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 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that 158 of its branches are set to close in the next six months, which will affect 770 staff all over the UK. In their statement the management of RBS said that 300 staff will be offered alternative positions, leaving a minimum of 472 employees at direct risk of redundancy as 30 RBS and 128 NatWest branches are to be closed.
According to RBS, the branch closures were prompted by customers increasingly turning to online banking. In her response, Gail Cartmail of the trade union Unite said that the closures are “bad news for our members who now have to live with the threat of redundancy” and “for customers and businesses” who will find it more difficult to access banking services.
Several bank branches have closed in the UK in recent months, leading to large-scale redundancies, including the First Trust Bank, The Yorkshire Bank and the Lloyds Banking Group.
Eurofound (2017), RBS / NatWest, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 90614, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/90614.