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.
On 11 May 2017, Siemens, German electronics and electrical engineering company announced plans to cut up to 2,680 jobs in Germany within the next years. The restructuring includes a creation of some 9,000 jobs within the same timeline.
A total of 1,730 out of the affected jobs will be cut in the company's IT department and the Digital Factory Division. Another 950 jobs will be outsourced to external service providers. At the division Mobility, which is responsible for railway technology, 300 jobs will be cut in Krefeld due to high competition in this business sector. Furthermore, Siemens Professional Education plan to streamline their competence resulting in further 180 job cuts.
However, Siemens wants to avoid compulsory redundancies and seeks to implement these measures as socially acceptable as possible. Negotiations with the company's works council will start shortly. Siemens is aiming to fill the 9,000 vacancies with as many of the affected employees as possible. To implement these measures, the company offers further qualifications for their employees. Siemens has yet to release further information about these vacancies.
For the latest restructuring see: Siemens, 2017; Siemens, 2016 and Siemens, 2016. Siemens currently employs about 113,000 employees in Germany and 351,000 worldwide.
Eurofound (2017), Siemens , Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 90927, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/90927.