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 Swiss laboratory Galderma (Nestlé group) has announced a plan to reduce or close the R&D activity in its site of Sophia Antipolis (Alpes-Maritimes) where 550 people are employed. The company justifies its decision with the fact that the company is undergoing a reorientation which affects in particular the centre of research in dermatology of Sophia Antipolis. The decision surprised the workforce as in 2014, the company forecasted an extension of 4,500 m² and the recruitment of at least 300 additional employees. The plan, presented to works council, includes a 300 voluntary departures plan and reemployment measures for a hundred of employees in a future R&D centre outside Sophia Antipolis.
Galderma employs a total of 6,000 employees worldwide. According the Les Echos, 'this is the third plan of restructuring at Nestlé since the American activist Daniel Loeb, holder of 1% of the capital, called for a change of strategy in favour of a better remuneration of the shareholders'.
Eurofound (2017), Galderma Research & Development, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 92068, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/92068.