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.
Over Meccanica, a manufacturer of paper machines, is to dismiss about 108 employees at its plant in Verona.
The company has been facing a long period of financial crisis culminated with the bankruptcy issued by the Tribunal of Verona in Verona in May 2014. Nevertheless, the company has been authorised to continue production since then as a number of potential investors showed interest in the site.
On 30 November 2015, a contract was eventually signed selling the company to new proprietors, including some former managers of the company.
The new firm, OverMade, will ensure employment only for 10 workers, as it will focus on the design and trading of paper machines while outsourcing production to partner companies. The other 108 workers will be dismissed and possibly hired back over the next two years, possibly by subcontractors.
Unions complained that long negotiations have come to meagre results, as most workers lost their job.
Eurofound (2015), Over Meccanica, Bankruptcy in Italy, factsheet number 91323, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/91323.