activities form its former subsidiaries in its headquarter in London.
The US group Unisys employs 23,000 employees worldwide for a turnover of $3 billions. But as it has a debt of about $2.3 billions it has to launch a reorganisation to increase its cash flow. Before 2000, the French subsidiary employed about 3,000 people, in comparison to 378 currently. The unions has asked the management to remove the employment safeguard plan, but negotiations are still on-going on the content. The works council will adopt its position by mid-April. Unions also remarked that the company received various state contributions in the recent years.
Eurofound (2017), Unisys France, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 90604, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/90604.